Principles And Frameworks I Can’t Work (And Live) Without
After a decade in content strategy, I've collected a toolkit of principles and frameworks that consistently guide my decision-making. These are battle-tested approaches that have helped me launch successful publications from zero, scale content programs at 8-figure companies, and navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-powered content strategy.
While tactics in our industry change constantly, these frameworks remain my north star. Here are the ones I return to again and again.
The Foundation: Know Your ICP Like Your Best Friend
Before any framework can be effective, you need one fundamental practice: intimately understanding your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). I mean really understanding them—their daily media consumption, decision-making patterns, what keeps them up at night.
The ICP Feed Read Practice
I spend 20 minutes each day consuming the exact media my target audience consumes—their subreddits, newsletters, YouTube channels, and publications. As I always say, "if your browser history and YouTube ads aren't riddled with ICP content, you're doing it wrong."
This practice has been transformational. It revealed that Udacity's audience actually preferred in-depth technical content, contradicting industry assumptions about attention spans. It helped me understand that Greatness Media's community valued being co-creators, not just consumers.
The key insight: The gap between what third-party research says your audience wants and what your first-party data reveals is often where your biggest opportunities hide.
Content Strategy Frameworks
The 70-20-10 Framework
As a content strategy leader, you’ve probably heard these statements at least a dozen times…
“We always publish the same kind of thing.”
“Why don’t we do more of [insert latest social media trend]?”
“Our feed looks stale. Why don’t we do something more…you know…exciting?”
As disruptive as these questions can be to field, not only are they reasonable asks, they’re critical to your success and longevity in the field. You need to have these answers on hand and at the ready. Balancing your editorial calendar with content that is proven to work with big-swing, 10X content is a delicate dance. Here’s I structure my calendars and strategies:
70%: Proven formats that consistently deliver value (I mean REAL business results too, by the way. Not vanity metrics)
20%: New approaches testing emerging opportunities in and around your proven channels (Example: LinkedIn is your top-performing channel in terms of business impact, so you experiment with native features like creative polls or subscriber-only newsletter)
10%: Moonshot content that could redefine our strategy (This is the 10X content that, if it works, you’ll be a rockstar in your org)
This framework ensures stability while maintaining innovation potential. The data-driven core delivers reliable results while providing insights that inform experimental initiatives.
The Pizza Shop Principle
The internet is littered with uninteresting, uninformative, unoriginal content—ESPECIALLY from brands. Here is a principle I return to time and again for myself and the teams I have led: If you can't be the best pizza shop in town, be the best mushroom pizza shop in town.
Similarly, if you can't create the most valuable content on the internet for a specific topic, you NEED to narrow the focus until you can. Give it a try—the next time you are on the fence about whether or not to press ‘publish’ on a piece of content, ask yourself if it a case can be made that it is the most valuable asset on the internet for that topic. If your answer is “heck no”, either niche down the aperture until it is, or don’t publish it all.
First Principles Thinking
Instead of following industry playbooks, break problems down to their fundamental truths and build solutions from there.
The transformational moment for me was realizing: Don't be the content strategist who can execute an AI-optimized editorial calendar (or a [insert any content asset]). Be the content strategist who can determine whether we need an AI-optimized editorial calendar in the first place.
This shift elevated my role from tactical implementer to strategic business partner. Now I ask "Should we be doing this at all?" before "How can we execute this better?"
AI-Era Principles
The Human Touch Advantage (HTA)
When AI democratizes basic content creation, strategic value shifts to identifying opportunities where human expertise creates unbridgeable advantages.
HTA asks: Where can you invest human effort that competitors aren't willing to match? For instance, YouTube is quickly becoming the new "Blog SEO" because fewer brands commit to high-quality video production than publish AI-generated articles.
The principle: Scale was once a competitive edge—today it's table stakes.
Taste is the New Talent
Success in the AI era comes from being able to direct AI effectively rather than compete with it. I've evolved from content creator to creative director, focusing on articulating vision clearly enough to guide both AI tools and human collaborators.
When I tell AI "create this in the style of early Malcolm Gladwell" or "structure this like a Pixar story arc," I'm exercising judgment built through years of studying craft. The most valuable skill isn't creation—it's curation and direction.
Audience Building Frameworks
The 1,000 True Fans Threshold
Following Kevin Kelly's principle, I focus on depth of engagement rather than reach metrics. Having 1,000 deeply committed audience members creates powerful network effects that drive exponential growth.
When building Greatness.com from zero to 100,000+ monthly visitors, crossing this threshold was the inflection point where organic sharing increased dramatically as true fans became ambassadors.
Content Creation Principles
The "Read It Aloud" Principle
Always read your copy out loud at conversational level. Don't whisper it, don't read it in your head—speak it like you would to a friend. This simple practice instantly reveals which pieces flow naturally and which need revision.
Most audiences want to be spoken to like humans, not like academic papers. This practice keeps your content conversational and accessible.
The PAS Formula
Problem. Agitate. Solve.
This classic copywriting structure remains effective because it mirrors how humans naturally process challenges and solutions. But the key is understanding what problems your audience actually experiences, not what you think they should care about.
Joseph Sugarman's Sliding Principle
"The sole purpose of the first sentence in an ad is to get you to read the second sentence."
Every element of content should compel engagement with the next element. This creates the "slippery slide" effect that keeps readers engaged through your entire piece.
Strategic Decision-Making Frameworks
The Moonshot Ratio
Allocate 80-85% of resources to what consistently works, with the remainder dedicated to experimental initiatives that could transform your approach.
This ratio ensures stability while maintaining innovation potential. The key is being intentional about which experiments you choose and having clear success thresholds for scaling or killing initiatives.
Data, Insight, Implication
When presenting content performance to leadership:
Data: What the numbers show
Insight: What the numbers mean
Implication: What we should do about it
This structure transforms raw metrics into strategic recommendations that drive decision-making.
Content System Architecture
From Assets to Ecosystems
The biggest shift in my approach has been moving from managing individual content pieces to architecting interconnected systems where each element strengthens the whole.
Instead of asking "How can AI help me create more blog posts?", I ask "How can AI help me create a self-improving content system?" This leads to pattern recognition at scale, content relationship mapping, and quality amplification systems.
The Multiplication Principle
Design frameworks where content creates compounding value over time rather than requiring proportional resource increases for growth. The goal is building engines, not just calendars.
Putting It All Together
These frameworks don't operate in isolation. Instead, they create a comprehensive approach to content strategy that adapts to changing circumstances while maintaining strategic consistency.
The ICP Feed Read practice informs which Human Touch Advantages to pursue. The 70-20-10 framework structures how you test new approaches while maintaining reliability. First principles thinking ensures you're solving the right problems, not just following industry conventions.
Most importantly, these frameworks force you to think systematically about content strategy rather than tactically. They create the foundation for building sustainable, scalable content programs that deliver genuine business value.
The tactics will continue evolving—especially as AI capabilities advance. But these underlying principles and frameworks provide the strategic foundation that makes adaptation possible while maintaining clear direction.
The ultimate framework: Content strategy means architecting the systems that make great content inevitable.
These frameworks have guided my work across education, media, and technology. What principles do you find yourself returning to again and again? I'd love to hear about the frameworks that shape your strategic thinking. Connect with me on LinkedIn to continue the conversation.
