DXPlaybook
Play 4: Content Lifecycle & Omnichannel Orchestration
Play 1: Business and digital context
Play 2: Experience design and development
Play 3: Platform engineering and enablement
Play 4: Content lifecycle and omnichannel orch'n << You’re here
Play 5: Customer acquisition and growth
Play 6: Measurement and optimisation
DXPlaybook is Codehouse’s practical guide to running an enterprise-grade digital experience with less drama and more certainty. It is written for leaders and senior specialists across marketing, product, digital, content, design, engineering and analytics, with enough depth that delivery teams can act on it. Each play turns a fuzzy ambition into something visible, ownable and repeatable.
This page is Play 4. It focuses on the content lifecycle and omnichannel orchestration — the people, models, workflows and platforms that move content from brief to live to learning. It maps how content is created, reviewed, localised and published, and how it travels across channels without re-keying or drift. It looks at the joins between CMS, DAM, search, translation, consent and tagging, analytics, marketing automation and customer relationship management, with product information management noted where product content applies. The emphasis is on reducing duplication, raising consistency across languages and regions, and making performance observable so teams can publish faster and reuse more with confidence.
Why this play matters
Play 4 is about the content lifecycle and the operations that keep it moving. Content is the currency of digital experience, yet in large B2B organisations the challenge is not volume; it is consistency, speed and trust across languages, regions and channels. When models are vague, workflows opaque and platforms loosely connected, launches slip, costs rise and brand voice fractures. When the path from brief to live to learning is visible and owned, teams publish faster, reuse more and make decisions with confidence.
This play focuses on the joins between people, process and platform. It aligns the content model with real journeys, makes roles and service-level agreements explicit, and connects CMS, DAM, search, translation, consent and tags, analytics and marketing automation so editors assemble rather than reinvent. It anchors operations to the critical conversion step in your context, so every piece of content serves a measurable purpose and respects user consent.
What good looks like is practical and observable. Editors have fast, predictable previews and a clear path to publish. Reusable components and shared assets reduce duplication. Accessibility to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 AA and Core Web Vitals budgets are treated as non-negotiables. Consent is applied once through a consent management platform and tag manager, and a documented data layer keeps events consistent so performance is trusted. Most importantly, small first increments ship routinely, and learning arrives quickly.
The next sections keep this simple and actionable: questions to ask, good patterns to adopt, one concise example, and a lightweight view of signals and maturity.
Questions to ask
This section gives content and digital leaders a simple way to diagnose how content operations help or hinder delivery. Use it to probe how the landscape connects, where work slows and what to change first. You can run it as a short workshop with your leads, or work through it asynchronously. For any answers you plan to act on, capture Owner, Evidence link, Status and Next step so improvements are visible and accountable.
Quick triage
Start here to surface obvious blockers before you dive into detail. The aim is to see whether the basics are predictable and whether confidence in the numbers is high enough to steer next steps. Keep answers short and link to evidence.
How long does a typical item take from approved brief to live, and where does it wait most?
Do editors and stakeholders have fast, predictable previews for content and language variants?
Is the enquiry or top task completion rate stable across languages and regions?
How much of what we publish is reuse of components and assets versus one‑offs?
Do we trust analytics and attribution enough to make decisions this week?
What is the translation cycle time per locale from ready‑for‑translation to live?
Platform landscape and ownership
This lens clarifies who runs what and where the joins are weak. A clear map with owners prevents work falling between teams and avoids ad‑hoc tools creeping in. It also reveals single‑person dependencies that add risk.
Which platforms are in play (CMS, DAM, search, translation connector or TMS, CMP and tag manager, analytics, marketing automation, CRM, feature flags, CI/CD), and who owns each day to day and at an accountable level?
Where do responsibilities overlap or leave gaps, and where are teams relying on workarounds rather than supported capabilities?
Where does new content work enter, who prioritises it, and do we use a one‑page brief that names audience, message, proof, primary action and success measure before creation?
Who can approve schema and taxonomy changes, and how are these communicated to regions?
Content model and templates
Your model is the blueprint for consistency and reuse. Good templates express that model in components that already meet accessibility and performance budgets. Together they reduce duplication and make localisation reliable.
Do we have a documented content model with types, fields and mandatory elements that map to real journeys?
Do templates and components already meet accessibility and performance budgets, and are exemplar content strings available to guide editors?
Do proof elements (logos, stats, quotes) live in a central library, and are naming conventions enforced?
How often do editors duplicate content or create variants outside the model, and why?
If using AI, do we keep a prompt library and style guide, and which outputs are AI‑assisted (for example, outlines, summaries, snippets, schema) with named reviewers?
Workflow, roles and previews
Clear states and owners keep work moving without ceremony. Reliable previews shorten feedback loops and remove email‑driven sign‑off. Aim for the fewest steps that still protect quality.
Are workflow states clear (for example, draft, in review, legal, ready, scheduled, live) with owners and service‑level agreements?
Can editors and stakeholders review in reliable previews without VPN friction, including language variants?
Are approvals lightweight and auditable, and do they regularly create waits that could be streamlined or removed?
Do we schedule content and track planned go‑lives in a shared calendar?
If using AI, is there an explicit human review step, are high‑risk claims fact‑checked, and do previews indicate where AI was used?
Localisation and translation
Multi‑language and multi‑region publishing is where duplication and drift grow fastest. Treat localisation as a product with clear rules for what is global, what is local and how updates flow. Use tools to protect meaning and reduce re‑work.
How are locales and regions structured, and what determines whether content is global or local?
Do we use translation memory, glossaries and connectors to reduce duplication and protect meaning?
How do updates to source content propagate to translations, and who owns the exceptions?
Is search indexed on publish per locale, and who tunes multilingual relevance and synonyms?
Where we use AI for translation or transcreation, are protected terms locked and is human review mandatory before approval?
Assets and discovery
Assets carry brand and performance debt if unmanaged. A tight DAM‑to‑CMS connection avoids duplicates, enforces rights, and keeps pages fast. Fresh, tuned search ensures users can actually find what we publish.
Is DAM integrated with CMS so renditions, licensing, expiry and alt‑text are governed?
Do image and video policies protect performance (for example, responsive images, captions, transcodes)?
Are asset naming conventions and usage rights enforced, and how many duplicates exist today?
Is internal search fresh and useful, and are key resources discoverable across regions?
If using AI to suggest alt‑text or crops, who reviews and approves changes?
Distribution and channel orchestration
Publishing rarely ends at the website. Consistent taxonomies and templates keep campaigns coherent across email, social and regional sites without re‑keying. The goal is less copy‑paste, more reliable syndication.
Which channels do we publish to beyond the website, and what is automated versus manual?
Do taxonomies and UTM conventions keep campaigns coherent across channels and locales?
Is email and social distribution templated and connected back to the CMS to avoid re‑keying?
Do we have a content calendar and a lightweight editorial stand‑up to maintain cadence?
If using AI to generate meta descriptions or social snippets, who reviews them and how do we prevent index bloat and duplication?
Data, consent and quality
Decisions rely on trustworthy data and respectful consent. Capture choices once through CMP and enforce them via the tag manager. Keep a documented data layer so events are consistent across templates and regions.
Does the consent management platform capture choices once, and does the tag manager enforce them across all tags?
Is the data layer documented with stable events for view, interaction, error and success, and are those events verified on each release?
Do analytics and marketing automation read from the data layer rather than custom scripts, and is personally identifiable information stripped from payloads?
Are broken links, accessibility checks and Core Web Vitals budgets part of the release gates for content templates?
Are prompts free of PII, is AI usage logged for audit, and does schema validation block publish on failure?
Operations and performance
Keep this lens lightweight and focused on the editor experience. We want predictable previews and publishes, safe releases and a simple way back if something goes wrong.
What is our target time to preview and to publish (including cache invalidation and search indexing), and do we meet it predictably?
Are environments aligned (development, test, staging, production), and are branch or editor previews available for larger changes?
Are third‑party tags governed to protect performance, and is rollback rehearsed for content as well as code?
When something fails upstream, do owners see it quickly and know how to restore service?
Product content (if applicable)
If product content drives journeys, keep the PIM as the single source of truth. Agree what syncs to CMS and search, and measure how fast a ready product appears on site. Protect taxonomy mapping so navigation and discovery stay coherent.
Is product information management the source of truth for product content, and which fields sync to CMS and search?
What is the SLA from “new product ready” to “live on site,” and where does it wait most?
Who owns taxonomy mapping between PIM and CMS, and how do we handle variants, pricing and availability updates?
Red flags to watch
These are common smells that signal duplicated effort and brittle quality. If several show up, focus here before adding new scope.
Editors wait for previews or publishing; search is stale because indexing is not part of publish.
Content types vary by region; duplication is common; assets have unclear ownership.
Consent handled inside a marketing tool rather than through CMP and tag manager; data layer definitions drift; PII appears in analytics.
No retirement policy; content volume grows but quality and findability fall.
No feature flags or rollback; environments out of parity; translation handled by email attachments.
Operating note. Pick the top three joins to fix first and turn each into a first increment you can ship in weeks, not months. Tie every fix to the critical conversion step so the impact is visible quickly.
Good patterns
Strong content operations reduce ambiguity, protect quality and shorten lead times. The patterns below are practical rails for multi‑language, multi‑region B2B sites. They help editors publish faster, reuse more and keep data trustworthy without adding ceremony.
Shared rails for content operations
A few behaviours make any stack easier to run and scale. Treat these as non‑negotiables and then add depth only where your outcomes demand it.
Keep a simple platform map with named owners for CMS, DAM, search, translation, consent and tags, analytics and marketing automation.
Align environments and provide reliable previews for code and content, including language variants.
Gate releases with objective checks: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA, Core Web Vitals budgets, search indexed on publish, consent applied and events present in the data layer.
Use feature flags and a rehearsed rollback so changes remain low risk.
Start with a simple content model
Your content model is the blueprint for consistency. It should reflect real journeys and the proof users need, not every internal nuance. Keep it small, explicit and governed by a single owner so it evolves without drift.
Define a small set of types (for example, article, insight, case study, product overview, landing page) with clear required fields.
Capture message, proof, primary action and success measure in the schema so editors know what “good” looks like.
Provide example strings in templates (for example, CTA: “Talk to our team”).
Separate global truth from local flavour and document who can edit each.
If using AI assist, store the brief in the CMS and generate outlines and headline options from it, not from ad‑hoc prompts.
Make reuse the default (components and assets)
Pages should be assembled from components that already meet quality bars. Assets should be stored once and reused everywhere. Reuse reduces duplication and keeps multi‑region sites coherent.
Build with a shared component library; avoid one‑off templates.
Store logos, quotes and statistics as reusable proof elements in the CMS or DAM.
Connect DAM to CMS so renditions, licensing and expiry are automatic.
Invalidate caches and trigger search indexing on publish to keep discovery fresh.
Use AI to suggest alt‑text or crop variants, but keep human review for accuracy and brand tone.
Align workflow and previews
Clear states, owners and reliable previews keep work moving without long email chains. Aim for the fewest steps that still protect quality and compliance.
Use simple, named states (draft, in review, legal, ready, scheduled, live) with service‑level agreements.
Provide fast editor and stakeholder previews for each locale without VPN friction.
Make approvals lightweight and auditable; record decisions in the ticket.
Surface expected publish time to editors so timing surprises are rare.
If using AI, add an explicit human review step and mark AI‑assisted sections in preview so approvers know what to scrutinise.
Treat localisation as a product
Multi‑language and multi‑region publishing is where duplication and drift grow fastest. Design the locale strategy once and apply it everywhere with the right tools.
Decide what is global, what is local and who owns each.
Use translation memory, glossaries and connectors to reduce re‑work and protect meaning.
Allow AI to draft first‑pass translations or transcreations for low‑risk content, then apply glossary rules and human review.
Propagate source updates to translations deliberately and track exceptions.
Review search and navigation labels per locale with real users.
Govern consent and the data layer
Decisions rely on trustworthy data and respectful consent. Apply consent once and enforce it everywhere. Keep events consistent so performance comparisons are meaningful across regions.
Capture choices in a consent management platform and enforce them via the tag manager.
Maintain a documented data layer with stable events for view, interaction, error and success.
Feed analytics and marketing automation from the data layer; do not write directly from the experience layer to CRM.
Strip personally identifiable information and filter bots; verify events on every release.
Generate structured data (schema) from CMS fields to JSON‑LD server‑side; validate automatically and block publish on failure.
Orchestrate distribution across channels
Publishing rarely ends at the website. Make syndication predictable so teams do not re‑key content and campaigns remain coherent across regions.
Template email and social distribution and connect them back to the CMS where possible.
Use taxonomies and UTM conventions so reporting stays comparable.
Generate meta descriptions and social snippets with AI from approved source content, and require a quick human check.
Run a visible content calendar and a short editorial stand‑up to maintain cadence.
Archive or redirect low‑performing content to keep libraries healthy.
Keep the library healthy (retirement and hygiene)
Quality improves when you remove what no longer helps users. Retire, redirect and refactor as a habit, not a project.
Set simple rules for freshness and orphan detection and review them monthly.
Track broken links, accessibility regressions and Core Web Vitals on key templates.
Remove duplicate assets and enforce naming and usage rights in DAM.
Publish a one‑page “how we ship content” that editors can follow without help.
When product content applies
If product content drives journeys, integrate your product information management system carefully. Keep it the single source of truth and protect taxonomy mapping so discovery remains coherent.
Syndicate product attributes to CMS and search; resolve price and stock at the server or edge.
Extend the data layer to product view, add to basket and quote or purchase events.
Measure the time from “new product ready” to “live on site” and remove waits.
Keep ownership clear for taxonomy mapping between PIM and CMS.
Case study
Eversheds Sutherland brought together the digital estates of two major law firms post-merger and needed a single, cohesive web experience that could serve many geographies and service lines. Codehouse partnered with the firm to deliver a Sitecore experience designed to surface more relevant content, faster, for users across markets.
The programme consolidated content and platforms into one operating model with consistent templates and shared assets, so teams could publish without creating copy‑paste variants. Editorial workflow was made predictable with clear states and reliable previews, and the site architecture supported multi‑market publishing without fragmenting brand or voice.
The work was recognised externally: the collaboration was a finalist in the Sitecore Experience Awards for Best Experience Transformation. Public results report increases in engagement, conversions and overall site traffic following launch.
Taken together, the merger context and the operating model show the core idea of this play: consolidate the landscape, standardise how content moves from brief to live, and make reuse the default so regional teams can publish at pace with consistent quality.
Signals and maturity
This last section makes progress observable without heavy reporting. A small set of signals tells you whether content operations are working; a simple maturity view shows where you are today and what “better” looks like next. Keep it light. Review on a regular rhythm and use the trend, not a single data point, to steer the next decision.
The signals that matter
Lead time to live. The time from an approved brief to content appearing in production. It reveals where work waits — reviews, legal, translation, previews, publish, indexing — and is influenced by the availability of the right templates and components. Most improvements in this play show up here first.
Preview and publish speed. The time to a reliable preview and the time to publish (including cache invalidation and search indexing). When this is fast and predictable, content velocity stays high.
Reuse ratio. The share of pages assembled from approved components and shared assets versus one‑off builds. Rising reuse usually means steadier quality and less duplication across regions.
Localisation cycle time. The time from “ready for translation” to “live” per locale, including glossary checks and review. It exposes hand‑offs that slow multi‑market releases.
Expert content readiness. The share of expert‑authored pieces that reach “ready to publish” with the right structure, voice and search basics (headings, summaries, internal links, schema) on first pass. Track human review time and the proportion of AI‑assisted drafts that need significant rework. If this signal is weak, publishing slows or quality drifts even when the pipeline is healthy.
Quality gate pass rate. The proportion of releases that pass non‑negotiables first time: accessibility to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA, Core Web Vitals budgets on key templates, search indexed on publish, consent enforced via CMP and tag manager, events present in the data layer.
You do not need perfect instrumentation to start. Use work tracker timestamps for lead time; CMS and CDN times for preview and publish; CMS reports for reuse; your translation tool for cycle time; CI/CD and monitoring for quality gates. Refine as you go.
How to read the signals together
Lead time flat, preview fast, reuse rising. Operations are stable; scale the model to the next region or service line.
Lead time volatile, quality gates failing. Fix the path to publish (previews, checks, rollback) before adding scope; the risk is operational, not strategic.
Localisation slow, preview fast. Invest in glossary, memory and connectors; your bottleneck is translation flow, not editing.
Quality gates green, conversion weak. The engine ships well but the message may not persuade; revisit the brief and proof in the content model.
A simple maturity view
Ad hoc. Content types vary by region; previews are unreliable; tags run without consent; events differ by template; translation is handled by email attachments.
What changes next: sketch the model, name owners, introduce a basic workflow and add search indexing to publish.
Defined. A shared model and templates exist; owners are known; previews are predictable; consent runs through CMP and tag manager; the data layer is documented.
What changes next: automate checks in CI/CD, rehearse rollback, and wire translation memory and glossary.
Managed. Components and assets are reused; releases follow a rhythm; quality gates pass first time; localisation cycle time is predictable; editors and stakeholders review in fast previews.
What changes next: shorten lead time by removing the slowest approval, retire duplicate assets and tighten performance budgets.
Optimised. Small increments ship frequently across regions; mean time to restore is short; content freshness is managed; owners use telemetry and synthetic checks to catch last‑mile issues first.
What changes next: sustain the rhythm and extend shared standards to adjacent teams and partners.
Keeping it lightweight
Put the five signals and your maturity level on a single page with one or two sentences of commentary (what improved, what you will try next). That is enough for leaders to steer and for teams to act. The goal is not more reporting; it is clearer choices about where to focus effort in the next cycle.
Workshop template
Get access to the Miro template to use with your whole team to work through the DXPlaybook
Glossary
Content model — The structured definition of types, fields and rules that keeps content consistent and reusable across regions.
Component library — A set of reusable, accessible templates and blocks that editors assemble into pages instead of creating one‑offs.
Translation management system (TMS) — The tool and connectors that manage translation memory, glossaries and workflows between the CMS and translators.
Translation memory — A database of previously approved translations used to speed up localisation and reduce inconsistency.
Glossary (term list) — A controlled list of product names and protected phrases to preserve meaning across languages and regulated contexts.
Locale strategy — The rules that define what is global, what is local and who can edit each, including language and regional variants.
Taxonomy — The controlled tags (for example, topics, industries, regions) that drive navigation, listings and syndication.
UTM convention — A standard for campaign tags that keeps cross‑channel reporting coherent and comparable.
Structured data (JSON‑LD) — Machine‑readable schema (for example, Article, FAQPage) generated from CMS fields to improve discovery and eligibility for rich results.
Editorial SLA — A simple service‑level agreement that sets expected turnaround times for key workflow steps (review, legal, translation, publish).
