How to get started with pair writing
12 years after I introduced it to Norwegian telco Telenor in a design project, pair writing is a natural part of the toolbox for UX writers and content designers everywhere. Here’s what I’ve learned about pair writing through the years.
12 years ago I came up with a new way of working with web content. The idea was quite simple: Get people to write and work in pairs instead of by themselves separately.
Pair writing is a technique for collaborating on content in real-time. Instead of exchanging drafts or correcting with a red pen, two people sit down together to write. You can use it to help content specialists collaborate with subject matter experts. Or to include other designers in the writing process.
Inspired by my experiences as a journalist and the concept pair programming, used by developers, I started experimenting with pair writing in 2009. First in a large project for Norwegian telco Telenor. I quickly followed with workshops at conferences and a blog article in Norwegian.
Today the technique is used among UX professionals all over the world.
“Pair writing changed my perspective on what it means to be a writer in user experience design. It showed me that you can empower people to no longer fear writing and bring them into the process and make them feel a part of the product’s journey.”
The quote is from Stephen Douglas in an article he wrote for UX Planet. He believes pair writing has two big benefits:
- it makes the job easier
- the experts you involve get greater ownership of content.
This is obviously smart — why don’t we do it more often? Because pair writing is also demanding, it is intimate and not least, it is way outside our comfort zone. It is far more comfortable to write on your own, alone in a corner.
I still use pair writing in all projects I work on. So what have I learned during these 12 years?
- Find the right person. It is extremely important to start with the right person when pair writing for the first time. Start with a person you know well and are confident with. You can use the method with people you do not know as well when you have more experience.
- Explain why. Remember to explain why it is smart to use the technique. Most people back off when they hear they have to write together. Higher quality and more efficient work are the two most important arguments for pair writing.
- Insight first. Don´t forget to start with insight. Find out what the actual user needs are, what the user journey looks like and what problem you really need to answer. Even if you are writing in pairs, there is no point in cheating.
- Don´t use it all the time. In the beginning, I was a bit religious. I demanded we should write the text in pairs from start to finish. I eventually went away from that. Today I usually use pair writing when we have a first draft of the text and until it is finished.
- Talk to each other along the way. As important as writing is speaking. Make sure one leader is doing the talking and the other is writing. Switch perspectives.
- Pair with designers. It can be very useful to involve other disciplines. For example, an SEO-expert, interaction designer or service designer and write a rough draft.
- Get over the knuckle. For many, writing in pairs is demanding. It often takes time to get to know the technique and not least to feel safe. But use the time wisely, feel free to write in pairs in smaller doses at the beginning and increase gradually. Then you see rapid progression and effect of the work.
Some will never cope with pair writing. And that’s fine, then you can revert back to a more traditional approach. Have the person write a draft, you can comment and edit afterwards. And then follow up with a chat.
When it comes to the very practical:
- Use a tool that is suitable for collaboration. Google docs is the best when it comes to plain text writing. But you can also use Word365. If you are going to work with text in design sketches, Figma is good.
- If you are not in the same physical location, take a video call in Teams, Slack, Google Meet or Facetime. It is important that you can actually talk together.
These are the benefits of pair writing
When we write, we need friction, someone has to ask the critical questions and see the text with a different eye. If you are two or more, there is a greater chance of avoiding texts that no one understands. In my opinion, these are the most important effects over time:
- A collective awareness of quality
- Putting learning into a system
- Actually work together — not just at the same time
- A common belief in what we want to achieve
Collaboration, co-working and co-design are all mantras in an increasingly team-focused and sprint-oriented workday. Especially when we work with digital solutions. Pair writing is all three at once.
Where did it start for me?
So how did the pair writing thing happen at least for me? When I was a young journalist, especially on important articles, I used to do the final editing together with colleagues. The collaborative writing secured high quality editing and perfection of a story that had a potential. It also was interesting to see how it enforced a common knowledge of what a good story actually was all about.
10 years later I heard of a new concept called pair programming. I was intrigued by the idea and learned that the concept was pretty much the same. The benefits were fewer mistakes and bugs, greater resiliency, increased quality and faster training.
I started doing pair writing in 2009 and 2010 and quickly liked the method. Instead of teaching 20 people in web writing, they could after some pair writing sessions with me and my colleagues teach each other.
My fellow evangelists
In 2011 Bjørn Bergslien and I taught a workshop on Pair Writing at the Norwegian web conference Webdagene. Bjørn followed with an excellent article on UX booth in 2012: Write better content by working in pairs.
In the following years both Bjørn, Audun Rundberg and Ida Aalen talked about pair writing as a collaborative technique on Confab and other UX conferences.
International evangelists
Sarah Winters, who started the company Content design London, is perhaps the foremost ambassador. Sarah wrote a chapter in her book, Content design from 2017, about “Pair writing”. Gov.uk has blogged a lot about pair writing and how they have benefited from the technique. UX-expert Gerry McGovern has arranged a seminar on “Pair writing” in collaboration with us at Netlife. Jonathan Kahn, my friend, from Together London was also early on with articles about the technique.
Further reading on pair writing
- GDS blog: It takes 2: How we use pair writing
- GatherContent: Use pair writing to collaborate with subject matter experts
- The chapter “Pair writing” in Sarah Richards book Content design
Originally published at https://www.netlife.com.
