How would you create a style guide for a growing content team?
What the interviewer wants to hear
- Choose a base guide such as AP or Chicago
- Define voice, tone shifts and audience
- Record house rules for repeated questions
- Include examples of good and bad copy
- Make it easy to find, maintain and enforce
Model answer
I would not start from zero. I would pick a base guide, usually AP for marketing and news-style content or Chicago for long-form, and only document the exceptions. Then I would define the brand voice in three or four traits, each with "we are this, not that" and examples, plus how tone shifts for situations like errors or apologies. Next comes a house rules section built from real questions: product names, capitalisation, numbers, inclusive language and a terminology list. I would include before-and-after examples because they teach faster than rules. The guide lives somewhere searchable like Notion, has an owner, and is updated when new questions come up. Finally I would add the key rules to editing checklists and tools so the guide is actually used.
Can you answer it under time pressure?
Take a timed medium round and get scored on every answer.
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