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Balancing the Equation: Doing More than Documentation
The document discusses the role of technical writers in organizations and emphasizes their potential contributions beyond traditional documentation tasks. It highlights the importance of technical writers in improving usability, defining processes, creating visuals, and assisting in various organizational functions. The author advocates for a proactive approach where technical writers engage more closely with different teams to enhance their value and reduce dependency on engineers.
Balancing the Equation: Doing More than Documentation
- 1. Balancing the Equation: DoingMore Than Documentation Jody Zolli Jody.Zolli@gmail.com
- 2. How do wedo our work? Analyze the audience and their needs Analyze the product, process, or interface Generate, organize, and deliver information in a highly usable way
- 3. What audiences canwe serve? Marketing Users / Customers Management Engineering Operations / Customer Support
- 4. Sometimes our workis harder than it needs to be…
- 5. At Some Companies… Whena project was nearly or completely designed and built, then, and only then, would it be thrown over the wall to the technical writers to document.
- 6. Engineers would rolltheir eyes when they saw me coming… But I understood why….
- 7. In the “Overthe Wall” Scenario… • Technical writers are very dependent on engineers • Engineers need little, if anything, from tech writers… • We are seen as a time sink, a resource drain...
- 8. This creates anunequal dependence between engineering and documentation…
- 9. But writers actuallyhave a lot to offer their companies… Our skills enable us to contribute in many ways outside of the documentation we write!
- 10. Why should wework outside the doc box? Giving back benefits us in many ways • It reduces the unequal dependency we naturally have with engineering or other organizations so they see us more positively • It increases our value to the company • It enables us to engage and contribute across organizations, giving us a broader view and understanding of company operations, products, and processes • It increases our visibility and relevance to future work both within and outside documentation
- 11. Secretly, my goalis to become the Swiss Amy knife of technical writers...
- 12. What Types ofContributions Can We Make? • Facilitate an increase in usability and improved user experience • Help define and improve processes • Assist with graphics and illustrations • Enhance, polish, and organize engineering documents • Support instructional design and training efforts • Assist with quality assurance testing • Manage projects and initiatives
- 13. Improving Usability andthe User Experience Suggesting improvements to screen flow, layout, text, labels What you Have: • Audience and task knowledge • Inherent user advocacy • Polishing/clarification skills • Ability to spot areas for improvement (inconsistent or confusing flow, terminology, labeling) • Access to designs/prototypes
- 14. Improving Usability andthe User Experience Suggesting improvements to screen flow, layout, text, labels What you Need: • Knowledge of usability test methods (www.usability.gov) • Knowledge of how to apply test results • Knowledge of common heuristics/qualities of good interface design
- 15. Process Definition andImprovement Capturing and helping improve work processes and flows What you Have: • Skill at optimizing procedures • Ability to capture and communicate work flows • Ability to drive and gather consensus from stakeholders • Skills in analyzing the interaction between complex processes
- 16. Process Definition andImprovement Capturing and helping improve work processes and flows What you Need: • Understanding of how processes impact teams/stakeholders (pain points) • Knowledge of the processes in question • Understanding of who does what
- 17. Creating Graphics, Diagrams,and Flows Adding visuals to documents, presentations, and overviews What you Have: • Ability to logically organize details • Ability to clearly communicate information with specific intent • Ability to identify areas for improvement in a document / presentation • Understanding of audience needs
- 18. Creating Graphics, Diagrams,and Flows Adding visuals to documents, presentations, and overviews What you Need: • Ability to visualize information clearly and rapidly • Skill with graphic development tools (anything from Visio to Illustrator)
- 19. Enhancing and OrganizingEngineering Content Improving and organizing design docs, architecture info, and specs What you Have: • Ability to clarify and polish information • Understanding of what multiple audiences need (especially downstream audiences) • Ability to spot assumptions and information gaps • Ability to organize information hierarchically
- 20. Enhancing and OrganizingEngineering Content Improving and organizing design docs, architecture info, and specs What you Need: • Document Awareness/Access • Support from engineering for your contributions/suggestions • Understanding of document goals and audiences • Understanding of / influence over engineering document templates / standards • Subject matter expertise
- 21. Creating and DeliveringTraining Contributing to instructional design and delivery What you Have: • Product knowledge • Procedure expertise • Understanding of audience goals and needs • Ability to identify knowledge gaps • Clear communication skills for explaining new concepts or procedures
- 22. Creating and DeliveringTraining Contributing to instructional design and delivery What you Need: • Knowledge of instructional design principles (ADDIE, Cognitive Load Theory) • Ability to determine training objectives • Storyboarding/script skills • Tool skills if using something other than PowerPoint (Articulate, Captivate, etc.) • Desire to stand up in front of people and teach (if instructor led) • Knowledge of how to assess / measure learning
- 23. Assisting with QATesting Testing product features and functionality to identify issues What you Have: • Product knowledge • Procedure expertise • Knowledge of user goals and behavior • Access to the product/system • Access to and knowledge of the bug tracking system
- 24. Assisting with QATesting Testing product features and functionality to identify issues What you Need: • Understanding of expected and unexpected user behavior • Understanding of expected and unexpected system behavior • Access to test cases (if doing this formally)
- 25. Project Management Planning, organizing,and tracking projects and initiatives What you Have: • Process and progress tracking expertise • Understanding the interaction of complex dependencies • Adept at work breakdown and task ordering • Risk assessment skills • Skill with scheduling/dependencies • Understanding of the definition of done / success criteria • Skill at working across teams
- 26. Project Management Planning, organizing,and tracking projects and initiatives What you Need: • Understanding of organizational operation • Understanding of lifecycle process (agile vs waterfall) • Knowledge of team capabilities, responsibilities, and goals • Understanding of Project Management basics/foundations
- 27. So how doyou get started? It’s unlikely people will waltz into your office with opportunities to do things outside of your usual work, so you would need to: • Get buy-in from your manager, if needed • Build bridges to relevant people and teams • Volunteer to assist with what interests you • (Gently) invite yourself to relevant meetings, discussions, or reviews • Initiate tasks or projects in small ways to get the ball rolling
- 28.