RE: An Engineer has infected my young mind!

Subject: RE: An Engineer has infected my young mind!
From: "Lisa Wright" <liwright -at- uswest -dot- net>
To: "Sierra Godfrey" <kittenbreath -at- hotbot -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 14:13:49 -0700

Sierra,
You ask an entirely legitimate question, and entirely understandable by one
who has been there (as I expect most of us have!).

<rant>
Your engineer is obviously deluded and arrogant. The engineer needs
guidance, preferably with a large, heavy tome applied to the backside.
</rant>

Okay. First of all, your engineer is not entirely out of place in thinking
that a reference manual would be a good thing. Reference information is
good. However, a reference manual is for experienced users. Refer to
"Standards for Online Communication" by JoAnn Hackos and Dawn Stevens. They
describe in chapter 3 the different kinds of users, the different levels of
information in chapter 4 (procedural, conceptual, reference, instructional)
and what kinds of information different levels of users need. Novice and
advanced beginner users need procedural information and will ignore
conceptual or reference information until they're more able to grasp it.

How do you handle this situation? It's a little tricky. You need to retain
the engineer's good will because you need your SME to review for technical
accuracy (I'm hoping the engineer doesn't have veto power on the design!).
Perhaps you could take the approach of first letting the engineer know that
you very much appreciate the ideas and information (try not to be
sarcastic). Explain to the engineer your perspective as a "user advocate".
As a user advocate, you have an understanding of how new, inexperienced
users approach learning new software. You know that they want manageable
chunks of information that allow them to feel success. They are probably
busy professionals who don't have time to read a reference-style manual from
beginning to end, and you know that a reference manual doesn't give them the
first indication of where to start because it is designed around the
software and not what a user might want to do with that software.

Despite your inexperience as a technical writer, you are the communications
professional. Projecting yourself as such will help the other professionals
in your company treat you as a professional. They will smell your fear if
you let them know that they can intimidate you! Don't go back to the
engineer as if you're looking for approval of your design ideas.

Other questions: who ultimately needs to approve the information design? Do
you have multiple media available? For example, could you create a "Getting
Started" guide AND a reference source (online or paper)?

If you're comfortable enough, you might go to your manager and say "look,
this is the feedback I'm getting and I think I need to approach it XYZ way,
what do you think?" I'd have a plan of attack before I went to my manager.
That way you show initiative and maturity, even if the manager doesn't
totally agree with your approach. It also lets your manager know a problem
exists--managers hate being caught by surprise.

I'm sure there are lots of other things to consider, but I hope this helps a
little!
Lisa Wright





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