atw: Re: I'm going into a documentation management role
- From: "Suzy Davis" <suzy.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:57:16 +1000
Hi Kate
With my last contract I helped 400 technical specialists, sales and presales
personnel transform from being technically proud but embarrassed by their
documents to receiving feedback where they received customer feedback along
the lines of "The XXX document looked so good we started with it first and
the others didn't' come close."
It doesn't happen overnight; and it takes more than good templates and
software. And while these basics help, you also need a good process,
support of management, and a willingness to change.
High-end Sales teams are great to work with because they are motivated to be
the best and the competition is high - they will also be the most demanding;
I have also worked in many organisations where people don't seem to care
much how their documents look at the end of the day, whether it reflects the
corporate brand, and the quality of the goods and services. That's mostly
due to culture.
I have learned over the years that if it's not that important to a person -
there is very little you can do to change that view. They might change
their mind eventually if their colleagues migrate to a new way of working;
they then usually adopt the new process because they don't like being left
behind. It could well be a year after everyone else though!
What you can achieve depends a lot on the culture. I believe the way your
organisation is heading is the way all organisations will eventually; purely
for economic reasons. Ten years ago the average specialist, consultant,
manager had access to PA support to assist them with their documents; most
organisations have cut back on these kinds of resources.
I believe anyone can be taught to write - once you take the formatting
stress out of the way, most people I've worked with agree, much to their
surprise. They don't necessarily feel that comfortable about it; and that's
not to say that many people would prefer not to write.
Feel free to contact me off-list if you would like to bounce some ideas
around. Good luck; it's an exciting area to work in.
Regards Suzy
Suzy Davis
Microsoft Word Templates, Apps for Microsoft Office
& Documentation Projects
www. <http://www.appsforoffice.com/> appsforoffice.com
(Melbourne) Australia
Email <mailto:suzy.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> suzy.davis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Kate Macumber
Sent: Tuesday, 19 July 2011 7:04 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: I'm going into a documentation management role
Hi All,
I have accepted a job as a documentation manager (i.e. managing all of the
internal/external documentation in an organisation and getting others - not
technical writers - to write that documentation).
Everyone seems to think that I can do it (my current boss, the interviewers,
colleagues), but having worked as a software/hardware technical writer for
the past 15 years, this is a very different role for me.
As such, I was wondering if any of you has done this before and whether you
can provide me with any pointers / useful resources.
Thanks for your help,
Kate.
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