Great Technical Writing: How Small Companies Can Create Great User Documents

Overview

Your product needs User Documentation (manuals, instructions, etc), but your small company (20 to 100 employees) has no in-house staff to create that documentation. This article describes how to select and enable your “non-writer” employees to create Great User Documentation.

You NEED Great User Documents

Your Product needs Great User Documents (Instruction Manuals, User Guides, Reference Manuals, Instruction Sheets, etc. ):

. Undocumented features become expensive flaws 
. All products have shortcomings; Great User Documents help your Users around these problems 
. Providing information beyond the minimum helps reduce technical support costs

Your Users deserve Great User Documents:

. To eliminate jumps in the documentation that the User cannot follow 
. To understand what the product will do and how it performs 
. To provide tips and knowledge to provide the best possible User experience

Great User Documentation will reduce support costs, increase User satisfaction, and increase your profit (fewer returns and more positive recommendations).

But You Have No Writing Staff

Yes you do! If you can find employees who are between projects, or want to take on additional responsibilities and acquire new skills, then these can be your writing staff.

However, you may be considering hiring an outside freelance writer. Perhaps that is a good choice. However, let me list some benefits of using in-house non-writers over freelance writers:

. Experience with the company (culture, management, style, physical plant) 
. Knowledge of the product, market, users 
. They may know the members of the design and development teams 
. Already set up with resources in your company (desk, phone, access to information resources) 
. Will be a resource you can use to upgrade or create new documentation 
. Will effectively employ someone who is between projects

Selecting Who Will Write

Ask your staff if they would like to write the User Document for a particular product:

. If you have any volunteers, then these are the employees you should consider to become your writers. 
. If you do not have any volunteers, then you might have to resort to coercion. Perhaps explain the benefits of writing versus other less-attractive busywork (or even temporary layoffs). 
. If necessary, assign someone or a group to the writing task.

Convincing Your New Writers

. Tell them that you will provide support, training, and time to do the writing. Make sure that you keep your promises. 
. Tell them that writing skills would benefit their career (communication skills are usually a benefit) 
. Variety will make their work more interesting 
. You will try to make this as no-risk as possible 
. Tell them that the Great User Document that they produce will benefit the product and the company (and them).

If they have other objections to the writing assignment, evaluate their objections, and determine if you have a reasonable argument to overcome their objections. If not, perhaps you had better find someone else for the writing project.

You Can Enable Non-Writers to Write

Most of your employees who have made it through an education system, and have been hired by your company, can probably write. They may be fearful of writing. I believe that if they can think clearly and explain something verbally to someone sitting next to them, then they can write Great User Documents.

To just thrust a writing assignment on the non-writer is unfair and will prove to be unproductive. You need to support the new writer.

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