This is a set of format ideas for blog posts, with links to real-world examples.
It might be helpful for teams who want to use a blog to work in the open, but aren’t sure what good blogging looks like.
These formats are just starting points: use what works for you, and iterate to better suit your circumstances.
The first few formats are variations on the theme of weeknotes. (More about weeknotes.) The rest go in other directions.
These are notes from a team, telling the story of a piece of work as it unfolds, a collective story about collective effort. Good for describing work where the end-point isn’t clear from the start, and where the decisions made along the way are just as important as the end result.
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Part journal, part act of leadership, part thinking-out-loud; good personal weeknotes are actually written by the named author, not by a ghostwriter. You can use them for genuine reflection. They’re helpful for colleagues, and interesting to observers and outsiders.
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Come up with a list of questions that you want to challenge your professional self with, and use them as a prompt for each weeknote. A good way of documenting changing circumstances and changing opinions. Also, the predetermined structure can make them easier to write even when you’re in a hurry. (Credit to Sam Villis for coming up with this format.)
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Weeknotes-as-a-stream-of-thought. One idea per bullet. No need for sorting or structure; write them as they occur to you. I’ve seen this done very well by individuals, and I think there’s plenty of scope for it to be used by teams as well. Just jot down what’s on your mind, as it pops into your head. Quick and efficient.
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Really simple: once a week, blog all your open tabs, even some of the ones that aren’t so relevant to your actual work. Lively, unexpected, often surprisingly useful. Helpful for remembering what you’ve been reading and thinking. Readers tend to love this sort of thing.
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Your team probably shares links all the time on Slack, or Teams, or whatever chat-based service you use. So: make it someone’s job to spend 10 minutes each week collating those links, and turning them into a blog post. A good way of reflecting what’s on a team’s mind, and as helpful for that team as it is for outsiders.
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Just write up how a piece of work was done. Keep it simple; a straightforward narrative will do the job. We did this, then we did that, and along the way we learned about this other thing. Works really well for teams who are iterating a product by doing regular research. Readers always like to see how teams iterate to respond to research findings.
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Start with a URL, an image, an idea, a quote. What does it make you think? Then: what does that thought lead you to? Where does that thought go? What happens if you allow your team’s brain to make six or seven connections like this? Where do you end up? Use this format to spark new ideas.
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Teams learn by doing and making, and that includes making mistakes. Share what got learned from them; maybe it will help some peers or colleagues, or total strangers who face a similar problem one day. Confessing to mistakes doesn’t make you look weak - it makes you look wise.
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When a member of the team has been away somewhere, get them to write up what they discovered; no matter how small or trivial that thing is. Make sure there’s a photo, like real postcards have. It doesn’t have to be a “professional” photo: just a snap taken with a phone.
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Hard to plan in advance, but easy to create after the fact. Turn an unofficial series of blog posts into something more official, by gathering those posts together in some way and giving them some sort of timeline-like structure.
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When you see your colleagues diverting themselves and going down rabbit holes in meetings, step in and say: “Let’s turn this tangent into a blog post." Let the team think those tangential thoughts, and use the blog as a place for those thoughts to marinade. Some tangents will always be dead-end dark alleys, but others might become paths to brilliant new ideas.
No example yet - if you have one, let me know
Sometimes things crop up while you’re working with clients; things that you’d love to share with the wider world, but you can’t because you signed an NDA. Never mind: write it up anyway, and anonymise the things you can’t be specific about. Go deep on the details of the lesson learned, or the idea shared.
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Write blog posts about what you don’t know. Pose the questions you wanted answers to. Real transparency isn’t just about sharing how clever you are, it’s also about sharing the gaps in your knowledge. Demonstrate that yours is an organisation that’s capable of learning.
No example yet - if you have one, let me know
When new people start in your team, ask them to write a post within their first month. What are they most excited about? Same when people leave a team: what’s the most valuable lesson they’ve learned while working there? What ideas will they take with them to their new role? What top tips can they leave behind?
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If someone on the team speaks at a conference, get them to write up their talk as a new blog post. If someone attended a conference and learned something interesting, make that a blog post too. You don’t have to rehash whole talks, just the bits that caught your attention.
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What’s your job really like? Do you really just attend meetings and type emails? What thoughts are going through your mind while you do? What’s the secret to doing your job well? People love to read this sort of stuff, especially people who are thinking about applying for a job with your team.
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You’ve read something on some other team’s blog, or on LinkedIn, and you’re burning to chime in with your opinion, and your own experience. So chime in with a blog post. Point to it in comments on the post that sparked the thought. Proactively contribute to the conversation and the community.
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When you or your team has a bright idea for a tool, a canvas, a spreadsheet, a template, whatever - something that could be useful for other teams in other orgs - just give it away. Give something back to the internet. The internet will love you for it.
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Not all blog posts have to be made of words. Sometimes a good sketch says it all, so why not just post that? Blog posts can be made of images, photos, screenshots, quotes, diagrams, videos, animated gifs, you name it. The more creative you are, the more people will remember you.
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Shine a light on a person who deserves it. Say a public “thank you” to the people who rarely seek the limelight and rarely get the sort of praise, thanks and acknowledgement that they ought to be getting.
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There aren’t any rules.
Every blog post is a blank slate.
You can write whatever you like, in any way you like, and that’s totally fine. Mix these formats up. Create new formats of your own.
Write every post with the best thing that tells the story. Keep your readers engaged by being lively and unpredictable. Be creative, be brief, be clear. Everything else is optional.
Thanks to: Amy McNichol, Matt Jukes, and Matt Sheret for reading early drafts of this, and making it better.
Sam Villis, James Darling and Steph Gray for new suggestions and ideas.
Made by Giles Turnbull at Use the human voice. Last updated: 06 January 2024
Contact: giles@usethehumanvoice.com or book a call