What do you do if your post-project evaluation in Content Strategy falls short?

1 Accept the reality

The first thing you need to do is to accept the reality of your situation. Denying, blaming, or ignoring the results of your post-project evaluation will not help you grow as a content strategist or improve your future projects. Instead, you need to acknowledge the facts, take responsibility, and show professionalism. Accepting the reality also means being honest with yourself, your team, and your stakeholders about what went wrong and why.

2 Analyze the causes

The next step is to analyze the causes of your poor post-project evaluation. You need to dig deeper into the data, feedback, and metrics to understand what factors contributed to your content strategy's failure. Was it a lack of research, planning, alignment, execution, or evaluation? Did you face any challenges, constraints, or changes that affected your content strategy? Did you have clear and realistic goals, objectives, and KPIs? Did you follow best practices and standards for content strategy? Asking these questions will help you pinpoint the root causes of your problems and avoid repeating them.

3 Learn from the mistakes

The third step is to learn from the mistakes you made in your content strategy. You need to identify the key lessons and takeaways from your post-project evaluation and apply them to your future projects. Learning from your mistakes means not only avoiding them, but also finding ways to improve your skills, knowledge, and processes. You can also seek feedback, guidance, and support from your peers, mentors, or experts in content strategy to help you learn from your mistakes and grow as a content strategist.

4 Celebrate the wins

The fourth step is to celebrate the wins you achieved in your content strategy. Even if your post-project evaluation was disappointing, you probably still had some positive outcomes, results, or feedback that you can be proud of. Celebrating the wins means recognizing and appreciating the value and impact of your content, the efforts and contributions of your team, and the satisfaction and loyalty of your audience. Celebrating the wins also helps you boost your morale, motivation, and confidence as a content strategist.

5 Plan for the future

The fifth step is to plan for the future of your content strategy. You need to set new goals, objectives, and KPIs for your next project, based on your post-project evaluation results, lessons, and feedback. You also need to define and implement action plans, strategies, and tactics to improve your content quality, performance, and effectiveness. Planning for the future means being proactive, adaptive, and innovative in your content strategy, and striving for continuous improvement and excellence.

6 Share your story

The sixth and final step is to share your story of your post-project evaluation in content strategy. You need to communicate your results, findings, and learnings to your team, stakeholders, and audience, and show them how you are addressing the issues and opportunities. Sharing your story means being transparent, accountable, and collaborative in your content strategy, and building trust, credibility, and engagement with your audience. Sharing your story also helps you inspire, educate, and connect with other content strategists who may face similar challenges or situations.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?