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> I'm going to talk about this with him when we meet again in
> two days; I want
> to nip this in the bud before it becomes a problem. Something
> like: "Isn't
> this more in X's area? I like working with you a lot, but
> she's probably got
> better marketing skills to give this the right spin. And if I
> was in her
> role, I'd be upset if you didn't come to me with this first."
> Has anyone
> else dealt with a similar situation, as a freelancer or contractor?
>
"I think it would be a more effective use of everyone's time if you ask X to
come up with a first draft. I'm willing to massage the technical content,
but since this is really more of a marketing document, I'd feel more
comfortable if we could make use of the available marketing resources right
off the bat. It would be easier for me to structure the technical content
around the marketing framework than the other way around.
"I'd hate to see X's skills go to waste, and I think it would reduce the
cycle time if we bring her in at the beginning. If she's brought in later,
we might find ourselves having to rework the entire thing."
Leverage your resources, yadda yadda.
See, I'm not a design person; I'm a development and implementation person.
You want content, you got it. You want basic layout, you got it. You want
a more readable font, you got it. You want images overlaid with a four-bit
paisley pattern, you ... I have a strong stomach. But give me the look and
feel from marketing *first*. I'm happy to let them know which strategies
are easiest for me, but I'll work around a whole lot if I have to (she said,
realizing that she'd use EDLIN if it came to that).
To me, in theory it isn't a whole lot different from an engineering project.
Everything cascades from the marketing specs, and I'm one of the doozers
that bends time and space when necessary to make things work according to
the requirements. (Of course, that doesn't mean I agree with the naming
conventions. I just write 'em as I get 'em.)
Cheers ... Kim mailto:kim -dot- roper -at- vitana -dot- com
Technical Writers do it in styles.
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