DMN - January 1, 2007

Showing the suits your value - January 1, 2007

	This is Communications from DMN for for the week of January 1, 2007

Scott	I'm Scott Nesbitt.
Aaron	And I'm Aaron Davis. Happy New Year, and thanks for joining us. We hope you had a great holiday and enjoyed some downtime with your family and friends.
Scott	This week, we're going to discuss how to demonstrate value as a technical writer -- whether it's within an organization or with your clients. Over to you Aaron.
Aaron	Thanks Scott. I think we can all agree that technical writers can contribute tremendous value to an organization. Scott and I chatted last week about the changing role of a technical communicator. It is simply not enough to be a writer these days. Technical communicators can and do play a role in information management, usability, marketing, product management, and a host of other responsibilities that add to the overall value of a product or service. I know this is something that you're going to be discussing in a future podcast.
Scott	Absolutely. But I think you're right Aaron, adding value is one thing, but demonstrating that you're adding value and capturing and measuring is more of a challenge. I think one thing that has to be understood is that value is sometimes hard to quantify. We should be looking at ways to quantify our value to demonstrate to management that technical writers are actually increasing the value of an organization. Too often in the past, writers were evaluated solely on producing content and meeting deadlines. This isn't good enough anymore. How does what we do contribute to the overall strategic objectives defined by an employer or a client?
Aaron	That's a great point. I think the reality is that the game is changing. I listened to a podcast recently on TechWriterVoices.com that featured Susan Burton, who is the executive director of the STC. She was mentioning how much the profession is changing and how the role of simply being a writer is fading away. I think that we really need to start doing away with the term technical writer and start using technical communicator. Many corporations are already insisting on an expanded skill set and we see a lot of hybrid positions opening up. The technical communicator is becoming more specialized and has to wear a number of hats. This is a great development for our profession, don't you think?
Scott	Definitely. Going back to your original point, not being simply a writer entails proving that you're adding value in other areas. While it is easy to report to management that you did "things", it is more important to communicate how you have added value in line with strategic objectives. For example, assume that you've developed an online help system for a call center. This help system is replacing printed material that was out of date, difficult to update, and expensive to produce. In this example, there are a number of ways that you could demonstrate value to your employer. First, and foremost, try to quantify things in terms of a dollar value. How much time did it take for a customer service rep to search for an answer using the old documentation? How much quicker can they find the answer with the new online solution? How much less time does it take to update and deliver the content to the end user? As the old adage goes, time is money. If you can show that you're providing a service more efficiently in this way, you're effectively demonstrating the value of what you do in your organization.
Aaron	Great example. Another thing that I think is often overlooked is how your technical communications can add brand value for your company or clients. As a provider of goods or services, your brand is your identity in the marketplace. A strong brand and a tight, unified strategy involving communications and marketing is a definite competitive advantage. I think a lot of companies are starting to realize that everything that they produce relates back to their brand image. Technical documentation, communications, marketing collateral, sales sheets, whitepapers ... all of these are no exception. To create a truly cohesive and strong brand, companies need to pay attention to the documentation that they produce. So how can a technical communicator demonstrate value in this area? There are a variety of good strategies. For one thing, focus on user experience. User experience is so important -- I cannot stress this enough. Consistency and content management. Working with other functional groups to ensure a consistent look and feel. Single sourcing content to reduce effort and expenditure. Your goal is to demonstrate that you are adding brand value and at the same time creating synergies within different areas of the company
Scott	Absolutely. And I think you touched on another way to demonstrate value - by creating effective single sourcing and content management strategies. You don't even need to implement a huge content management system to do this. Little things like reusing documentation, building out processes and strategies for reuse, and educating others within your organization on the value of reuse. You'd be surprised on how much value this generates when people start agreeing to share and reuse content. It's not an easy thing to negotiate, because people are generally very protective of content and their ownership of it. In terms of measuring this value, again, it's best to cost it out using real numbers and dollars that management can relate to.
Aaron	Yeah, I think it's key to use numbers and real data to do this. The reality is, as we move forward into new roles in this profession, we have to make sure that we demonstrate value in a tangible way whether we create presentations, use wikis, or create some sort of dashboard that makes it easy for management to see we are providing this value. I think in terms of what we do, a lot of what we do is not really translated into value for companies or clients. There are a lot of missed opportunities. As technical communicators, the more adept we get at communicating how we're adding value in real tangible ways, the more successful we are going to become individually and as a profession as well.
Scott	Now it's time for our Pick of the Week. Each week we choose a book, Web site, or blog that we find interesting and useful and hope that you will, too. This week's pick is the blog Tech Write Tips. Located at techwritetips.wordpress.com, this blog delivers just what its name says: tips on technical writing. The main focus of the blog is tips and tricks for using MadCap Flare, the new competitor to RoboHelp. But it also contains information on creating online help and using screen captures (which the author of the blog calls screen portraits). There are also a couple of posts about information typing and design. Tech Write Tips hasn't been updated in a while. But the information that is at the site should keep you busy for a few hours, especially if you're a MadCap Flare newbie. So, visit techwritetips.wordpress.com to learn more.
Aaron	That's all we have for this edition of Communications from DMN. Join us next week when we discuss the other roles that a technical writer can play in an organization.

	Thanks for listening. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future podcasts drop us a line at podcast@dmncommunications.com. And don't forget to visit our Web site (www.dmncommunications.com) and our blog (www.dmncommunications.com/weblog). Have a good week.