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By Meredith Kinder, STC Associate Fellow
A few weeks ago, I helped create a document that presented results from a $360,000 Proof of Concept (POC) project. The document illustrated that our product can do what the customer wants it to do.
I assigned each team member a section of the outline. "Straightforward enough." I thought, "Subject matter experts (SMEs) Albert, Mark, Sarah and Satish will create content for one or more sections. Another SME, Jesse, will review the entire document and provide feedback. I will stitch the sections together, give it all one 'voice,' edit, and ensure formatting adheres to our division template and company standards."
At our hot little fingertips was Microsoft SharePoint's "multiple authors" feature, which enables more than one person to edit a document simultaneously. "Perfect!" I thought. "Everyone can make their changes and then I'll swoop in and pull it all together. We'll knock this out in no time!" But alas, Sarah downloaded the document and worked on it offline while Albert and Mark worked on it "live" on SharePoint. Satish wrote his content in an email and sent it to me, and Mark created his own separate Microsoft Word document and sent it to me via email.
I knew that I could not badger them about how they had not used SharePoint the way I had asked them to use it. The important thing was that they keep the content and revisions coming. Even if that meant that I received it in different pieces via different mediums, I had to keep my SMEs writing. If I asked them to create content in a way that they were uncomfortable or unfamiliar with, it would slow us down and we'd miss the deadline.
Staying flexible often adds tedious work for technical writers and editors, and it sometimes means foregoing helpful technology (such as the multiple authors feature on SharePoint or Comments and Track Changes in Word). But staying flexible often keeps SMEs comfortable and churning out content without being distracted by HOW they provide it. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.
Meredith can be reached at meredith dot kinder at sas dot com.
Meredith Kinder
I assigned each team member a section of the outline. "Straightforward enough." I thought, "Subject matter experts (SMEs) Albert, Mark, Sarah and Satish will create content for one or more sections. Another SME, Jesse, will review the entire document and provide feedback. I will stitch the sections together, give it all one 'voice,' edit, and ensure formatting adheres to our division template and company standards."
At our hot little fingertips was Microsoft SharePoint's "multiple authors" feature, which enables more than one person to edit a document simultaneously. "Perfect!" I thought. "Everyone can make their changes and then I'll swoop in and pull it all together. We'll knock this out in no time!" But alas, Sarah downloaded the document and worked on it offline while Albert and Mark worked on it "live" on SharePoint. Satish wrote his content in an email and sent it to me, and Mark created his own separate Microsoft Word document and sent it to me via email.
If I asked them to create content in a way that they were uncomfortable or unfamiliar with, it would slow us down and we'd miss the deadline.
I knew that I could not badger them about how they had not used SharePoint the way I had asked them to use it. The important thing was that they keep the content and revisions coming. Even if that meant that I received it in different pieces via different mediums, I had to keep my SMEs writing. If I asked them to create content in a way that they were uncomfortable or unfamiliar with, it would slow us down and we'd miss the deadline.
Staying flexible often adds tedious work for technical writers and editors, and it sometimes means foregoing helpful technology (such as the multiple authors feature on SharePoint or Comments and Track Changes in Word). But staying flexible often keeps SMEs comfortable and churning out content without being distracted by HOW they provide it. Sometimes you just gotta roll with it.
Meredith can be reached at meredith dot kinder at sas dot com.
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