Re: Where do we belong?? (and SME's again)

[Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>]

mclm -at- ncode -dot- co -dot- uk wrote:
 
> An excellent post by Connie.
> I'd like to expand on the post by saying that a tech writer should straddle
> *both* engineering and marketing disciplines. We should not be constrained
> and boxed in like those poor "cubicle dwellers" <g>.

For me, that's one of the appeals of tech-writing: it's
multi-disciplinary, and often requires changes of perspective.

It's also why I've been able to expand into product management and
marketing; many people have a narrow range of interests and can't see
beyond them. Many first-rate developers express astonishingly naive
ideas about marketing and business, while the average marketer too often
labors uner the idea that technical knowledge of the product isn't
needed to sell it well. Coming from tech-writing, I'm not as
knowledgable as the developer about programming, nor as the marketer
about product positioning. But I do have a better understanding of a
company's process from design to shipping and returns than either one.


-- 
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"Any view of things that is not strange is false."
-Neil Gaiman, "Soft Places"

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