Archive for the ‘STC’ Category

2013 STC Summit Questions and Answers

Posted on: May 22nd, 2013 230,922 Comments

I look at the industry today and I just don’t get businesses’ attitude about content. Most feel that content is just a business expense that needs to be trimmed at every budget cycle. Ask anyone who has said, “Hey, if we follow this process, we can cut our cost by this much!” They came across as a rock star for a brief period, but then the next year came around and they were asked, “How much can you cut this year?” It’s as though the very first conversation went something like this:

Business Owner: “We have too much profit. We need to figure out a way to spend all this money. I know! We will waste a bunch of money writing a manual describing how to use our product. It’s perfect!”

I don’t think a conversation like that ever happened. In fact, I think it was the opposite:

Business Owner: “We need to generate more revenue. We need to figure out a way to increase our product value and make our customer more loyal. I know! We will write a manual describing how to use our product and deliver it in a way to increase our customers’ experience. It’s perfect!”

Somewhere along the line, content was turned into a contractual obligation or a liability defense and business strategists simply forgot about documentation. Well, Summit 2013 decided to stand up and say, “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

That was one of the things that made Summit special this year—a shift in a mindset that content can and will generate revenue for a company. Businesses need to start planning for that in their strategy. I personally feel the biggest push for this new mindset is the advancements in mobile technology. Mobile devices are going to outnumber PCs 5 to 1 this year, and 1 in 4 adults own a tablet. Now, instead of PDFs, technical writers have to think about Kindles, iPhones, Razors, Galaxys, and so on. This is actually a very good thing for content. Because of instant access on mobile devices, users now want their content to travel with them. Businesses can now increase customer satisfaction through multi-device delivery, and there were a lot of good presentations on that topic at the conference. We had many people coming by the booth and asking fantastic questions: What is HTML5 and how does it work across multiple devices? What tricks do I have to use to display content properly on a smaller screen? What kind of workflow will generate revenue, and how do I align my processes with my company’s business strategy? These are all great questions, and we want to answer them. You can find a few answers in our resource library, but we are also going to be releasing some related whitepapers and tips and tricks in the next couple of months.

One of the big questions was “What do I need to think about when delivering content across mobile devices?” The answer is this: It’s different from delivering by PDF. That is probably the concept most content creators are struggling with. For example, consider tool tips. On most mobile devices, the screens are touch. That technology does not have a hover function, which is what is used to activate the tool tip on a desktop. So, the first assumption is that you are going to lose some functionality when going to mobile. However, this is not the case. You have to remember that users are moving to mobile because it is their preferred method of receiving information. They are already familiar with a mobile environment and want it. Whatever features they can use on a desktop that are not found on a mobile device are just not important enough to them. This actually makes it easier for the tech writer. Design for a mobile environment, and you will be giving users exactly what they want. They will even prefer the layout if they move back to a desktop because the behavior is the same as it was on their mobile device.

We will go into more depth on the differences of a mobile environment in future whitepapers, so keep checking back with us. Soon, that budget conversation will go like this:

“Hey, if you invest this much money in our current documentation, we can raise revenue by 2%.” You will still come across as a rock star, and next year they will ask, “How much do you need this year?” Now isn’t that a better conversation to have?

Technical Communications—It’s Not Just Documentation, It’s A Mindset

Posted on: August 24th, 2012 16,292 Comments
Piecing Together The Workflow

The Tech Pubs Social, WebWorks monthly luncheon meet-up of local Austin technical communication professionals, is an informal gathering focused on discussing current industry trends and technologies. For this month’s meet-up, I set out with the topic “Authoring Tool vs. Editing Tool” in mind; however, since the meet-up is an informal round table environment, the conversation quickly migrated into a different direction.

I am ecstatic when I see our conversation veer from the predefined topic. When I see the conversation begin to evolve, I know we are making strides in the right direction. Business doesn’t revolve around predefined parameters; it adjusts to suit the needs of the market. So when I see the course of our conversation change direction, I know we are truly beginning to tap into real-world issues affecting our industry.

The course of this month’s Tech Pubs Social took us down the road of customer service. This conversation couldn’t have taken a better turn, as I believe that now, more than ever, is the time for Technical Communication departments to focus on the customer. Now don’t get me wrong—I know TechComm departments focus on the end-user, but I really think there is a new, special opportunity presented through our documentation that wasn’t present in the past, and now is the time to capitalize on it. All we need is the right mindset.

“Technical Communication is the most pivotal department in ensuring a company’s success.”

This is the mindset that I’m referring to. Documentation holds a very unique position that can help a company decrease its customer defection rate while strengthening its overall business strategy. This unique position allows for documentation to achieve this while giving maximum results.

For example, marketing is used to put the face of your company in front of potential clients. Sales will then have needs-based conversions: if there is a match between customer needs and product features, there is typically a sale. However, this is only about 10% of the process for the client; the other 90% is usage. While the customer is using your product, your product’s documentation is an extension of your company. Your documentation is getting far more face time with your end-user and speaks to the creditability of your company. It also has the ability to make or break you in the eyes of the customer who is looking for ease of use.

Allow me to emphasize my point. When users visit your documentation, it is for one of two reasons. (1) they want to learn more about the product they are using, or (2) they have an issue that needs to be resolved. The cost has already been incurred and the user is now dependent upon your product. This is where you have the opportunity to show your true value to an impressionable client. If you have an open line of communication to that end-user, like that of technical documentation, you have the most relevant form of information exchange with the end-user. Not only is this an opportunity to maximize the customer experience, it is also a great opportunity to gather information that can fuel your workflow. I have only been in the industry of technical communication for three years, but in that time, I have noticed that many companies do not take advantage of this opportunity, mainly because they do not have a proper workflow set up to capitalize on it.

Look at the reverse to further explain the premise. If as a company you don’t meet your customers’ expectations through your documentation, you instill a shadow of doubt in your customer and subsequently have to shift to playing defense the rest of the way down the road. Even if you reach a resolve through technical support, your customers’ expectations have already not been met.

Workflow

I have come to realize that discussing the breadth of a proper workflow exceeds the parameters of a simple blog post. Because of this, WebWorks has decided to compose a whitepaper discussing the steps of a successful workflow in a more detailed manner. This whitepaper will offer you a blueprint on how to capitalize through your documentation. Thus, the main purpose of this blog post is to put you in the right mindset and prepare you for the release of this paper coming soon.

For now, I’ll leave you with these thoughts about the possibilities of technical communication:

  1. Technical communication is not an expense that should have its cost cut year after year, thus making it an afterthought in your business strategy. It is a revenue generation tool that businesses can invest in and see an ROI from that investment.
  2. Technical communication is the most pivotal department in ensuring a company’s success!

Did you miss Christopher’s last entries? Check them out here!

Hot Topics From Summit 2012

Solving the Puzzle of Viewing Content Across Multi-Platform Devices

STC Summit Rosemont-Chicago, First Day

Posted on: May 21st, 2012 2,540 Comments
WebWorks Team at Wrigley Field

The WebWorks Team landed in Chicago around 11:44 a.m. Eagar to get started, we headed outside the airport to the bus and shuttle stop to catch our ride to the hotel. The shuttle for the Hyatt Regency O’Hare pulled up, and other eager conference attendees boarded with the usual sounds, except for one. Erin, part of our team and much more a stickler for detail than I am, asked the driver, “Hey, is this the Hyatt you are taking us to?” The driver looked at the address she was presenting and said, “No, that is the other Hyatt.” The other Hyatt? I was thinking, “How many Hyatts can Rosemont hold?” Well, what a surprise to find out that I had booked rooms at the wrong Hyatt. I had made my first mistake of the conference, and I have not even left the airport yet. Now, it was not as bad as it seemed. The other Hyatt was less than a mile away, but it was still the wrong one, and when I asked if we could walk, I was told the mile was more like Da Nang. Cab escorts for us then.

Making a split decision at the airport, I said, “Take us to the right Hyatt” because I had to set up the WebWorks booth, and let’s face it, I was still excited about being at Summit 2012. So, we set up the booth and met our channel partner, Georg Eck from SQUIDDS. Something you have to keep in mind is we had tickets for the 1:30 game at Wrigley Field. It was the Chicago White Sox visiting the Chicago Cubs, and I didn’t care if Santa had become a mutant and I had to get him the antidote to save Christmas, I was going to the Sox v. Cubs game first.

This finally tuned WebWorks team set our booth up in record time. Then we headed to our “wrong” hotel to check in and drop off our bags, and then finally on to Wrigley Field. Now STC was the reason for the trip, and I was buzzing with excitement after setting up Booth 208, but back in February, Jack Newman told me that seeing a game at Wrigley Field was on his bucket list. Jack has been with Quadralay for about 4 years now, and he is a big part of the WebWorks family. When your family comes to you with a request, well, you can’t refuse. So my family and I made it happen (shouts out to Erin and Georg). The game was legendary. The visiting White Sox beat the Cubs 6 to nothing. We have pics of the family in front of that iconic Wrigley Field sign. If I had to do it over, I would make the same decision and the same mistakes, because that perfect game for the Sox turned out to be the perfect game for us. Jack crossed an entry off his bucket list, and our channel partner for Germany witnessed his first American baseball game at Wrigley Field, Chicago v. Chicago.

When I thought the day could not get any better, we headed back to the conference in preparation for the Welcome Reception and Expo Open. Seven p.m. came around, and the doors opened to the hall with the music and chatter buzzing. I was excited before, but as my old and new friends started pouring in, I just got happy. Manning the Quadralay booth with pride as always, and with the new release of 2012.1, I had a lot of bragging points, but most of the conversations were centered around procedure and our sense of purpose. I can see now that when I told myself back in Rosemont that anybody, at anytime, anywhere can open a help documentation set and do what they were born to do, I was right­, and not only can it happen, but it has to and will.

Finally, with the reception over, Georg, Jack, Erin, and I settled down for the evening meal. Georg and I talked about what he would like SQUIDDs to get out of the conference. Georg is an expert on work flow. He told me that often, Tecom Workflow does not align with business strategy. He told me about how in Germany, Tecom Communicators are experts on procedure, but they often are kept in the dark about overall business strategy. I talked to him about his experience, and we shared our vision. After hours of conversation, Georg sat back, smiled, and said, “Christopher, you realize this is bigger than the both of us,” and I said, “Georg, if it wasn’t, we would not be interested.”