The Content Strategy Quad
The quad is Brain Traffic’s foundational scope model for the discipline, first drawn in Kristina Halvorson’s Content Strategy for the Web and revised in 2018. The current version puts a core strategy at the center of two hemispheres. Content design, where editorial strategy (mission, audiences, point of view, voice) meets experience design (user needs, journeys, formats). And systems design, where content structure (tags, models, reuse) meets process design (lifecycle, tools, accountability, who says no), drawn underneath on purpose, because systems are the foundation content design stands on. Its job is scoping: it makes visible that a strategy covering only editorial questions ignores half the discipline, and it gives every other tool in this library a place to belong.
Halvorson’s scope model: content design and systems design around one core strategy.
Content design (editorial × experience) over systems design (structure × process), around one core.
When to use this
- When scoping a content strategy engagement or program, to make sure all four quadrants are covered, or consciously excluded.
- When explaining to stakeholders what content strategy actually includes beyond "writing things."
- As a diagnostic: teams usually know their weak quadrant the moment they see the model.