Re: Guess what: we suck!

["Mike Starr" <mikestarr-techwr-l -at- writestarr -dot- com>]

But did you then document those "custom" functions?

What you're talking about is a business decision not to support specific 
functionality even though it's actually built into the product. What I'm 
talking about are functions that are supported but not documented... 
features that are fully functional and exposed to the users. To me, it's a 
shabby business practice to incorporate features into a product with the 
intention that some segment of the user community will use them and then not 
provide documentation of those features.

Mike
--
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2007 1:36 AM
Subject: Re: Guess what: we suck!

>I don't consider that a problem at all, as long as *someone*
> is doing it.  Perhaps it's the manager in me talking rather
> than the "technical communicator," but what information
> should be provided to the user is whatever information
> best supports the company's business plan for the product.
> In some cases, that might mean every possible feature
> and function, in others it might mean the 10 most
> commonly performed functions and nothing else.
>
> One of the most successful products I ever worked on
> could perform about 50 different functions.  Marketing
> determined that 90% of our potential customers would
> be using about dozen of these functions, so we fully
> documented those and nothing else.  Anyone who
> looked at the product and deduced that there were
> additional capabilites would call in to ask about them
> and be told that the undocumented functions were "not
> supported," then would be referred to Product Support
> for a quotation on a custom option.  In the end we made
> as much on the customs as we did on the initial sales
> of the base product.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng 

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