If you pack whole wheat bread with natural peanut butter and an apple for your kids’ school lunch when everyone else has Fluffernutters on white, your kids are probably not going to be too happy when they open their lunchboxes. Same goes for your technical writing projects. You want people to read and use your documents. But like that sandwich, it’s going to end up in the trash if you don’t give them what they want and how they want it.

I am not advocating Fluffernutter sandwiches for lunch every day (or any day, for that matter). But you’ve got to find something that your kid will be happy to eat, just like you’ve got to find the right documentation and output that your user will be happy to use. Yes, happy to use! You thought you’d be satisfied if your users would just read the manual. I’m going a step further and suggest that they should not only read it, but read it happily.

Before you delve into any new documentation project, get to know your users. Who are they? What is their native language? Do they use laptops or desktops or tablets or smart phones? And what will they be using 6 months from now? According to a recent survey, "nearly three quarters of U.S. small and medium businesses with fewer than1000 employees have plans to purchase tablets over the next 12 months." And for larger companies, the percentage is even higher. Is your documentation going to be ready? Does your single sourcing tool support ePub outputs? Are your PDFs (if you still create them) optimized for online or tablet viewing?

I recently had a conversation with someone about how the profession of technical writing, which was practically unheard of 20+ years ago, has grown and blossomed in recent years and will only continue to grow. Why? Because years ago, everyone knew how to use a telephone - just plug into the jack and dial. There were hardly any consumer electronic devices that were not self explanatory. Remember your first microwave? Here is a picture of the one I grew up with:

(Hey, I just realized the keypad looks remarkably similar to the touch screen on my new Samsung Galaxy phone!)

Your old microwave probably had a start button and a dial or selection option to set the time. If it was really advanced, you might have had the option to select your power as well. But it definitely did not have a popcorn button, frozen entrée button, or delayed start and auto-cook options. My first microwave’s instructions could have easily been written by the temp answering the phones. But documentation for today’s and tomorrow's consumer products and enterprise technologies require an understanding and knowledge not only of “how stuff works” but also why.  Here's Corning's idea of what your future will look like: 

I arrived happily in my office this morning, ready to take on the day.  But then the phone rang and I received a most disturbing message: hurry up, produce more pages and don’t worry about the quality. This was a technical writer’s worst nightmare! We’ve been staying up late, working overtime documenting this very cool technology, and now all that work seems to have been for naught. The book will be just shoved into a drawer, never to see the light of day. No user will ever flip through its pages, no programmer will consult its coded diagrams. Will its cellophane wrapper ever even be removed? (Sigh…)

I beg you to rethink the whole purpose of expending precious resources to create useless content. But if for some reason you decide that you simply must create documentation that you have no intention of using or sharing, please don’t tell us. It just breaks our little technical writing hearts.

Here are some of my lessons learned in 2010...

Don’t Panic – Life is full of ups and downs. Come to think of it, I also learned this in 2009 and 2008, but it is a hard lesson to learn. (Hopefully, you won’t see this on my list again next year!)

No Matter What, Stick to Your Guns and Beliefs - Even if everyone else in your industry plays dirty, stay clean (unless of course, you are my 3.5 year old twins and love the sandbox).

All Nighters Don’t Pay - Any more than one all night work-a-thon in a year is too many. (I learned this before too, but as I get older it becomes more and more clear!)

Documentation Emergencies Don’t Exist - There is no such thing as a documentation emergency. Really, there isn’t. No one will die without whatever you are working on. They are not using that content to save a life right now. So go get yourself a life and get outside and get some vitamin D and be happy.

You Have to Spend Money to Make Money - It really pays to invest more in the right people to do the job from the get-go. Spending a little extra can get you a better writer who will bring real value to your organization.

Pay it Forward - Reward your employees and share the wealth in any way you can. People who feel appreciated and are rewarded for their efforts will generally be happier, more productive and dedicated employees.

If you “know” something to be true, why on earth would you question it? Because sometimes the things we know to be tried and true turn out not to be. Here’s a really good example:  you “know” that kids need a summer vacation so they can take a breather and – of course – go to camp! But historically, kids were given a break to do neither of these things, but rather because they were needed around the farm to help out with the summer harvest. This was fine when the majority of the world was working the land, but in the 21st century, we need a new paradigm. Today, more and more charter schools are reporting success with year-round schooling that includes shorter breaks throughout the year. The key to success here is to constantly be questioning, reevaluating and throwing out old assumptions. 

The same applies to technical writing. Why are we still producing PDFs and even 1600 page printed manuals in volumes when we know that today’s users learn best from online help, wikis, videos and graphics? We need to present information in the way that people will use it, absorb it and remember it. This Jay Leno video illustrates perfectly what happens when you present material the wrong way to your target audience:

Do you really think these people were never taught where the Panama Canal is? Or what countries share a border with the U.S.? Of course they were! But not in a way that they were able to absorb and then recall the information. Our challenge in 2011 and beyond is to figure it out and implement it for our end users before our documents are as irrelevant as an “underwater bridge.”

Is efficiency a dirty word in your company? If so, it’s time to start cleaning up. Highly driven and highly efficient workers are too-often told to slow down and stop working so hard. This may sound like a crazy idea, but it happens more often than you can imagine (and my friend Rose Zadik can back me up here).

Some managers explain that a too-efficient writer will destroy the morale of a team by making the others look bad. They claim that one superstar standout will raise the bar, skew the metrics and create undue and unnecessary pressure on the team. And it goes without saying that the boss is probably getting worried that his eager beaver may be out for his job.

If you find yourself managing one or more of these employees, consider yourself lucky to have found such motivated and intelligent workers. Manage them right and they can be your best assets. But manage them wrong and they will either find a new job or take yours. Harness their strengths, challenge them with higher level, more complex assignments. Give them opportunities to learn and master new skills and technologies. Imagine a sprinter swimming in the slow lane…he’ll have a less satisfying workout and probably annoy the slow swimmers around him. But in the fast lane with other competitive swimmers, he’ll rise to new levels of accomplishment without kicking anyone in the face. It’s no different for your employees.

I promise you that the ROI from your overachiever will be well worth the investment.

I would like to take this opportunity to also wish a heartfelt Mazal Tov to Rose on her upcoming move to lead the doc department at Discretix. She is one lady who really knows how to clean up a lack of efficiency mess!

Here are my top ten eleven management DO’s and DON'Ts. Let's start with the DOs:

1. Do keep in mind the old Yiddish proverb “Man plans, God laughs.” But you had better plan anyway. And make sure you have a contingency plan so the joke won’t be on you.

2. Do your homework, make offsite backups and don’t procrastinate…and then you won’t need to call us for help at 3AM from India because your laptop got stolen and you have no files for your customer delivery tomorrow. (Yeah, you. You know who you are.)

3. Do follow the rules of my first grade teacher:  Finish what you start and ask for help when you need it.

4. Do step up to the plate. In a place where there are no men, be the man (or woman). But whatever you do, check your attitude at the door and don’t let your ego get carried away.

5. Do put the Green Jello Theory into practice:  Make everyone an owner, not just a participant.

And now for the DON'Ts...

6. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. 

7. Don’t make people work on the weekends. Five-day work weeks make for happier employees.

8. Don’t try something new on opening night. When I was in drama club, the rule was “Be on time, know your lines, and don’t bump into the furniture.” The time to deploy a single-sourcing solution or move to new tool is not in the middle of a GA schedule.

As a manager of more than 35 employees and mom of 3-year-old-twins, making time for myself is always a challenge. Making time for others is even harder – but ever so important. I love my job and take my role as a service provider very seriously. But last night, when I got the 11 PM email from a customer who urgently needs 400 pages of PDFs and Helps for an entirely new release within the week, I didn’t have to take a long pause before giving my answer.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be swimming the Kinneret to raise money for a wonderful charity called Sadnat Shiluv. I got sponsors, I got in the pool and I am ready. A few years ago, I probably would have cancelled my participation in the swim to make sure this project got off the ground. Instead, I am going to trust the amazing team of writers and support staff I have put in place and go swimming instead. I don’t have to sacrifice my personal goal…the work will get done and we’ll make the deadline. We always do.

It is so important to recognize that, like you, your employees are people who have families, struggles, relationships, needs, aspirations and goals. Don’t force yourself or your employees to choose between personal goals and work deadlines. They can co-exist if you build and foster the right working environment to support it. It really is win-win for everyone.

Drumroll please...Star Search results are in. Besides a few worthy standouts, the quality of respondents was underwhelming, to say the least. So without further ado, here are a few friendly pointers for getting your technical writing CV noticed instead of being sent directly to the recycling bin. To those of you who recognize yourselves in one or more of the examples below, no need to thank us for the free tips:

Save your CV as a PDF or as a well-formatted Word Document. And by all means, pay attention to the file name! We really don’t need or want to know which version this is or when you revised it. If your name is Joe Smith, then save your CV as Joe Smith CV or even Joe Smith Technical Writing CV. But whatever you do, do NOT name it “Resume IT-Tech Update 10-07 Rev IL2b-1” It may make sense to you, but to a hiring manager it simply looks ridiculous.

I just hung up the phone with the VP of R&D from a new, cutting-edge startup. They need a technical writer to produce a Solution Guide for a complex HW/SW product. I quoted him a realistic price for getting the job done. He paused, said it was way more than they were expecting to pay, and let me know he’d get back to me after checking into other options. I’m sure he will check around and find lots of unemployed writers to do the job “cheaper.” But I hope I made it clear to him that cheaper in the short run is almost never cheaper in the long run, especially when it comes to producing quality technical documentation that customers want to read.

A “cheaper” technical writer probably has a degree in a non-technical field. He may have successfully completed a technical writing course or a 3 or 4 month technical writing internship and is hopefully even a decent writer with native English. But is he actually technical? Will he waste valuable and expensive R&D time by needing to be taught the ins and outs of the technology, starting with the basics? Will he have ever before seen – let alone used – a similar product in a professional setting? Can he really put himself in the place of the end user in order to most effectively meet his needs? Will he be able to review the product and his documentation for technical inaccuracies as well as grammatical and layout errors?