Re: Getting moved from engineering to marketing

[Peter Kleczka <pkleczka -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

Beth

Seems to be the trend in this area.  I attended
a meeting recently that included documentation
specialists from five companies. Most reported
that they were under a marketing function, or
closely tied to one.  Its been a possibility
that I could get pulled into marketing writing
as well where I work.  I'm not thrilled about
the prospect of being taken out of IT or
writing "fluff".

I also believe that documentation is a very
important part of the software product.  And
I'm not too pleased when I have less contact
than I'd like with the software SME's.

Since technical writing often involves steeper
learning curves than something less technical
(e.g. marketing), it takes longer to catch up
after a period of absence from the subject
matter. Perhaps you could build this factor
into your project plan -- For every hour your
boss has you in marketing meetings you'll have
to extend three hours into your technical
projects.  And of course the more projects you
have the steeper the factor becomes.

If your project plan does not allow for such
revisions, then you'll probably have to rush the
documentation through to production because
you have had to spend so much time in those
darn fluffy marketing meetings. Because you
are rushing to meet your schedule it might
introduce errors into the documentation which
will increase costs in support calls.

Now if you only had enough time to plug this
all into a spreadsheet you could convince the
big boss that he should leave you to tech pubs
and hire someonelse to do the marketing writing.

In short (well I guess not so short since I've
raved on and on) I feel your pain! :)

My solution is to ride it out and look for
whatever oportunities might arise as a result
of the resturcturing around me -- and take
solice in the fact that the job market is good.

Maybe that wasn't too helpful.  Oh well, I guess
I guess I just had to "vent"

Pete (knp -at- execpc -dot- com)



--- Beth Kane <Kane -at- VENTANA -dot- COM> wrote:
> (Maybe there's a trend toward
> marketing in mid-1999 I
> didn't know about!)
[snip...]
> Well, now there's
> new leadership, a total
> reorg -- and docs has been put into the marketing
> dept. I feel ripped off.
[snip]
> It chaps my hide not to be part of the eng. dept. I
> think tech docs are an
> integral part of the product itself -- not just
> another piece of
> "collateral," as my new big boss thinks it is.
[snip]
> Meanwhile, engineering is
> having its own meetings,
> and I'm losing touch with the people I need to be
> closest to.
>
> Do you have any advice for me?
>
> Thanks very much,
> Beth Kane
> kane -at- ventana -dot- com

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