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Subject:Re: Value of Techwriters From:Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM> Date:Sun, 4 Jun 1995 13:08:47 PDT
I think a lot of us are grabbing this monster by the wrong end. Design
engineers often have no real concept of what Sales, Marketing, and
Manufacturing are for -- they lack the twin concepts of "customer" and
"business." Ask them to describe what a product marketer or a salesman
does during the course of an average day, and you'll see what I mean.
(Sure, some engineers have been around and know the score. But many
don't.)
You can't expect a person who lacks a basic understanding of the customer-
oriented parts of a business to have more than a glimmer of understanding
when it comes to a customer-oriented task like Technical Writing.
When engineers come into contact with customers, they begin to understand.
If they get interested in the concept of running their own business,
they also start figuring these things out. But, usually, they aren't
paying enough attention to non-engineering matters to put the pieces
together. Instead, people from Sales and Marketing (or maybe Engineering
management) give them pep talks about the effect of tech docs (or whatever)
on specific customers they're trying to get an order from. This is
concrete enough to work, usually. Eventually, the engineers accept the
tech docs (or whatever) as a necessary part of the product.
But expecting non-writers to really UNDERSTAND the value of technical
writers is a little much -- how many of us really appreciate the value
of our company's accountants?
It's possible to lobby and recruit engineers into our camp, and this
should be done whenever possible. Similarly, Sales and Marketing should
always be fishing for ways to get engineers involved with customers,
so they can see that there's a business side of the business, and not
just the existential joy of engineering. For technical writers, it's
probably best to be cuddled up with Marketing (and to a lesser extent,
Sales) on the corporate org. chart. THEY are the departments that
understand the relationship between documentation and income.
-- Robert
Robert Plamondon * Writer * robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (408) 321-8771
4271 North First Street, #106 * San Jose * California * 95134-1215
"Life is like an analogy."
