RE: help

Subject: RE: help
From: "Bill Lawrence" <scribe -at- matrixplus -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 09:56:29 -0400




Our customer base is media sales folk and their management, and they
simply will not read documentation. Not that I don't create the
occasional manual for our "power users," but most of what I do is:

Provide materials for the training group (our customers will sit through
training). Training, by the way, provides revenue.

Provide FAQ's for the tech support knowledge base. Since support and
maintenance provides revenue, this is also a "win."

Document our business logic and code. While this doesn't provide direct
revenue, it helps cut development time and costs.

Management (and I think rightly) sees end user documentation for our
market as a waste of resources. Maybe, instead of banging your head
against the wall in attempts to get end users to read your stuff, you'd
be better off studying how your end users are currently getting that
information and work on helping that existing process. You might even
find ways to enhance revenue or at least cut expenses in the process.

Bill Lawrence

Senior Technical Writer
Matrix Solutions


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References:
help: From: Lucero, Peggy A. NMIMC Contractor

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