Explore NonTraditional Career Paths

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Explore Non-Traditional Career Paths
Ways you can direct your career development

• Karen L. BachmannThe Technical Resource
  Connection, Inc.
• Rob HouserUser First Services, Inc.

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Core Communication Skills

• Gathering information about users
• Researching information
• Distilling research to only the required
  information
• Organizing information
• Conveying information, regardless of media or
  type of communication

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Finding New Areas

• Areas where information is communicated to users
• Places where users ask for more information
• Products with which users interact
• New developments in the industry related to
  communication

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Some Areas to Consider

• Technical Marketing
• Interface Design
• Training
• Functional Testing

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Technical Marketing

• Information products that help sell the product
• Informing decision makers
• Getting customers excited about the product
• Providing scenarios of use
• Usually done by sales and marketing in large
  companies, but in small companies everybody helps
  sell the product

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Technical Marketing

• Organizing information around customer questions
  and concerns
• Persuading customers that your product meets
  their needs and is of high quality
• Designing eye-catching graphics and layouts
• Conducting demonstrations and making
  presentations at trade shows

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Technical Marketing

• Technical fact sheets that highlight features of
  the product
• Demos of product functionality
• Brochures, flyers, and postcards that announce
  product events
• Web sites that hype the company and the product
• Trade show booths and promotional items

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Interface Design

• The art and science of creating effective,
  intuitive communication between the software and
  the intended users

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Interface Design

• Develop a user profile and task analysis
• Learn about the domain the users work in
• Identify and emphasize essential tasks
• Map the flow of each screen and between screens
  to reflect the actual tasks
• Identifying the most informative terminology,
  graphics, and relationships between screen
  elements

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Interface Design

• The interface
• User analysis
• Task analysis
• Design requirements (in conjunction with
  functional and system requirements)
• Interface style guide
• Usability validation plan and scenarios

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Training

• Presenting information to users so they can learn
  to use the product effectively
• Sometimes takes place as the users are doing the
  job sometimes in classroom
• Usually involves learning objectives, review,
  practice, and evaluation
• Often conducted by a separate group of people
  with different skill

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Training

• Conducting a needs analysis and task analysis
• Researching, organizing, and conveying relevant
  information
• Illustrating processes, workflow, and concepts
• Delivering oral presentations

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Training

• Materials for classroom training
• Classroom training delivery
• Print and online tutorials
• Computer-based training
• Web-based training
• Performance coaching (agents)

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Functional Testing

• Evaluating whether the final product performs all
  expected tasks completely

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Functional Testing

• Have a solid understanding of users so you can
  identify potential problem areas
• Know what the purpose of the product is and what
  needs it must meet
• Use the product in all of the ways it is intended
  to be used following a real-world scenario
• Capture detailed information about where the
  product fails to meet the requirements

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Functional Testing

• Trouble reports in a database or configuration
  management tool
• An effective final product

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Benefits of New Roles

• Increasing your value (and your job security) to
  the company
• Demonstrating the importance of technical
  communication to your company
• Increasing your salary
• Advancing your professional development

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Risks

• Increased workload
• Reduced quality of current deliverables
• Additional training
• Skeptical co-workers and employers
• Outside your job description

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Strategies

• Do your homework prepare for the role
• What skills the new role entails
• What the role produces
• How you qualify and what you need
• Identify a current need
• Find an advocate
• Find a mentor

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Strategies

• Inform your boss about what youre doing
• Include your new tasks into your annual
  performance objectives
• Document what youre doing successes and
  failures
• Be patient but persistent

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Questions
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Thanks!

• Rob rob_at_userfirst.net

• Karenkarenb_at_trcinc.com