My name is Corey Vilhauer.
I am director of strategy at Blend Interactive. I write here. I also write at Eating Elephant about content strategy. I am co-author of a book about the web process, The Web Project Guide, and co-host of a podcast by the same name. I used to occasionally write about records at Kallax 365. The W stands for Wayne.
Latest Posts
February 29, 2024
The Songs I’m Embarrassed By
The embarrassments in our musical history helped shape our taste. (Doesn’t mean anyone every wants to talk about them — or act like they ever existed in the first place.)
January 31, 2024
Contextualizing the Ten Weeks of Darkness
We’ve just exited the “darkest ten weeks of the year.” But, as with anything relating to time, we need a little context to understand why that matters.
December 30, 2023
A Clumsy Metaphor About the Sioux Falls
It’s always easy to look back at a hard year and to be happy to let it go — but, it doesn’t really go anywhere. It’s always there.
November 30, 2023
Eight Paragraphs about Grand Jury Duty
I’ve been on grand jury duty for the past 13 months, with five more months to go. It’s boring, exhausting, and challenging — often, all at the same time.
October 31, 2023
Crisis as Building Blocks
Crisis is a natural and ordinary part of growing, despite our hope as parents that we can keep all crisis away from our kids.
Selected Works
August 5, 2015The Pastry Box Project
While No Guitar Gently Weeps
The world continues to move even as you wander around, looking for inspiration, and the risk is always there: what happens when everyone passes you by, and what happens when you realize you never really cared in the first place?
February 28, 2012A List Apart
Audiences, Outcomes, and Determining User Needs
Every website needs an audience. And every audience needs a goal. How do we get to really know our audience and find out what these mystery users really want from our sites and applications?
May 2013Offscreen Magazine
Life In Folders
Commissioned thoughts on organizing photos, organizing files and folders, and organizing life.
January 14, 2014Black Marks on Wood Pulp
The Ocean
Thoughts on large bodies of water, the dream and desire to see the world, and the utter exhaustion of travelling for work when all you want to do is hang out at home and be a dad.
December 7, 2011Contents Magazine
A Content Methodology Primer
Content wants to be messy. It wants to roll around in the mud. It wants to be gross. Our job is to pull it together—to take the guesswork out of creating and curating it—and to treat content work as something closer to a science.
July 19, 2011Eating Elephant
Domain Knowledge: What You Need - Or Don't Need - To Know
As content strategists, we are expected to help our clients communicate the concepts, benefits and advantages of their company or industry. But we are not who our clients are. We do not possess the same amount of knowledge about their business. How do we bridge this gap?