Re: Reviewers who don't review

[Keri Morgret <kerilists -at- morgret -dot- net>]

I've been sorely tempted to do something like that in the past!

One thing I found (by accident) that worked for me was to give the 
manual to the engineers in a format they could use. After weeks of 
asking for reviews, with no luck, I printed out the hardware manual 
(for a product with a circuit board and lots of dip switches and 
jumpers that needed to be configured upon installation) in a booklet 
form. It was the size of a regular sheet of paper, folded in half. 
The copy machine would also act as a printer, and would automatically 
scale the document in half, get the pages printed correctly, and put 
the staples in the middle.

I now had a document that the installers could throw in their 
briefcase, instead of a three-ring binder. I went from getting no 
feedback about the manual to calls from the other side of the country 
"can I have a copy of that cute little manual you sent with 
so-and-so?". Was the first and only time I've had a manual called cute.

Doesn't work in all cases, but if you can give it to the people in a 
format they'll use, they're more likely to use and review the documents.

Keri Morgret