The Strategic Technical Communicator: An Open Letter to the CEO
Dear CEO: I am here to help. I represent the customer’s best interest when using our products and services. I am her voice. When the company hired me as a Technical Communicator I was under the impression that my representation of the customer mattered. That I would be given the authority along with the responsibility [...]
It’s Not Your Product, Your Documentation Just Sucks
Do we really have to wade through your 400 page text-based manual you’ve posted online in order to find out why an error keeps us from using your software? Worse, when we finally find the answer it’s incomplete. So what do we do? A Google search and find the answer elsewhere. Really? Aren’t we done [...]
Delivering Happiness Through Social Documentation
User Manuals Are Dead So why are they still being produced? What value are they providing your customers? User manuals today are the marketing equivalent of mailing out company brochures. Utterly useless. Static HTML and PDF based user manuals aren’t much better. They haven’t evolved or kept pace with even the most rudimentary corporate websites. [...]
Why Product Documentation Needs to be More Like a University and Less of a Textbook
If you want to learn how to program software for the first time would you read an outdated textbook or attend a Computer Science class? Would you go at it alone or involve your peers? Would you teach yourself or use an expert guide or teacher? If like me you answered each question with mostly [...]
5 Critical Questions to Determine if Your Product Documentation is Strategic
“You’re letting the barbarians control the information about your product.” If you listen to most so called social media guru’s they’ll tell you that resistance is futile. Embrace sites like YouTube, Yahoo Groups, Industry Forums, Product Review sites and other online destinations that are discussing your product or brand without your participation. But why let [...]
The Top 10 Best Technical Documentation Sites of 2010
We polled over 300 Technical Communicators to determine the best documentation sites on the web. If you’re looking for the best product or service documentation sites, look no further than the sites below. The winner, Microsoft was chosen by Technical Communicators due it’s great search capabilities, product coverage is excellent and it’s easy to use. [...]
6 Ways Smart Technical Communicators Will Become Invaluable
Would you use Microsoft Word to build your organization’s website? If you don’t use Microsoft Word to build your website then why do you use it to build content for your online product documentation? According to our survey , 56% of Technical Communicators use Word. Why? Because it’s easy to use. But it’s not an [...]
Stop Wasting Money on Community Building – 5 Powerful Reasons to Use Social Documentation Instead
Every major brand is struggling to launch a community site around their company’s products. Maybe it’s an indirect community that you hope brings traffic and future sales, or maybe it’s a community about your product that has been designed to increase sales. But unless you are a very big brand with a passionate following (e.g. [...]
