Own it

[aschiff -at- factset -dot- com]

Greetings fellow Whirlers:

A new writer recently took over the reins of our quarterly client
newsletter, a job I performed for years (even though it was officially
outside the scope of our Documentation Dept.)  I transitioned the project
over to him with what I thought was adequate preparation, and co-managed
his first issue with him.

However, he's now on his 2nd issue (first one solo), he just released a
draft to the internal reviewers, and it's not going too well. His boss
(director of Marketing) asked me to speak with him frankly on "what you
need to do to get this job done," project management-wise.

I feel it's not my place to do this, especially in person - it's his
manager's job, really. (Whatever.) So I sent him the following e-mail. I'm
forwarding it on to Techwrl  because I think it holds true in a lot of
"what we do" .... and even though I, too, like to get caught up in the Tool
Wars and similar discussions, some things are universal.

So, read on.... Note: Certain identifying details have been omitted. :-)

-Abby Schiff
Director of Documentation
FactSet Research Systems Inc.

========================
Hi  [name deleted],

I feel like now is the time to pass-on pearls of wisdom from one [--name of
newsletter deleted--] generation to another, so here goes. (This is
intended as constructive criticism, not the random griping of a shrew.)

If my advice could be boiled down to 2 words, they would be:

"OWN IT."

You are the editor of this publication, so you MUST care - 110% worth.
Believe me when I say this: nobody else will EVER care about [--name of
newsletter deleted--] as much as you do.

   Subject-Matter Experts (SMEs) will send you articles that may be
   incomplete, late, overly detailed, poorly written, poorly organized,
   typo-riddled, or lacking any kind of context whatsoever.
   Engineers will forget to provide you with access to the latest version
   of the app.
   Perfectly well-meaning salespeople and designers will mangle the
   message.

But it's not really their job to care 110% about [--name of newsletter
deleted--] - it's yours.

So - go the extra mile, even if you have to do it 50 times to make it
right:

   Know your audience and put them before all else.
   Call the SME and get clarification, even if you have to pester.
   Reorganize articles so they make more sense.... then do it AGAIN so they
   make even MORE sense.
   Do not be afraid to cut extraneous information out.  There is a limit to
   the amount of information our audience can digest in this publication.
   Again, your readers come first. You have a lot of discretion and you
   will OFTEN have to use it.
   Simplify: ideas, concepts, entire articles. (This is one of the hardest
   things to do.)
   Make sure EVERYTHING has a context, because without it your readers will
   be lost.
   Consider your message. Make articles exciting, compelling! What value
   can this application/feature/database add for your readers? Why should
   they care about it?
   Read each successive draft of each story with your most critical,
   "meanest" eye. If a sentence or headline "reads awkward," figure out 5
   different ways to reword it and pick the best one.  If you're still not
   110% satisfied, trash that paragraph and rewrite it from scratch.
   If you're not 110% satisfied with a screen-capture (or its accompanying
   callout), re-do it. And learn to do it yourself, if possible --
   sometimes a little "doctoring" is required.  It's well-worth it.  The
   pictures and callouts in [--name of newsletter deleted--] probably get
   more attention than anything else.
   Before a draft goes out to internal reviewers, make 110% sure it is the
   absolute best you can make it.  When a draft is in this state, the
   feedback you get will be worth its weight in gold.

Hope this is helpful to you - stop by to chat if you want to discuss
details on any of the preceding items!

AS


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