Last year marked six years of operations for Strong Roots Consulting. I’m happy to say that the business is going strong, but there’s been one area that is way overdue for some re-development – this blog. A quick trip to the archives will show a variety of different post types, formats, and posting schedules, ranging from near-weekly to the year-long hiatus between the 2017 and 2018 Canadian Evaluation Society annual conferences.
This past summer, I spent some time reviewing where I see Strong Roots Consulting as a company growing and developing into. As part of that planning exercise I reflected on the role of this website generally and the blog specifically, identifying potential audiences and purposes and starting to sketch out what a posting framework would look like. What I realized was that I want this site to both serve as a general resource on evaluation, strategic planning, and related topics that can be useful to anyone who stumbles on this website, as well as a place to share relevant information and news for non-profits based in and around Saskatoon. At the same time, I wanted to make sure that the blog framework would be feasible in terms of time, so I could maintain a regular posting schedule and not let it lie fallow as in the past.
So, here’s what the blog will look like going forward. Every month will see a more in-depth post on a topic related to the skillsets here at Strong Roots Consulting. That monthly post can be an exploration of an approach or framework, a book review, or a walkthrough of a specific tool or technique. With a less-frequent schedule, I can take the time to focus on the topic and link in other resources so that the post will stay “evergreen” for some time.
In between these monthly deep-dives will be shorter posts on a variety of topics. Quick commentary on an article from another website, sharing a resource, and news about Saskatoon events of interest to the local non-profit scene would all fit in this category. These will be posted on ad-hoc basis but I’ll take care to space them out, especially for the sake of email subscribers to the site.
The key word for me in this new framework is being adaptive. As I go along, maybe I discover that the monthly posting schedule is too frequent and it’s better to more time to get it right – or conversely, that I can post twice-monthly at the quality level I expect. Similarly, perhaps the infrequent posts naturally cluster into certain types: local news comes to mind, and I’ve also seen other websites post a “I wished I wrote that” list on a regular basis. In any case, rather than creating something elaborate right now that could stumble coming out of the gate, I want to get a minimum viable product (to borrow the startup industry term) rolling and build it up as circumstances and my capacity dictate.
Here’s to a more blog writing in 2019!