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Re: Providing/Handling feedback gracefully (was Re: Pulling my hair
Subject:Re: Providing/Handling feedback gracefully (was Re: Pulling my hair From:"Bonni J. Graham" <bgraham -at- ELECTRICITI -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 15 Aug 1994 20:14:31 PST
I agree with all of Kelly's comments about edits and the receipt thereof --
we do need to be gracious, and to explain when we can't use information.
Not everyone checks the doc to make sure their suggestions got in, but
those who do really care, and we need to respect that. But I'm sure I'm
telling you something you already know.
Another thing we have to do is teach them how to edit. I have one client
who has specifically asked me to do that (and to bill my time for doing it,
too). Two cases in point:
1) The Dreaded "Unclear" edit
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. I need more detail about what's
wrong, especially if "unclear" is written in the margin next to a
paragraph. Sometimes I can figure it out -- "Oh, OK, that doesn't really
make sense, does it?" -- but more often I can't. Once someone wrote
"unclear" next to this sentence (it was under a screen shot of a deletion
confirmation message):
4. Press the OK button to delete the record. Press the Cancel button
to stop
deleting the record.
Hunh??? It finally turned out that the person thought "OK" for the
continue cancelling option was confusing. It also turned out that she
thought the programmers were going to see the doc before it came back to
me, and that the "unclear" edit was for them. But I didn't know that --
had no way to. Point is, make sure everyone knows the review process and
pecking order.
2) The Even More Dreaded "More Detail" message
Five conversations later, I was still been unable to convince the QA person
who wrote this that if I KNEW any more detail, it would already be in
there, and that the programmer had been unresponsive to me about the issue.
I finally took to writing "Please provide" next to the "more detail" edit
and sending the thing back. That worked -- she ferreted out what I neede
to know and sent it up to me. Point here is, make sure ALL the lines of
communication are clear.
There, I've said it, and I feel much better.
Bonni Graham
Manual Labour
Director, Region 8 Conference
bgraham -at- electriciti -dot- com
