Stop complicating, start collaborating!
The core model is a no-nonsense, practical method to create better digital products and services. This timeless and intuitive approach has been tested in the trenches across industries, sectors and national borders for more than a decade.
This book will help you to:
- think both strategically and user centered at the same time
- see your product or service from a holistic perspective
- collaborate across different departments and disciplines in the organization
- start with what’s most important, and make it simple and concrete
The method is developed by the authors, who both have more than 25 years of experience in digital product and service development.
«The Core Model is the most famous method that nobody knows about. This should be the required reading for everyone who works with design, user experience and customer experience. Start with the content and work backwards towards navigation and interface. Brilliant!»
Jim Kalbach, Chief Evangelist at MURAL and author of The Jobs To Be Done Playbook
«The Core Model is the smartest tool you can use when you are working on the most important parts of your product, service or website.»
Are W. Sandvik, Chief Communications Officer at ShiftX
«This is a book is packed with practical advice that you can start to apply to your work straight away. It’ll be a book I come back to time and time again.»
Robert Mills, Head of Content at GatherContent
The Core Model - A Common Sense Approach to Digital Strategy and Design
NOTE: The book is currently available as a digital PDF edition only.
If you want the print edition, ebook or audibook, please support my Kickstarter:
Gerry McGovern is the inventor of Top Task Management and has written eight books on digital content, top task methodology, and digital transformation. His latest book, World Wide Waste, is a showdown with digital waste culture and meaningless publication online.
The Core Model puts people first and thus it is contrary to a lot of traditional management thinking, hierarchy, and top-down models. It’s about helping you discover and evolve strategy based on what is important to your customers, citizens, and employees. It will help you design better services by first and foremost getting a crystal-clear understanding of what people want to do. It marries organizational goals with the tasks people need to complete.
If you’ve been involved in creating digital products for a while, you will immediately understand the challenges this book seeks to address. It gives you methods to overcome organizational ego and departmental silo thinking. It facilitates the creation of websites, apps, and services where it’s genuinely easy for people to find and complete their top tasks.
The Core Model was developed by Are Halland, a Norwegian with vast experience of building successful websites and digital products. He precisely pinpoints the causes of poor performance: complex functionality that nobody needs or understands; bloating, rotting content that nobody even remembers publishing anymore; navigation that would confuse Sherlock Holmes; and obsession with ego monstrosity homepages. These are truly universal challenges.
The solution that Are Halland presents is as simple as it is radical: put people first. Design from the perspective of the usertask, not from the organizational need. Radical. Hard. Essential. Design outwards from what matters most to the user, while making sure that these tasks align with organizational goals. Relentlessly focus on the core, rather than getting caught up in the comfortable but often low value pursuits of pushing out meaningless features and migrating vast quantities of rotten content.
Start from the task, the essence of the thing. Discover the user journeys / paths to the task. Where do they start? At Google? What words do they use? Design those inwards paths. Then, the forward paths. Where should the task lead them? Where do they go forward to? A purchase process? A phone call to a doctor? Filling out an application form? No core is an island. It must have inward and forward paths.
Multidisciplinary design. So utterly essential today. The Core Model is all about that. Bringing together all the interested disciplines and functions to integrate user tasks and organizational goals. Because there is no other way if you want to deliver a quality experience. Seamless, multi-channel, whatever device is closest. If you want to make it truly easy for the people, you must bridge the silos within your organization, and the Core Model truly helps you to do that.
This is a book for pioneers. For those who want to make a difference, to make things better for people and the organization. It challenges traditional management attitudes. So, it’s a dangerous book. You could get into trouble reading it. And much more trouble trying to implement the ideas within it. Some trouble is worth it
But if you’re tired of the old model because you know that it just doesn’t work anymore, this is the book for you. If you’re tired of unfocused products, vanity content, pointless redesigns, and ego-bloated homepages, this is the book for you.
And don’t get carried away by the latest magical offerings from AI. It’s powerful, for sure, but without structure, without lots and lots of training, with constant refinement by experts, without solid, thoroughly thought through information architecture, classification and metadata, AI is yet another garbage-in, garbage-out, cheap content production, cost-cutting mirage. Quality content still costs time and effort by experts. And quality content cannot exist without a quality core structure.
The Core Model gives you that. The Core Model works. You’ll find the evidence here. But more important, you’ll find the methods for creating digital products and services that help organizations succeed by putting people first.
Gerry McGovern
Who Should Read This Book?
This book is for anyone who wants a common sense approach to creating better digital products and services in cross-competency collaboration.
For example:
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Product managers and agile coaches who want to create a shared understanding of priorities in cross-functional teams
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User experience and service designers who want to bring the customer journey down to earth and create great stuff that actually works
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Content strategists and designers who want a go-to tool to combine the user’s perspective with strategic objectives
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Web editors and content operations managers who want to involve key stakeholders to create high quality digital content
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Consultants and marketers who want to engage their clients and create grounded digital projects
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Leaders and business developers who want to create awareness and ownership of the strategy in the organization
Students and lecturers who want a simple overview of connections between design, strategy, marketing and communication
What is this Book About?
The book teaches you how to use the Core Model, a practical approach to creating better content for digital products and services.
The model combines elements from user experience, service design, business strategy, digital marketing, behavioral design, and content design in a simple and flexible framework. Or design thinking in a nutshell, if you will.
The Core Model can be helpful at many points in a project. Used at the start of a project, the Core Model ensures that everyone has a common understanding of what is to be created. It also works just as well as a flexible tool in the daily operation of interdisciplinary teams.
Content, Product, or Service?
The terms ”content,” ”product” and ”service” can be used interchangeably. A digital form can, for example, be considered a product, a service, a web page, or an application - or simply digital content.
When we use the term “content” in this book, we mean much more than text on a web page. In her book Content Design, Sarah Winters (was Richards) writes that content design is about ”giving users what they need, when they need it, the way they expect it”.
We think of content as what is required to meet a user’s needs. It can be words, images, animations, design elements, menus, help text, and functionality. A database cannot function without content, and design without content is just decoration. Communication and marketing for a product or service is also content.
Actually, it does not matter what you choose to call it. The Core Model sees all the concepts in context, as different aspects of the same issue. In any case, what you want is to create great products and services that solve the users’ tasks and enable the organization to reach its strategic goals.
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INTRODUCTION
Advance Praise
Introduction
Who Should Read This Book?
What is this Book About?
Content, Product, or Service?
Foreword by Gerry McGovern
The Story of the Core Model
Seven Challenges
1. Babylonian Confusion
2. Myopic Optimization
3. Random Priorities
4. Useless Redesigns
5. High-speed launches
6. Forgotten Content
7. Digital PollutionTHE CORE MODEL
Flip the Perspective!
A Flexible Approach
A Tool for Prioritization
A Tool for Collaboration
A Holistic Perspective
A Framework for Collaboration
How the Elements are Connected
Start with the user
Top row: the general guidelines
Left side: the user perspective
Right side: the strategic perspective
Main row: the customer journey
Core content: the connections
What Will be the End Result?
You Must have User Insight
Map the User Needs
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
You Need to Understand the Strategy
Bring your strategy down to earth
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
Find Your Cores
What Is a Core?
Choose a Starting Point
Examples of Cores
Make a Simple Description
The Description Is a Hypothesis
If You Do Not Know Where to Start
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
Target Group
Think About the Target Group for the Core
Look at the Situation and the Need
Use Empathy
Imagine a Specific User
If You Have Several Target Groups
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
User Tasks
The Key to Prioritization
Link Questions to Tasks
Look for Tasks in the Situation
Avoid Constructed Tasks
How To Do It
Good questions
Related methods
Business Objectives
Bring the Strategy Down to Earth
Break Down the Objectives
Set Sustainability Objectives
Make it Measurable
Qualitative Objectives
Objectives and Instruments
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
Inward Paths
The User Decides
Imagine the Context
Create a Scenario
Find the Keywords
Use Your Own Channels
Other Inward Paths
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
Forward Paths
Pull, Then Gently Push
Become a Behavioral Designer
What Do You Want to Happen?
Do You and the Users Want the Same Thing?
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
Core Content
Find the Best Answer
See Everything in Context
Find a Format That Suits You
Physical Core Sheets
Digital Examples
Some Principles
Be concrete
Solve the user task first
Make it as simple as possible
Go for the optimal solution
Everything should have a function
Create good calls to action
Think through the channel
Do not fall in love with the sketch
The Complete Insurance Example
If You Discover More Cores
How to Do It
Good questions
Related methods
What Now?
Overall Picture
Common UnderstandingCORE WORKSHOP
What is a Core Workshop?
Work in Core Pairs
Planning
Selecting cores
Participants
Composition of core pairs
Physical and digital
Locale
Templates
Invitation
Running a Core Workshop
Facilitation
The four parts of a core workshop
Welcome and introduction
Communicate strategy and user research
The elements in the Core Model
Exercises
Presentation and actions
Action cards
Evaluation and conclusion
Full-digital core workshop
Basis for Further Work
Grab low-hanging fruit
Put the actions/measures in system
Measurement and adjustmentHOW TO APPLY
Other Uses
Reorientation in cross-functional and autonomous teams
Content operations
Gradual redesign
Coordination of marketing activities
Cross-channel customer service
Analog processes and physical products
A thinking tool for yourself
Everyday Innovation
A Future-proof Approach
Learn more
About the Authors
Thanks!APPENDIX
Example Project
Example Schedule
Additional Exercises
Dividing into core pairs
Sharing
How Might We
Principles, elements, functionality and channels
Core content in three steps
Mobile priority
StealingRelated methods
Behavioral design
Business model canvas and value propositions
Completion rate measurement
Conversion optimization
Content design
Content modeling
Content strategy
Core sprint
Customer journey
Customer service - Logging, listening and surveys
Design sprint
Design thinking
Empathy mapping
Fogg’s behavior model
”Headless” publishing
Hook model
In-depth interviews
Inbound marketing
Information architecture
Jobs to be done
Keyword analysis and search logs
Lean value tree
Micro strategy
Microtesting content
Minimal viable product
Mobile first prioritization
Objectives and key results
Pair writing
Personas and scenarios
Priority workshop
The success formula
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Top task management
User research
User testing«The Core Model has been a foundational concept in the world of content strategy for more than a decade. I’ve seen it transform the way clients not only approach problem-solving and design, but also how they approach (and successfully untangle) large, complex projects. If you struggle with setting strategy or seeing it through, this book is for you.»
Kristina Halvorsen, CEO at BrainTrafic and author of Content Strategy for the Web
«Are and Mona guide you through a crucial part of digital product development - determining the core interactions between a user and a service - all in plain language and using a small set of easy to understand connected concepts.»
Peter Boersma, consultant and former Design Ops Manager at Miro
«A tipping point for our professional methodologies. This book could be a game changer in content; both in terms of how we deliver, and how we help ourself and others to be better at what we do.»
Lisa Matthews, Senior Content Designer at Nexer Digital
«This is an extremely important contribution, one of the 2-3 most noteworthy additions to the canon of what it means to be a content professional.»
Jeffrey MacIntyre, principal and founder Bucket Studios
«From prioritisation and collaboration to user flows and solutions; with templates and examples, Are and Mona takes you through it all with a practical and straight-to-the-point approach. A great book.»
Sarah Winters, founder at Content Design London and author of Content Design
«The Core Model is a simple and useful no-nonsense approach to understanding how users’ needs and business goals coincide. It helps me prioritize what is most important and analyze how we should proceed to solve the user’s needs.»
Jørgen Schyberg, Product Manager at the National Library of Norway
«The Core Model is a gift for anyone who wants to deliver digital services that work for the users. It has been a part of my toolbox for over ten years and is still among the methods I use the most.»
Stine Camilla Bjerkestrand, communications director in the Norwegian Directorate for e-Health.
«I’ve been smitten with the Core Model ever since I first heard about it back in 2013. It is a brilliant method for identifying the most important pages on your website and getting alignment across your organization on the user-focused purpose of those pages and how they help your organization meet its goals. Plus, it’s really fun and allows for non-designers to meaningfully participate in design. Without a second thought, buy this book.»
Meghan Casey, author of The Content Strategy Toolkit: Methods, Guidelines, and Templates for Getting Content Right
«The Core Model is the most famous method that nobody knows about. This should be the required reading for everyone who works with design, user experience and customer experience. Start with the content and work backwards towards navigation and interface. Brilliant!»
Jim Kalbach, Chief Evangelist at MURAL and author of The Jobs To Be Done Playbook
«When something is missing in a flow, or I notice it is unclear what is really most important, I always resort to the Core Model. It is useful in so many contexts - and it’s easy to get started using it.»
Ida Aalen, product coach and former Chief Product Officer at Confrere
«If you want a tool for working well with content, where users have the main role but the strategy is never forgotten, where the tasks become concrete and the proposals varied, which can be used alone and with others you have to learn the Core Model!»
Tone Simonnes, intranet editor at the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration
«The genious about the Core Model is how simple it is. I never go into a workshop without a core sheet in my bag.»
Ove Dalen, advisor at Netlife Design
«The Core Model is a simple framework for companies to define and solve a problem related to digital user experiences / products. The model is easy to understand and quick to use.»
Lars-Fredrik Forberg, director of Housing Development in Mestergruppen
«The Core Model is the smartest tool you can use when you are working on the most important parts of your product, service or website.»
Are W. Sandvik, Chief Communications Officer at ShiftX