Polaris
Working with Valere Consulting I joined the online team at Polaris Inc. as a contract web designer and content specialist in 2019. Polaris, the leading manufacturer of "powersports" vehicles in the nation, had recently purchased six boat manufacturing companies and needed help moving content from the existing boat company sites onto their Episerver web platform.
As I became familiar with the Episerver platform and the company's agile development approach, the online team asked me to take a greater role in maintaining site content. I also was part of an effort to create content designed to promote the use of Polaris utility vehicles by local fire and police departments across the country.
Responsibilities
- Move content from existing boat sites onto the company's platform to make it readily available to all site users.
- Create and edit written content when needed.
- Manipulate existing visual assets to make them work effectively on the Polaris site.
- Update site content about other products during model-year updates.
- Research, write and edit stories describing how fire and police departments are using Polaris utility vehicles.
- Participate in weekly content management and marketing meetings.
Considerations
In 2018 and early 2019 Polaris acquired six different boat companies to add to their product offerings. They brought me in on a six-month contract in May 2019 to help them port the written and visual content from the existing boat company sites onto the Polaris site. Part of this effort involved reviewing the content being moved onto the Polaris website and making the necessary changes to make sure the boat content fits into the voice and tone of the company's site.
Through the summer we made better-than-anticipated progress on the boat project. The online team asked me to join their regular agile development meetings which were held primarily online because part of their team is located in Mexico City. My access to their Kanban board was expanded so I could work on projects across the site. I helped edit existing content and participated in the team's annual effort to create content about Polaris' new vehicle models.
While working the agile board I noticed project to create content promoting the use of Polaris vehicles by fire and police agencies. Polaris builds special accessory packages designed to allow those agencies to use utility vehicles more effectively as they serve the public and the team hoped to use these stories to promote these packages to more agencies. The project was going to involve substantial writing and seemed to be languishing on the board. I let the team know that I have experience as a writer and asked if I could take a run at that project as long as I was able to move higher-priority project along on schedule. I researched, wrote and published stories about nine different public agencies use of Polaris vehicles. Those nice stories are still available on their web site here - Customer Success Stories
After extending my contract on a month-to-month basis through the fall, the online team manager asked to if I would like to extend my contract for another six months. I enjoyed working with the team and took her up on the offer. Unfortunately, the team had their budget cut due to company-wide financial concerns early in 2020 and they had to cut my new contract short after two months.
