Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Audit an Existing Content Ecosystem
3–4 weeks (5–10 hrs depending on inventory size)
Choose a real content ecosystem — your company's, a client's, or your own — and conduct a content audit: an inventory of all published content in one channel (website, blog, email newsletter, or social), assessed against 3 criteria you define in advance (e.g. relevance to target audience, search performance, recency, conversion rate). For each piece of content, record one of 3 decisions: keep (performing well), update (needs improvement), remove (outdated or off-strategy). Summarise what you found: how much content should be kept, updated, and removed, and why.
Proof required
Submit a spreadsheet or Airtable with at least 25 content items, each scored against your 3 criteria, with a keep/update/remove decision and a one-sentence rationale. Include a 200-word summary of the most significant strategic insight from the audit.
What gets checked
- 3 criteria defined in advance and applied consistently to all items — criteria that change between items are not a systematic audit
- Keep/update/remove decisions are driven by the criteria scores, not by personal preference — at least some content you created yourself should be recommended for removal if it scores poorly
- 200-word summary names one strategic insight that was not obvious before the audit — 'we have a lot of content about X' is an observation; 'our best-performing content is written for [audience] but we publish mostly for [different audience]' is a strategic insight
Common mistakes
- Auditing only 10–15 pieces of content — a meaningful audit requires enough coverage to identify patterns; 25 is the minimum
- Criteria that are too vague to apply consistently ('quality', 'relevance') without operationalising what a score of 1 vs 5 means for each criterion
- Remove recommendations that avoid politically sensitive content — if the audit recommends keeping all of the CEO's content regardless of performance, the audit was not rigorous
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Ask the submitter to name the most surprising content item in the audit — a genuine audit always surfaces something unexpected (high traffic for an old post, surprisingly low performance for a hero piece)
- Check that remove decisions include content the submitter created — an audit that recommends removing only low-quality legacy content without any recent content is biased toward avoidance
- Ask the submitter what they would do first with the audit results if they had a team of 2 to implement changes — this tests whether the audit produced a real strategic agenda
- Confirm the 3 criteria are defined well enough to be applied by a third party — ask the submitter to score a new content item while you observe
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.
Build and Execute a 90-Day Content Plan
12–14 weeks (90 days of execution + planning time)
Design and execute a 90-day content strategy for a real channel — a website, newsletter, or podcast — with a specific audience, a specific goal (grow email subscribers by N%, improve organic search traffic for 3 keywords, or generate N leads from content), and a publication calendar. The plan must be executed: at least 8 pieces of content published in the 90-day window across at least 3 different content formats (article, video, email, social, case study, etc.). Measure performance at 90 days against the original goal.
Proof required
Submit the 90-day content plan (audience definition, goal with numeric target, content calendar with format, topic, and target publish date for each piece), links to at least 8 published pieces, and a 200-word performance report: actual vs target metric, top-performing piece with the specific metric, and what you would do differently in the next 90 days.
What gets checked
- Goal has a numeric target established before the plan started — 'grow traffic' is not a goal; 'increase organic sessions from 1,200/month to 1,800/month' is
- At least 8 published pieces in 90 days — a content plan that was partially executed does not demonstrate content strategy capability
- Performance report includes both what performed well and what underperformed — a report that only highlights successes was not rigorously evaluated
Common mistakes
- A content plan with 8 blog posts in the same format — content strategy is about format and channel selection for different content goals, not just volume
- A goal metric that cannot be measured (brand awareness, authority, trust) without an instrument to measure it — choose a metric you have the tools to measure
- Content published without promotion — a piece of content that is published but never distributed to its target audience does not test content strategy
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Ask the submitter to name the highest- and lowest-performing pieces and explain why they think each performed as it did — genuine content strategy learning requires pattern recognition across the 8 pieces
- Check the goal was numeric and established before the plan — ask for the plan document with a date predating the first piece
- Ask what content format they would add in the next 90 days and why — this tests whether the M2 work produced strategic thinking about format mix
- Confirm at least 3 different formats were used — ask the submitter to name all the formats published in the 90 days
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.
Present Your Content Strategy to a Senior Content Professional
1–2 weeks (60 min session)
Present your M1 audit and M2 plan to a qualified reviewer: a content strategy director, head of content, or senior content strategist with 5+ years of industry content strategy experience. The reviewer challenges the audience definition (why this audience and not [adjacent audience]?), the goal choice (why this metric rather than another?), and the format mix (what was the strategic rationale for the specific formats chosen?). The reviewer presents a hypothetical content brief — a real business goal you have not planned for — and asks you to scope a content response live.
Proof required
Submit your M1 and M2 artefacts plus the reviewer's written assessment: the audience challenge and response, the goal challenge and response, the format mix rationale, the hypothetical brief and your live response, and their sign-off confirming their role and a live session.
What gets checked
- Audience challenge response names the specific reason this audience was prioritised over adjacent audiences — not just 'they are the primary audience' but the strategic rationale
- Hypothetical brief response includes a specific content format recommendation and a measurable 90-day goal for the new brief
- Reviewer sign-off confirms 5+ years of content strategy (not content creation or social media management)
Common mistakes
- Audience challenge response that restates the original plan without engaging with the adjacent audience the reviewer raised
- Hypothetical brief response that is vague ('I would create content that addresses this goal') without naming specific format, channel, and metrics
- A reviewer who is primarily a content creator (writer, designer, videographer) rather than a strategist — the challenge questions require experience owning content strategy decisions, not just executing content
Powstik Guide
Your content strategy, challenged by a senior content lead.
Steps
- Bring your M1 audit and M2 plan in one file.
- Write one line on why each audience and goal is right.
- Book a head of content or senior strategist.
- Ask them to challenge audience, goals and format mix.
- Answer their surprise brief live and note the result.
Template
Review session log Date: Duration: Reviewer name: Reviewer role and years of experience: Challenge 1 (audience or goals): What they asked: My answer: Did it hold? Challenge 2: What they asked: My answer: Did it hold? Challenge 3: What they asked: My answer: Did it hold? What I will change because of this session:
What gets sent back
- A reviewer who doesn't meet the stated experience bar.
- Notes without the reviewer's name and role.
- No live answer to the surprise brief.
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
Masteryfor the dedicated
What a verifier looks for
- Prepare the hypothetical brief before the session — it should be a real business goal in the submitter's domain that their M2 plan did not address (a new product launch, an entry into a new market, a crisis communication need)
- The audience challenge is the most revealing question — ask the submitter specifically why they chose this audience over [one specific adjacent audience] and what would change if they targeted both
- Reviewer minimum qualification: 5+ years of content strategy in industry; content creation experience alone is not sufficient to assess strategy decisions
- Ask the submitter what they wish they had known at the start of the M2 plan — this tests whether 90 days of execution produced genuine strategic learning
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.