Survival of the Fittest.

1
Survival of the Fittest.

• Raji Santhanam
• Manager - Software Operations
• VeriFone - A Division of Hewlett-Packard Company

2
Survival Summary

• Technical Communicator Defined
• Why Change?
• Whats my Role?
• Changing markets
• And Finally...

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Technical Communicator Defined

• Who are Technical Communicators?
• Aka...
• What do they do?
• What dont they do?

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Who are Technical Communicators?

• Communicates technical information on products
  and services to a targeted audience.
• Technical writing is interpreting.Technical
  writers translate and interpret the thoughts and
  ideas of engineers, programmers and marketing
  managers. We translate their complex concepts and
  procedures into simple English we interpret the
  complex.

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Aka...

• Technical writer
• Information designers
• Information engineers
• Documentation specialist
• Information developer

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What do they do?

• Create
• manuals
• online help
• EPSS
• marketing collaterals
• tutorials, training material

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What do they do?

• In 1994, Peat Marwick conducted a telephone
  survey of 300 companies in Winnipeg, Canada, to
  explore their needs and attitudes towards
  technical communication. All 300 companies
  claimed to require technical communication
  services
• 34 have produced online documentation
• 40 have produced software manuals
• 44 have produced multimedia documentation
• 59 have produced technical reports
• 60 have produced product documentation
• 66 have produced training guides
• 70 have produced policies and procedures
• 72 have produced brochures

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What do they do?

• Continued - Peat Marwick Survey...
• 74 of respondents said that good documentation
  tends to lower their servicing costs
• 83. said that quality documentation contributes
  to the companys profitability
• 91 said that a quality document adds value to
  the product or service of their company
• 10 most important skills for technical
  communicators
• 1. Interpersonal 6. Creativity
• 2. Problem-solving 7. Logic
• 3. Organization 8. Clarity of thought
• 4. Flexibility 9. Quick learner
• 5. Eye for detail 10. Time management

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What do they do?

• 10 most common tasks performed by technical
  communicators
• 1. Writing
• 2. Stylistic editing
• 3. Substantive editing
• 4. Design and layout
• 5. Research
• 6. Interviewing
• 7. Project management
• 8. Formatting
• 9. Audience analysis
• 10. Requirements analysis

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What dont they do?

• Test users for effectiveness
• Research markets and users before project
  commences
• Conduct technical training
• Understand product internals

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Survival Summary

• Technical Communicator Defined
• Why Change?
• Whats my Role?
• Changing markets
• And Finally...

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Why Change?

• Demands of the Information Age
• Traditional vs new trends
• eCommerce Demands

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Demands of the Information Age

• 100 million interconnected computers encompassing
  users from all walks of life
• Static text-based medium understandable by few to
  graphically rich, interactive medium serving a
  fast growing global commercial market
• Email, global resources of libraries,
  corporations and media, virtual communities,
  corporate intranets
• Revenue for the Internet companies through
  ecommerce
• Information is money, key to business
• Information overkill vs captive user attention
• Focussed information
• Inbuilt Intuitive deliverables
• Mandatory database-backended web pages as opposed
  to existing stockpiling of static HTML web pages

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Traditional Vs New trends

• Traditional
• Print output
• Market defined
• Customer base predictable
• Tools
• Cost

• Newbie
• Print is old
• eCommerce market undefined, unpredictable,
  changing
• Seamless customer
• Diminishing display real estate

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eCommerce Demands

• eCommerce today
• Content management
• Web management
• Customer expectation management
• The eCommunicator

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eCommerce today

• Cyber shopping
• eTailing
• eTrade and brokering
• Portals
• Information and advertising
• Empowered customers
• Content targeted to large audience
• Persuasive selling

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eCommerce today

• Most visited web properties
• Reach
• AOL websites 54.5
• Microsoft sites 48.4
• Yahoo 48.2
• Lycos 46.5
• Geocities 33.4 Reach - of consumers who
  visited
• Netscape 30.9 the site at least once during
  the month
• The Excite Network 29.2
• Walt Disney Co. online 23.9
• Infoseek 22.1
• Bluemountainarts 21.7
• Amazon 16.1
• ZDNet sites 12.6
• eBay 9.9

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Content Management

• A combination of well-defined roles, formal
  processes, and supporting systems architecture
  that helps firms contribute, collaborate on, and
  control page elements such as text, graphics,
  multimedia, and applets.

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Content Management

• Death by a thousand cuts
• Bring order to content
• Contribute Site assets
• Collaborate across organizations
• Control delivery

20

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Web Management

• Nonstop ecommerce with 99.99 uptime
• Webcasting events
• Higher bandwidth with 3-D product shots
• Global access, with localization
• Storage requirements increase by a factor of 10
  over the next 2 years - driving up data server
  hardware costs by 5 times
• Leading edge customer service accompanied by
  guided selling

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Tools used to Manage Web content
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The eCommunicator

• eCommerce today
• Content management
• Web management
• Customer expectation management

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Survival Summary

• Technical Communicator Defined
• Why Change?
• Whats my Role?
• Changing markets
• And Finally...

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Whats my Role?

• Portfolio vs Plateau careers
• Content Management
• Managing Customer expectation

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Portfolio Careers

• Plateau career
• climb the organization ladder
• promoted on years, experience, current value-add
  to company
• face extinction!

• Portfolio career
• develop a range of skills
• apply skills to a series of jobs
• cross-disciplinary profile
• writing, editing, graphic design layout, SM
  expert, Tool expert, project management, product
  design, usability testing, marketing research

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Content Management

• Structuring work
• Understanding the business needs
• Understanding the customer base
• Providing avenues to instruct and troubleshoot
  customers
• Using standards and processes for web management
• Database repository and shared access

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Managing Customer Expectations

• Web sites with assistance/customer service
• Transaction sites (storefronts)
• Pure plays
• Brick--mortar
• Catalogers
• Personal info as negotiating tool
• Switching brand
• Informed impulse buying

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Survival Summary

• Technical Communicator Defined
• Why Change?
• Whats my Role?
• Changing markets
• And Finally...

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Changing Markets

• Self publishing
• Reduced real estate for information screening
• Managing the empowered customer
• Technical wizardry
• Understanding the customer, market and business
  to exploit it within budget

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Survival Summary

• Technical Communicator Defined
• Why Change?
• Whats my Role?
• Changing markets
• And Finally...

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And Finally...

• People dont buy technology. They buy what it can
  do for them.
• Brevity is the soul of Technical Communication.
  Thank God for Hyperlinks!