Collaborate:Bring people together around digital projects

Ellen de Vries

iPad and iPhone showing Collaborate book cover

This book is stacked with tools and advice that will be helpful to anyone in digital, not just content people.”

Sarah Richards, Author of Content Design

Get the book

Download Kindle and ePub versions

What's inside?

Collaborate is a book for anyone with an interest in collaboration techniques for digital teams. The practical advice and examples in Collaborate will help you think about the work you do as a collaborator in your day to day life.

It includes checklists, tools, reflections and experiments that can help you consider your own role in relation to others at work, as well as some practical activities to try out with your collaborative groups or teams.

There are four sections:

Part 1 — Get prepared

Know how to prepare the ground and create the right conditions for collaboration.

Part 2 — Nurture the group culture

Nurture the group culture in the early stages of collaboration.

Part 3 — Maintain good practice

Maintain a healthy collaborative process.

Part 4 — Reap the rewards

Reap the rewards of a collaboration.

There are also plenty of tips, advice from industry experts, and additional recommended reading so you can immediately make improvements to your own projects and collaboration techniques. Go forth and collaborate!

About the Author

Headshot of Ellen de Vries

Ellen de Vries

Content Strategist, Clearleft

Ellen de Vries is a content strategist at Clearleft, a strategic design consultancy based in Brighton, UK. Being a content strategist is by nature a collaborative role; on any one day she might be working with a range of people, from designers and developers to animators and AI experts.

In a world where digital design practices are becoming increasingly fragmented, Ellen’s mission is to work with multi-disciplinary groups to establish a shared language that gives them a spark and propels their collaboration forward.

Our Expert Contributors

Headshot of Sarah Richards

Sarah Richards

Content Strategist, Trainer & Consultant

Unless you work entirely alone, you’ll find something useful in this book.
It really covers all bases: from where you are now, where you want to be and how you are going to get there. You’ll see things about you, the way you work and how to work with others in the most efficient way.

It’s stacked with tools and advice that will be helpful to anyone in digital, not just content people. It’s not boring either. It’s not preachy or introspective. It’s useful.

Love it. ”

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Jonathan Kahn

Organiser of Agile Content Conf

If you want your content to be effective, you need to collaborate with stakeholders and subject matter experts. Collaboration requires skills and techniques that don't come naturally to us content professionals—and Ellen has collected an eclectic mix of ideas and advice which will start you on the journey to successful content collaborations. Enjoy! ”

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Melissa Breker

Content Strategist, Coach, and Facilitator at Breker Group

At the heart of content is people. Communicating and collaborating with others is an essential ingredient to effective and efficient content. This book offers insight into practical strategies from an "in the trenches" approach, to create stronger content teams and better content. ”

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Robert Mills

Content Strategist, GatherContent

This book is packed with practical advice so can be adapted to suit different team sizes, organisational structures and project requirements. Communication and collaboration are key to project success yet they're often the reasons things go wrong. Collaborate will arm digital professionals with techniques to facilitate effective collaboration across their projects. ”

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