editorial q1 2026 goals

Author: ivanagas

contents/teams/editorial/mission.mdx

@@ -1 +1,3 @@
-Make PostHog a hub for product engineers to learn and collaborate
+1. **Publish so much, so good.** We ship a lot as a company, we should also publish a lot as a team. This means getting more people up to speed and involved, including those not on our team. It means reusing the work we've already done to go further (like socials). Add content automations, tighter processes, more repeatable formats, and new channels so we can be in more places, all the time.
+
+2. **Tie it better to PostHog.** First, we're often the first way someone hears about PostHog. We should be sharing what's important to the company. If PostHog focuses more on AI and data stack, so should we. Second, we should tie to other efforts related teams are working on (sales, paid ads, talent). Third, we should tie to data in PostHog to help us figure out the success of what we've done and what to work on next.

contents/teams/editorial/objectives.mdx

@@ -1,116 +1,79 @@
-
-## 2x-ing upper-funnel content
+## Nail the content growth review
 
 **Owner:** Natalia Amorim
 
-**Motivation:** We want to build a repeatable system for refreshing existing content and expand our upper-funnel library to capture more organic traffic. The goal is to make our content engine more sustainable, ensuring older articles stay current while consistently adding new ones that meet users earlier in their discovery journey.
+**Motivation:** The foundation exists, but we need this to be a real, recurring ritual that actually shapes what we do.
 
 **What we'll ship:**
-
-* Test AirOps as a tool to refresh existing articles at scale, optimizing them for both traditional search and LLM visibility. This includes updating metadata, improving page structure for LLM readability, refreshing content, and ensuring all PostHog features and positioning are current.
-* Create new upper-funnel content (alternatives, listicles, etc.) that targets high-volume keywords and attracts users in the awareness and consideration stages across all product categories.
+- Monthly Content Growth Review on a locked-in cadence
+- Streamlined reporting that pulls SEO, AEO, and newsletter metrics into one place
+- A clear "so what" section with actionable next steps that feed into planning
 
 **We'll know we're successful when:**
+- We've run the review every month this quarter, no skips
+- Insights from reviews have meaningfully influenced content decisions
+- The team knows where we stand without needing to ask
 
-* We’ve established a repeatable refresh workflow that improves LLM visibility and keeps articles accurate and current.
-* We have strong upper funnel content coverage capturing high-volume searches across all product categories
-* LLM outputs reflect accurate, up-to-date info about PostHog.  
-* We see steady growth in visibility from both traditional search and LLM outputs.
-
-## Sharpening our AEO strategy
+## New upper-funnel content on a consistent cadence 
 
 **Owner:** Natalia Amorim
 
-**Motivation:** We want to ensure PostHog is represented accurately and prominently in LLM outputs by tracking prompts, monitoring citations, and running experiments to see how optimized and new content can influence the answers these models generate.
-
-**What we'll ship**
-
-* Roll out an AEO tracking tool to monitor prompts and citations at both a general and per-product level.  
-* Run a Q4 “blitz” on error tracking as treatment vs control to measure AEO impact before scaling.  
-  * Create and/or optimize content specifically for LLMs   
-  * Pilot YouTube as an AEO lever via prescriptive creator briefs
-
-**We'll know we're successful when**
-
-* We have end-to-end visibility on how PostHog shows up in LLMs across products  
-* Key competitor and product prompts consistently surface PostHog in accurate, positive ways and echo our developer tool positioning  
-* We can measure the impact of AEO efforts and expand proven tactics across product lines.
-
-## Better reporting on content performance
-
-**Owner:** Natalia Amorim
-
-**Motivation:** Right now, performance data is scattered and often looked at in isolation. We want to introduce a structured monthly content performance review to give the team clearer visibility across products, spot trends, and use those insights to guide planning, prioritization, and decision-making.
-
-**What we'll ship**
-
-* A recurring monthly content review  
-* Dashboards and supporting materials
+**Motivation:** We need a sustainable rhythm for LLM/SEO-optimized content production that balances growth with maintenance.
 
-**We'll know we're successful when**
+**What we'll ship:**
+- New upper-funnel content on a consistent cadence 
+- Ongoing optimization of existing articles, including refreshing metadata, updating positioning, improving structure for LLM readability, and ensuring PostHog features are current
 
-* The team has clear visibility into how content is performing at both an overall and per-product level.  
-* Everyone can access and understand key metrics without needing to dig.  
-* Insights from reviews consistently shape our content planning and prioritization.
+**We'll know we're successful when:**
+- New articles are ranking first page for target keywords
+- Optimized articles show measurable improvement in traffic, rankings, or citations/mentions post-refresh
+- This feels like a system, not a scramble
 
-## Newsletter
+## More people writing newsletters
 
-**Owner:** Ian Vanagas
+**Owner:** Jina Yoon
 
-**Motivation:** We've scaled back our paid acquisition with the newsletter, because it was bringing in low quality subscribers and clouding our ability to understand how the newsletter is performing. If we want the newsletter to be successful for the long term, we need it to grow organically.
+**Motivation:** A lot of the responsibility for the newsletter has been with a small set of people, there are many more people at PostHog who could contribute, whether that is through research or literally writing articles. 
 
 **What we'll ship:**
-
-- A great newsletter every two weeks  
-- Audit of subscriber list to remove inactive subs  
-- 3 social (primarily LinkedIn) posts per newsletter to build our social posting muscle
+- A better, clearer contribution guide
+- Newsletters by people other than Ian, Andy, Charles, and James
+- Internal efforts to encourage people to write newsletters (onboarding item, promoting in `#tell-posthog-anything`, etc.)
+- Social promotion of those newsletters by them too
 
 **We'll know we're successful when:**
+- Jina ships at least two newsletters
+- Four people outside our regular contributors ship (or scheduled to ship) a newsletter (Jina and Cleo are already scheduled, so we need 2 more)
+- We've got people lined up to work with us on newsletters, it's clearer how to work with us.
 
-- We're growing our newsletter audience organically
-- We are confident the newsletters we are publishing are performing well
-
-## Better high-level messaging
+## New series
 
 **Owner:** Ian Vanagas
 
-**Motivation:** We’ve had a lot of changes in terms of positioning of the company lately and that has left a scattering of messaging across our site, content, and how we talk about ourselves. 
+**Motivation:** Series help us publish high quality content with less effort and gives something for readers to look forward to
 
 **What we'll ship:**
-
-- A marketing handbook page with key messaging, such as  
-  - What is PostHog?  
-  - What are the benefits of using PostHog?  
-  - Why use PostHog over other options?  
-- Update pages that talk about these things to be consistent  
-- A statement we can use everywhere
+- A plan for a multi-part newsletter series (maybe "how we AI at PostHog")
+- At least one post from a new newsletter series
 
 **We'll know we're successful when:**
+- We've published at least the first post in the new series
+- Have plans for the next few posts in the series
+- Readers want more
 
-- Our own team and content is using this messaging more  
-- We hear that messaging back from users  
-- People on social media use this messaging, instead of "product analytics"
-
-## Ship the product engineer handbook this time
+## Social posters unite
 
-**Owner:** Andy
+**Owner:** Ian Vanagas
 
-**Motivation:** We want to completely own the concept of the Product Engineer by creating its central text. We're 80% of the way there. Need to ship final 20%.
+**Motivation:** Our team ships all the time, we should be posting all the time too
 
 **What we'll ship:** 
+- Daily posts on LinkedIn from Ian and others promoting the newsletter.
+- Regular posts from people outside editorial, with help from us (posting templates, ghostwriting, etc.)
+- Hire a social person and get them up to speed
+- Test more native content as well as channels like X and Reddit
 
-* Intro chapters of the handbook using a similar structure to the company handbook.
-
-**We'll know we're successful when**
-
-* We've shipped the first version of the guide  
-* Positive initial reaction from our users and readers  
-* Ranking for product engineer keywords in search  
-* Incoming users convert to reading other parts of guide  
-* Converting handbook readers to subscribers of the newsletter
-
-## Anti-goals
-
-* Digital PR (both on the community side with Reddit and GitHub, and on the PR outreach side for publications); it's something that could help us move the needle with LLMs, but not a priority in the short or medium term.  
-* Multimedia product comparisons. Could be a strategic advantage, not something we have capacity to take on right now  
-* Figuring out long term newsletter strategy  
+**We'll know we're successful when:**
+- We're driving significant amounts of traffic and subscribers from social
+- We feel we've built the posting muscle internally
+- We know the next phase of social we want to focus on