Where do we belong?

[Andrew Plato <intrepid_es -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

The "where do tech writers" belong thread seems to pop up about every month or
so. I thought I'd throw in some ideas. 

I like to look at my experience with Network ICE (my largest client) as perhaps
the perfect location of tech writing. Although I was squarely fixed to the
engineering team and my "boss" was the director of engineering, I often saw our
role to cross a number of channels. My team wrote material for engineering,
marketing, tech support, and even sales.

The way I saw it, we were ?content providers? for any group that wanted to use
our services. I sold the tech writing team to other departments as a source of
writers who knew the company?s technology and its capabilities. Our team could
customize content for each department. This included marketing datasheets,
white papers, proposals, specifications, reference manuals, operations guides ?
you name it. Although our first and primary responsibility was to document the
products and provide support to the engineering team, we could farm out people
to other departments as needed. Not only did we save Network ICE tons of money
hiring "marketing specialists" and other people, we centralized the
distribution of information - thus resulting in a consistent tone and delivery.
We didn't have sales datasheets that said one thing and marketing brochures
that promised something else. 

The director of engineer was happy as a clam with this. Mainly because it
allowed her to ?propagate? the correct technical information to marketing,
sales, and tech support people. It was a lot easier for her to let us help
marketing write some datasheets than spend weeks training the marketing staff
on how the products worked. Her and I also had an established and solid working
relationship, so she knew I had her best interests in mind even when I was off
doing marketing work. 

However, this kind of arrangement requires something few technical publications
departments possess  ? flexible, service-oriented writers. You cannot have a
draconian ?we do it this way because? type of atmosphere. You have to see your
group as almost an independent entity selling its services to other groups.
That often means volunteering to help ? and then demonstrating you can do the
job. It also means a fundamental shift in how you view tech pubs. 

Most tech pubs departments are caught in a sort of ?court jester? role. The big
wigs call you in when they need your skills then send you packing when they
can?t stand you any longer. This is the direct result of :

1. Focusing on writing tools and skills at the expense
   of content knowledge. 

2. Positioning the department as teams of writers and 
   editors, and not a expert users of the products who 
   can describe the functions and features accurately. 

3. Failing to reach out to other departments and build
   relationships.

4. Viewing the department as a contained entity and not
   a service-organization that can offer expertise to
   many parts of the company.

5. Relying on non-technical management to have your
   best interests in mind. 

6. Open hostility to marketing and other ?fluff? areas
   of the company. 

Like it or lump it ? marketing and sales are perhaps one of the most critical
aspects of ANY organization.  They are also A LOT closer to management than you
are. If the market does not know about you, or does not know what you do ?
nobody will buy your products. Yes, marketing can be full of morons who lack
even basic human skills, but they also are in a vital area of the company. One
you can help. They need you as much as you need them. 

If you can build a ?content-centric, service-oriented? department, tech pubs
can become an integral and vital part of the company. All product delivery and
development hinges on your team to generate the material that adds value to the
products as a while. All departments will rely on you and you can grow a
diverse and functional team. 

Your company does not need or want FrameMaker freaks and revolutionary XML
deployments. These may help you get your job done, but they don?t make you
invaluable to other areas of the company. Writers that know Frame are a dime a
dozen, and it just isn?t a skill that sells outside of tech pubs. Your
knowledge of the goods and services your organization produces is what makes
you valuable to the rest of your company. If you can consistently demonstrate
that you can document products at an expert level ? you will become so
invaluable they?ll never want you to leave. 

You will also find your place ? a free-floating entity anchored to engineering
but well-integrated with virtually every aspect of the company. 

Now ? how do you do all this. Ha! Like I am going to tell you that. That?s an
Anitian trade secret. You'll have to pay for that. Visa/Mastercard accepted, 90
days same as cash. VIN numbers at dealership. 

Andrew Plato 


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