How to Contribute

Mission UX publishes field-tested, teachable work for high-stakes domains (defense, cyber, healthcare, emergency response, public safety, critical infrastructure). If you’ve shipped under constraints—and can turn experience into a repeatable artifact (checklist, diagram, rubric, decision tree, runbook)—we’d love to share it.

Take a look at the guidelines below and send an email to contribute@missionux.com.

What we publish

  • Field Guides / Playbooks (step-by-step methods, 1,400–2,200 words)
  • Case Studies (sanitized) (problem → constraints → decisions → outcomes)
  • Patterns & Anti-patterns (e.g., alert fatigue, usable security, ops handoffs)
  • Career & Team Ops (hiring scorecards, leveling rubrics, promotion packets)
  • Diagrams (system maps, flows, decision trees) with clear captions & alt text
  • Interviews (operators, SREs, analysts, clinicians—practitioner first)
Non-negotiable: every piece ships with a teachable artifact a reader can reuse on Monday.

What we don’t publish

  • Sensitive, classified, proprietary, or identifying details
  • Vendor puff pieces, tool roundups without outcomes
  • “Design vibes” without data, decisions, or constraints
  • Anything that increases risk to people or systems

OPSEC & ethics (read first)

To protect people and programs, we require:

  • Anonymization of organizations, locations, and individuals
  • Time-shifting and aggregation of dates and metrics where needed
  • Reconstruction of sensitive screenshots (use genericized UI)
  • Approval from your employer/client if required by contract

If in doubt: omit or reconstruct. We can help you safely refactor examples.

Submission guidelines

  • Length: 1,400–2,200 words (case studies/playbooks); 700–1,100 (pattern notes)
  • Tone: evidence-first, plain language, ops-literate (define acronyms on first use)
  • Artifacts: attach as PNG/SVG/PDF; provide editable source if possible
  • Accessibility: alt text for images/diagrams; high-contrast, legible labels
  • Citations: link standards, research, public docs; no paywalled leaks
  • File format: Google Doc diagrams as PNG/SVG
  • Disclosure: include any conflicts (employment, vendors, grants)

Rights & licensing

  • You retain copyright to your work.
  • You grant Mission UX a perpetual, non-exclusive license to publish and maintain it (including edits for clarity/OPSEC/accessibility).
  • Cross-posting is welcome after first publication with a canonical link back to Mission UX.
  • If your employer requires a release, include it with your submission.

Compensation

Mission UX is currently independent and reader-supported. For now we offer:

  • Honorarium for accepted flagships (amount set per quarter; disclosed upon pitch acceptance), or a donation to a mutually agreed nonprofit in mission domains.
  • Professional editorial support and design polish on your artifact(s).
  • Distribution to a focused audience of mission practitioners and leaders.

Guest interviews

We run interviews with operators, analysts, engineers, SREs, clinicians, and leaders working in mission spaces.

Pitch an interview with:

  • Your role and domain
  • 3 topics you can discuss safely (constraints, failures, lessons)
  • Any visuals we can reconstruct (system map, workflow)

We’ll share a question bank in advance and confirm any areas to avoid.

Conflict of interest & disclosures

We expect clear disclosure of:

  • Current employer/client relationships relevant to the content
  • Financial ties to tools/vendors mentioned
  • Prior publication or derivative works

We label sponsored educational posts and retain editorial control.

Code of conduct

We welcome good-faith practitioners. Disagree with ideas, not people. No harassment, doxxing, or sensitive detail-digging. We will edit or decline pieces that don’t meet our ethics and accessibility standards.

FAQs

Can I republish on my site or Medium?
Yes, after first publication here. Include a canonical link to Mission UX.

Can I submit something already published?
Preferably no—unless you’re significantly expanding it and providing a fresh artifact.

Do I need employer approval?
If your contract or policy requires it, yes. Please obtain it before final publication.

What if I can’t show screens?
Great—show your thinking instead: decision trees, flows, rubrics, before/after metrics, runbook snippets.

If you’re unsure whether an idea fits, send a two-paragraph pitch—we’ll help shape it safely.