Content Style Guide
Terminology and content standards
Scope:
Sales Enablement CRM Platform
Compnay:
Intro: The Sales Enablement CRM Platform is an internal product that supports Google’s ad sellers teams responsible for driving the majority of Google’s revenue. The platform is highly complex and continuously evolving, with new workflows, data models, and AI-powered tools being introduced alongside long-standing legacy systems.
Problem :
Over time, the platform accumulated hundreds of undefined or loosely defined terms, alongside inconsistent content patterns across surfaces. Legacy terminology persisted without reevaluation, even as new workflows and AI features were layered on top of the existing experience.
This resulted in:
Inconsistent language across teams and features
Terms that stakeholders could not clearly define or agree on
Increased user confusion, especially in data-heavy and insight-driven workflows
A lack of shared vocabulary to support future product development
Without a common language system, teams were shipping faster—but less coherently.
Goal :
The initial goal of the content style guide was not to solve every content problem at once, but to create structure and shared understanding:
Categorize and define platform terminology
Establish baseline content principles and usage guidelines
Enable teams to ship more consistent content in the short term
Create space to identify deeper, systemic content issues driving user confusion
This guide would act as both a stabilizing force and a diagnostic tool.
Process :
Platform-wide terminology audit
I audited the entire product to identify terms that lacked clear, contextual meaning. Nearly 200 terms met this criteria.
Cross-functional alignment
I met with 1–2 stakeholders from each domain that “owned” a set of terms. In many cases, stakeholders were unable to define a term consistently or disagreed on its meaning entirely, revealing how fragile the platform’s language had become.Terminology categorization
I separated terms into:
Defined but inconsistent
Undefined or ambiguous
Undefined terms were flagged as candidates for removal and replacement with clearer, more universal language.
Language system design
I proposed replacement terminology, partnered with teams to validate intent, and supported rollout by swapping legacy terms with newly defined language across the product.
Documentation and scale I formalized the approved terminology into a centralized terminology section within the content style guide. I then conducted a second content audit to identify recurring content-pattern issues, expanding the guide to include additional rules and examples.
Outcome :
The V1 content style guide established the first shared language system for the platform.
More importantly, it surfaced a deeper pattern: one term “Insights” was consistently overused, inconsistently defined, and widely misunderstood across the experience by both our users and product teams.
This realization directly informed our next large, high-impact initiative: consolidating, redefining, and restructuring how “Insights” functioned across the product.
The guide helped create the foundation for systemic content change within the organization.
More Projects
Content Style Guide
Terminology and content standards
Scope:
Sales Enablement CRM Platform
Compnay:
Intro: The Sales Enablement CRM Platform is an internal product that supports Google’s ad sellers teams responsible for driving the majority of Google’s revenue. The platform is highly complex and continuously evolving, with new workflows, data models, and AI-powered tools being introduced alongside long-standing legacy systems.
Problem :
Over time, the platform accumulated hundreds of undefined or loosely defined terms, alongside inconsistent content patterns across surfaces. Legacy terminology persisted without reevaluation, even as new workflows and AI features were layered on top of the existing experience.
This resulted in:
Inconsistent language across teams and features
Terms that stakeholders could not clearly define or agree on
Increased user confusion, especially in data-heavy and insight-driven workflows
A lack of shared vocabulary to support future product development
Without a common language system, teams were shipping faster—but less coherently.
Goal :
The initial goal of the content style guide was not to solve every content problem at once, but to create structure and shared understanding:
Categorize and define platform terminology
Establish baseline content principles and usage guidelines
Enable teams to ship more consistent content in the short term
Create space to identify deeper, systemic content issues driving user confusion
This guide would act as both a stabilizing force and a diagnostic tool.
Process :
Platform-wide terminology audit
I audited the entire product to identify terms that lacked clear, contextual meaning. Nearly 200 terms met this criteria.
Cross-functional alignment
I met with 1–2 stakeholders from each domain that “owned” a set of terms. In many cases, stakeholders were unable to define a term consistently or disagreed on its meaning entirely, revealing how fragile the platform’s language had become.Terminology categorization
I separated terms into:
Defined but inconsistent
Undefined or ambiguous
Undefined terms were flagged as candidates for removal and replacement with clearer, more universal language.
Language system design
I proposed replacement terminology, partnered with teams to validate intent, and supported rollout by swapping legacy terms with newly defined language across the product.
Documentation and scale I formalized the approved terminology into a centralized terminology section within the content style guide. I then conducted a second content audit to identify recurring content-pattern issues, expanding the guide to include additional rules and examples.
Outcome :
The V1 content style guide established the first shared language system for the platform.
More importantly, it surfaced a deeper pattern: one term “Insights” was consistently overused, inconsistently defined, and widely misunderstood across the experience by both our users and product teams.
This realization directly informed our next large, high-impact initiative: consolidating, redefining, and restructuring how “Insights” functioned across the product.
The guide helped create the foundation for systemic content change within the organization.
More Projects
Content Style Guide
Terminology and content standards
Scope:
Sales Enablement CRM Platform
Compnay:
Intro: The Sales Enablement CRM Platform is an internal product that supports Google’s ad sellers teams responsible for driving the majority of Google’s revenue. The platform is highly complex and continuously evolving, with new workflows, data models, and AI-powered tools being introduced alongside long-standing legacy systems.
Problem :
Over time, the platform accumulated hundreds of undefined or loosely defined terms, alongside inconsistent content patterns across surfaces. Legacy terminology persisted without reevaluation, even as new workflows and AI features were layered on top of the existing experience.
This resulted in:
Inconsistent language across teams and features
Terms that stakeholders could not clearly define or agree on
Increased user confusion, especially in data-heavy and insight-driven workflows
A lack of shared vocabulary to support future product development
Without a common language system, teams were shipping faster—but less coherently.
Goal :
The initial goal of the content style guide was not to solve every content problem at once, but to create structure and shared understanding:
Categorize and define platform terminology
Establish baseline content principles and usage guidelines
Enable teams to ship more consistent content in the short term
Create space to identify deeper, systemic content issues driving user confusion
This guide would act as both a stabilizing force and a diagnostic tool.
Process :
Platform-wide terminology audit
I audited the entire product to identify terms that lacked clear, contextual meaning. Nearly 200 terms met this criteria.
Cross-functional alignment
I met with 1–2 stakeholders from each domain that “owned” a set of terms. In many cases, stakeholders were unable to define a term consistently or disagreed on its meaning entirely, revealing how fragile the platform’s language had become.Terminology categorization
I separated terms into:
Defined but inconsistent
Undefined or ambiguous
Undefined terms were flagged as candidates for removal and replacement with clearer, more universal language.
Language system design
I proposed replacement terminology, partnered with teams to validate intent, and supported rollout by swapping legacy terms with newly defined language across the product.
Documentation and scale I formalized the approved terminology into a centralized terminology section within the content style guide. I then conducted a second content audit to identify recurring content-pattern issues, expanding the guide to include additional rules and examples.
Outcome :
The V1 content style guide established the first shared language system for the platform.
More importantly, it surfaced a deeper pattern: one term “Insights” was consistently overused, inconsistently defined, and widely misunderstood across the experience by both our users and product teams.
This realization directly informed our next large, high-impact initiative: consolidating, redefining, and restructuring how “Insights” functioned across the product.
The guide helped create the foundation for systemic content change within the organization.