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Not harsh....realistic. It doesn't matter if you're young, inexperienced or whatever.... We were all young, inexperienced and most of us were self-taught. You find out what the Sales Manager wants and produce the document he needs. I did not presume the SM was a man, in fact, I tried to make the position gender neutral as I has worked with male and female managers without a problem. I see where I slipped once and called the SM a him....my mistake. BTW...the best manager I worked for was a woman.
For the record, I don't think I was harsh. I was realistic. I was the sole writer for companies ranging from an Alaska Native Corporation to a wafer bonding systems manufacturer to teaching at the local community college. At times during my technical writing era I had a staff, but mostly it was me. Although I was young and inexperienced, I never allowed that to show and I often put in 70 hour weeks to meet deadlines (and I always met my deadlines). Was there a lot of anxiety involved....YEP, especially in the beginning, but I did what I said in the email....I checked out what others were doing, including my competition and came up with a solution....no excuses. If that sounds harsh, then the tech world sure is a lot tamer than when I was writing.....BTW, I retired nearly seven years ago.
Al Geist-Geist Arts
Fine Art Photography
Mobile: 231-301-5770
E-mail: al -at- geistarts -dot- com
Website: www.geistarts.com
Facebook: Geist Arts
See Also:
Technical Writing, Help, Publication Management
"...I walked to work, quit my job, and kept walking. Better to be a pilgrim without a destination, I figured, than to cross the wrong threshold each day." (Sy Safransky)
-----Original Message-----
From: Wright, Lynne [mailto:Lynne -dot- Wright -at- Kronos -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2019 3:46 PM
To: al -at- geistarts -dot- com; 'Julie Stickler'; 'Joe Weinmunson'
Cc: 'Technical Writing'
Subject: RE: Dealing with a vague document request
Well you've made some rather harsh assumptions there....
I wouldn't say that the original poster was "making excuses" or being passive in any way. They were asking for strategies to do exactly what you're advocating; ie take charge and get clarification on what they are expected to produce.
Also, why presume that the sales manager is a man? Women can be managers too, you know.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com <techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> On Behalf Of Al Geist
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2019 3:38 PM
To: 'Julie Stickler' <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com>; 'Joe Weinmunson' <litlfrog -at- gmail -dot- com>
Cc: 'Technical Writing' <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: RE: Dealing with a vague document request
I wrote a lot of these prior to my retirement. You need to get in touch with the sales manager to find out what information he is looking for and that will help you gather and format it. You may need more than one paper, depending on the needs. For example, information to help respond to RFPs is different than sales literature.
Marketing collateral is a form of technical documentation and while the "product manager" should be able to write it up, the technical writing staff needs to also be involved.
Even if you're "young, self-taught, and not experienced in the big corporate environment" you can't use those excuses for not turning out accurate material to fit the company's needs. As I said....find out what the Sales Manager's needs are by asking him. I had a writer working for me one time that would email an SME, then wait, and wait, and wait for the response. I finally told him to go into the clean room and ask the question to the SME's face. When he did (in a polite way), he got the answers he needed. You need to do the same...or the technical writing group leader. You do have a lead writer don't you???? If you don't then someone needs to take the lead and be the point person for the group.
You can also look at how others have presented the materials your sales manager seeks. Check out your competition and make yours better.
Hope this helps. Going back on retirement.......
Al Geist-Geist Arts
Fine Art Photography
Mobile: 231-301-5770
E-mail: al -at- geistarts -dot- com
Website: www.geistarts.com
Facebook: Geist Arts
See Also:
Technical Writing, Help, Publication Management
"...I walked to work, quit my job, and kept walking. Better to be a pilgrim without a destination, I figured, than to cross the wrong threshold each day." (Sy Safransky)
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+al=geistarts -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+al=geistarts -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Julie Stickler
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2019 2:29 PM
To: Joe Weinmunson
Cc: Technical Writing
Subject: Re: Dealing with a vague document request
Sounds like your sales manager is looking for a features list that they can use for sales. And when comparing your product to a competitor. They
might even need it for the RFP (request for proposal) process. It doesn't
hurt to ask why they need the information, as it will help you figure out what format to deliver it.
What they're asking for is more marketing collateral than product documentation. Product Management should also be able to help write this up.
On Thu, May 23, 2019 at 1:11 PM Joe Weinmunson <litlfrog -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Our company is growing and we have a few people doing documentation now.
> However, all of us are some combination of 1) young, 2) self-taught,
> and/or
> 3) not experienced in a big corporate environment. That's causing some
> delay right now because we are not sure how to interpret the Sales
> Manager's request.
>
> "the knowledge lies with you [tech support, training, and documentation].
> Our issue is that only a couple of people here at the company actually
> know what these products do. Mae laid out some groundwork, but pulled
> much of the info from the existing website. What we need is a basic
> list of what these products do. What they can do. I understand this is
> a big task. this will end up being a living document as the program
> changes. Certainly changes have been made since the site was built and
> will continue to be made. So what we need is a list of what each product does."
>
> I am trying to figure out whether to format this as some sort of
> internal white paper, as fact sheets for each module of the software,
> or as something else. I know we'll get there eventually, but I'd
> appreciate any advice folks have in dealing with the request.
>
> --
> Joe Weinmunson
>
> âWhat you read when you donât have to determines what you will be when
> you canât help it.â
> --Oscar Wilde
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