The Technical Writer's Existential Plight

After two weeks of plague, I have dragged myself from the miry depths of sickness to produce a new article. While recovering, a philosophical quandary took a firm lodging within my brain. previous post, the heroic acts of writers often go unsung in the corporate world. An area where this phenomenon is of particular concern is among the ranks of technical writers.
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One of the prevailing trends of late in this particular corner of the writing world is a policy of erasure. Technical documents should be toneless, impersonal, instructions absent personality. For instance, a blog post I read recently suggested that some of the policies taking hold within the industry are causing the proliferation of an "assembly line" approach that attempts to remove writers from the equation whenever possible. What could cause such a promotion of subalternity? The post's author suggests that it is something initially meant to assist technical writers: the topic authoring system.

To give a two-bit summary, topic authoring and more technological implementations of it, such as DITA, are methods for creating content repositories that allow for the easy reuse of pieces of written information, dubbed topics. These organizational systems make it so that there is a reduction in the redundancy of content since writers can simply pull in information that has already been created. Sounds great, right? Well, in theory, yes, but as I've indicated, there are drawbacks as well.

Under the law of topic authoring, no longer are writers to be concerned with narrative. Instead, each snippet of information should be self-contained and able to stand alone so that any document can incorporate it with ease. This, when implemented in a haphazard way, causes chaotic guides cobbled together from myriad sources that vary in tone, structure, and approach. For this reason the holy, impersonal statutes delineate certain varieties of topic that prescribe unyielding templates for information types, such as procedures, explanations, and references.

You may ask why I take issue with this. To put it in a phrase, these standards promote absolutism. They strive for a unified whole that, through the uncertainty of language, is rendered always already incomplete (see my electronic music article for more on this). Okay, great, but what's the alternative? If you'll permit me, I've got a few ideas.

First of all, we need to cease the overdefinition and erasure of the writer within and from the writing process. Even the STC, one of the preeminent organizations in the technical writing field, seeks to alter their title away from "technical writing" to "technical communication." In principle, this seems broader, but in actuality it removes the agency of the writer. The act is no longer in their hands. They are now simply cogs in a great, inexorable machine that churns out instructions. Instead, I think writers should embrace the power their name represents. They are the directors of language's play. If we place the same creative value on technical writers that we do on other writing professionals, such as copywriters, the results might be surprising.

Once this initial shift in philosophical perspective happens, a more effective harmonization between technical writers and other professional divisions can be established. The breaking down of these artificial walls will allow a dialog across the many corporate areas dealing with the written word. When the lines of communication are flowing, synchronicities in thought can be achieved that will improve company-wide branding and stylistic recognition.

Only one key realization is needed to bring this to fruition: technical writers are marketers too. Their words contribute as much to the success of a corporate endeavor as front end advertising processes do. If customers have a unique experience even when looking for solutions to difficulties with a product, they will have an even more vivid recognition of specific brands and will be more likely to return for more service. Remove status, remove fear, leave only the words. Then, we can understand value beyond what reductive structures define for us.

The Human Element: Ultimate Business Intelligence Differentiator

The beginning of this week was quite exciting for me. I accepted a job offer to work at the Ironside Group and managed to pick away further at pieces of my novel. While on the surface these events may seem to have no correlation, the combination of the two got me thinking. As you know, my prevailing philosophical tendency, as I elaborated on in the context of electronic music not long ago, is to pursue avenues that increase connection and proliferate values of communication. What's interesting is that the company that I just joined espouses these same values and puts them into practice to create a cutting edge approach to business intelligence, something else I've spoken about in a previous article.

Ironside's bread and butter is technology consulting, specifically around IBM's suite of business intelligence products, such as Cognos. They book professional services engagements with companies across the US, helping these business partners to implement and learn about how the products that Ironside supports can improve their knowledge of and control over their infrastructure. In addition to helping with planning, installation, and setup, Ironside also offers training services that enlighten clients to the vagaries of these oft-complex technological solutions. This, my friends, is where things get interesting.

As I've said before, it's not only a matter of providing a service, it's also about providing the opportunity for people to learn about and implement that solution. You may have already asked how it is that a company like Ironside can survive on the technology of another company, and this opportunity is the space in which the answer lies. The expansive vision of Ironside stems from the company's ability to take IBM's technology and run with it. These consultants and trainers innovate on and bring their own perspective to the products, pushing the envelope of the customer's experience and addressing the individual needs of their unique business infrastructures.

Would you look at that. It came back to a Deconstructionist principle again. I'm sure you're all making shocked faces. What makes Ironside innovative? It's their ability to take into account the myriad perspectives floating around in our vast universe, coming into contact with as many as possible to broaden their scope and create the most impactful ideas possible. This human element is their differentiator. No more is simple reliance on the cold, binarial logic of machines sufficient. We must translate; we must play with the interpretations of these interfaces. Only then can we learn and grow.

I'm sure you've anticipated that this is a windup to your next challenge. Its goal is much like the others I've given, though this one may seem a bit more practical. I ask you to try to re-envision a process that you execute every day. Try to see it from someone else's angle. Would it work in a different environment? Where and why? Where and why not? When we start exploring these questions, we unlock the many points of existence around us. Keep on flexing them expansion muscles, people. As a wise, literate man who was once on Star Trek says often, I'll see you next time.

On Writers, the Unsung Heroes of Corporate Culture

Yesterday, I came across an intriguing article by Cord Jefferson on Gawker regarding the fair compensation of writers. It laid out a few thought-provoking points regarding the debate between whether or not asking writers to provide free content is a fair request. Being somewhat concerned with this particular quandary myself, I thought I'd explore it further in today's post.

To me, this is a good springboard from which to launch a campaign of awareness. Whether you realize it or not, writers are all around you. Laboring in the shadows, these talented individuals are, if you'll permit the metaphor, the wheels on the bus of business. You could still start the engine without them, but it would sure be hard to get anywhere.

Another unfortunate truth contained in the image above is that, like wheels, writers often bear a lot of the weight of corporate success without being considered as pretty or visible as the paint job, hood ornaments, or grill. This is a situation to which I can relate. When I was employed as a technical editor, I saw many brilliant individuals in my department working with a tireless sense of duty. Their creativity and commitment drove many successful documentation releases, without which the products that our company sold would have been incomprehensible. Despite this fact, however, technical publications is a field that often gets overlooked. These departments often fail to receive the hallowed title of "revenue generator," and therefore often face budget cuts that leave them unable to pursue improvements that would increase customer satisfaction.

So what does it take to be a revenue generator? Well, based on the explanations given in the link above, it takes having a tangible impact on the profit of a company. Okay, so by extension, wouldn't that mean that technical publications do generate revenue because they make products understandable to users? There, my friend, is the rub. Yes, they do, but not in a flashy way. People consult technical documents often at the pinnacle of their stress levels. They can't find the answer on their own, so they need help. As a result, it's not considered something people want to read, like marketing materials or business proposals. The mistake that often results from this correlation is the thought among executives that these resources aren't always necessary and are often more frustrating rather than helpful. Sure, this assertion might hold water in some cases, but the alternative is a far more confusing realm.

As an editor, I saw my fair share of technical information written by non-technical writers, whether these be product managers, engineers, or any other functions. There are occasions upon which these endeavors can work, such as when the audience aligns in understanding with the profession of the author. That said, without someone dedicated to exploring what customers need to find out and where they go to do so, much gets lost in translation. Research into the types of people using products, the way they use the products, and the places in which they expect to find valuable information about the products is invaluable. That's how technical writers generate revenue. Each day, through the very nature of their work, they gain an insight into how customers think.

Now, this isn't the only literary profession subject to the Invisible Writer Syndrome. As Cord Jefferson points out, journalists often get the short end of the stick in terms of the compensation they get for what they do and are often taken for granted in this age in which news just appears out of the ether. In fact, if you look in most departments at a company, from Marketing to Operations, you'll find various types of writers providing content that keeps the whole thing rolling.

This is not meant as a complaint. I celebrate my chosen profession and revel in the creative backflips it allows me each day. Think of it instead as a call to action. Notice those quiet scribblers tucked away in corner cubicles. Realize that just because they are not at the head of a board meeting or the face you see at business conferences does not mean that they deserve less than those that are. All those company blogs, Facebook updates, Twitter posts, proposals, and manuals come from somewhere. Look in that direction, and shine a light on the individuals there. You'll be glad you did.

Engagement: Applying Social Action to Business

There was a certain prevailing notion about business that I and many others from my generation experienced as we ascended the rickety and treacherous ladder to adulthood: it is by definition amoral. Profit is the holy grail, and any people, animals, or environments in the way of that goal were to be swept aside. Well, another part of adulthood is also sweeping aside the preconceived notions fostered in the boiling cauldron of teenage angst, so with that said, I'd like to put forth a proposition. The strongest businesses are those that can actualize and engage their intended audience. Social action is as large a deciding factor in the marketplace as it is when rallying for causes. People need to feel involved. With the advent of social media, we are all connected for better or for worse. There are no more numbers, only names. That's a liberating thought, isn't it?

As a result of this movement, it's no longer easy to get away with inundating potential customers with impersonal spam. Instead, it's necessary to learn about and nurture the connections you wish to make (see my lead nurturing article for more on that). An effective marketing campaign in the modern corporate landscape should take more cues from non-profits and social change efforts than it does from risk analysts and financial planners.

An emerging company that embodies this new mode of thought is Dailybreak. They market not only a product, but an experience as well. How? Through interactive snippets of content called challenges. These unique digital packages encourage consumer participation, what Dailybreak calls, aptly enough, social actions. Whether through a bite-sized game, a photo contest, a public vote, or an abundance of other options, Dailybreak pulls people in and makes them feel as though they are a part of something. This may sound familiar, as it is a very similar model to the one that Kiva uses, which I discussed in an earlier post. Social responsibility influencing corporate culture. Who'da thunk?

Anyway, I find Dailybreak's approach so fascinating because it can be applied almost anywhere. Just find the interactions most appropriate to your particular line of interest and off you go. The best part is that there's no way to be disingenuous here. To follow such a model necessitates a deep understanding of your audience and a genuine interest in connecting with them on a personal level. The old methodologies of simple trickery go out the window in this scenario. Corporations now have to be responsible in order to even attract customers.

Bravo, I say. Bravo to the Age of Information. As Neal DeGrasse Tyson put it, "We are all connected to each other biologically; to the earth chemically; to the rest of the universe atomically." The more that business assimilates this truth, the more ethical practices will prevail and the more people will get what they need instead of just meeting a series of transient, fleeting, implanted wants. Keep that in mind the next time that you advertise, and I wish you the best of luck in finding those in the world who need what you have to offer. They're out there, I promise.

Just Say Yes: Why Improv Improves Business Presentations

There's a touch of whimsy in the air today, perhaps brought along with the gathering storm clouds over Massachusetts. Not one to reject such things, I'd like to focus on a somewhat unorthodox methodology for standing out in the elephant graveyard of halfhearted PowerPoint presentations that is the typical day at the office. Where could we possibly find a respite from those long, droning quarterly meetings? Follow me, friends, to the land of improv.

As some of you may know, improv is common parlance for improvisational theatre, a practice among actors that involves an entire performance made of ad lib content. In other words, it's all off the cuff. Straight from the brain pan into the fire, if you will. The actors involved feed off of ideas from other performers, themselves, objects in the room, and even the audience to create an array of ever-shifting narratives. This may sound familiar, as it received a great deal of public attention during the run of the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?

But what's all this got to do with the PowerPoint that you dread having to present next week? Well, there are several rules of improv that can prove very useful in a corporate situation. The first, and I think most widely applicable, is to just say yes no matter what happens. When interacting with another actor on stage, this means responding in a positive way to an idea that you might not have figured would result from the action taking place. In a business situation, this could mean being willing to go off script or address questions about aspects of your presentation that you hadn't considered. The point is, when you allow yourself permission to be open to the flux of ideas and activity around you, you can think on your feet with ease and respond to even the most difficult circumstances with grace.

Another couple of more pragmatic rules are not asking open ended questions and making your partner look good. Now, when improv folks say "partner," it doesn't apply just to situations in which you are working with someone else. It can also apply to the audience or even to the presentation materials that you use. For instance, you can take an idea that someone brings up in the question period after a presentation and run with it, elaborating on the basic principal and praising that person for their ingenuity. This not only wins you an ally, but also stimulates further discussion and innovation. In addition, when you're in the audience for a presentation, you can apply the principle of not asking open ended questions to give others ideas and generate targeted conversations. If you focus on a specific point, it makes it easier for someone else to respond, which benefits the flow of both improv shows and presentations.

Finally, there's the idea of telling a story. This concept is a bit more abstract, but it pays off to practice it. In improv, telling a story is crucial to building the action in a scene. You need to set the stage or be able to elaborate on the stage someone else has set. Don't just say "there's a fish in the road," say "Melvin! Melvin! Oh God, Melvin! I must have left his tank on the window sill again...somebody, help!" These specific details, as ludicrous as the above scenario may sound, allow someone else to begin picturing what you're talking about, which is important since improv is often done without a set and with minimal props. In business, there's numerous ways to take advantage of this concept. Place specific examples in your presentation, and flesh them out with anecdotes, facts, and your opinion. Paint your proposal across the mind's eye of your peers.

What's the best way to start learning about improv? Watch it and do it. There are numerous improv troupes across the country. For instance, the Boston area (my personal stomping grounds) plays host to excellent artistic efforts such as ImprovBoston, a comedy group that provides five nights a week of entertainment. They also offer classes so that you can immerse yourself in improv practice. Another amazing and innovative group is New York-based Improv Everywhere, who create random scenes in public places, often calling attention in a comedic way to objects or ideas that the general public takes for granted. Please check out these groups, as they are both immaculate performers and excellent resources for improv theory. With that said, I think it's time you got out there and revived that comatose presentation. Let those ideas take you away from the elephant graveyard and into the bright, verdant valley of creativity.

More than a Sale: Lead Nurturing's Role in Marketing Success

As it seems that I grow increasingly business-minded of late, I thought that I would share some information about another marketing practice that I've been reading up on: lead nurturing. This concept is a bit more abstract than those I addressed last week, but is also intriguing due to its philosophical elements. You see, lead nurturing is not just some predetermined set of statistics or programs. Instead, it involves a sophisticated mix of relationship building and persuasion. That's right, my friends, it's not just about tracking some emails or blasting out notifications to a list. To do it right, you need to cultivate the idea that I've mentioned time and again in these pages: connection.

As usual, I've gotten a bit ahead of myself. First, we should walk together through the valley of fundamentals in order to reach the peak of understanding. What is a lead? Well, it's really quite straightforward: it's you. That's somewhat of an oversimplification, but it conveys the gist of things. To elaborate, a lead is a person or group that is already interested or could potentially be interested in becoming a customer. Leads can come from many places, such as a customer signing up for an email list, downloading a trial pack of software, or accessing free learning resources, among others. For obvious reasons, marketers covet these relationships because they can, when given the right impetus, lead to further revenue and brand exposure. This, as you may have guessed, is where we get into the nurturing part.

As I've indicated above, obtaining a lead is only the first step. After initial contact, a marketer must grow, or nurture, the connection in order to persuade the lead to become a customer. Proper use of this strategy bears tremendous reward. In Marketo's Definitive Guide to Lead Nurturing, the author mentions a statistic from a DemandGen report, which asserts that nurtured leads result in an average sales opportunity increase of 20 percent when compared to non-nurtured leads. That's a definitive margin if I ever saw one.

Okay, sounds great, sign me up, but how do you do it? How do you grow a customer relationship that way? This is where we get into the abstract bits, so buckle your seat belts. Mounting an effective lead nurturing approach takes a careful combination of automation and analysis with a personal touch. The first part is concrete enough; there are some great solution providers out there like Hubspot who can set you up with an array of powerful tools to analyze your audience and craft automated alerts and responses to get the initial lead in place. However, it's the second bit - what is done with that information - where having a spark of creativity can pay huge dividends.

Folks, we've got to fire up that imagination engine again. Sure, you can know what kind of a target market you have, how many people have visited your site, who has downloaded your trial software, and a million other pieces of similar information, but that doesn't mean people are buying what you're selling. For that to happen, you must enter the surreal landscape of relationships. As the aforementioned Marketo guide says, lead nurturing is like maintaining a long-term relationship in your personal life, and that means you've got to give to get. If you don't capture people's interest and stay present in their minds, you will lose leads as fast as you get them.

With that said, I'm going to run through a fictional case study as an example of how you can imagine your way to good marketing practices. Say you've got an email list that tells you who signed up to view a product demonstration on your website. There are some valuable facts you can glean from this list. First of all, these people are probably exploring several product options if they're watching demos, which means you need to prove that your product is worth more to them than the competition's. You can hope that the awesome video your team put together does the job, or you can act to reinforce the message.

With planning, automation can help you out a bit. Using an email service provider or marketing automation software, you can author an email ahead of time that thanks people for signing up and gives a few follow-up details about the product that flesh out what they saw in the demo. In my opinion, though, the most important element to include here is a method for the audience to give feedback and reach you with other questions. Don't bank on your extra facts filling in all the gaps; you can't anticipate all the vagaries of the human thought process, and if you tried to your email would be far too long. Instead, make it clear that you value what your audience has to say. If they feel important and cared about now, they'll trust you more later.

Along with planting the seed of trust, make sure you reinforce your credibility. Respond promptly to any feedback and questions you receive, and be honest. Procrastination is a killer in this scenario. If people perceive your question line as a bottomless abyss into which queries disappear without a trace, they will no longer believe in any of your claims. Thank them for criticism, and pass on useful critiques to your team. This can be stellar method for getting in product testing while also nurturing leads. Answer questions in a succinct way, and point the questioner to further resources (make sure you have these ready to go). Above all, don't automate this if at all possible. As I said before, the personal touch will be noted.

The foundation above paves the way for more intricate lead nurturing techniques, such as offering free trials of products, requesting surveys of customer needs, and, at the latest stage, engaging the sales team to pitch a purchase plan to the prospect. Remember, you need to prove your worth first. The magic of the interwebs affords us the ability to research companies and products in-depth before buying anything, so premature sales pitches almost always scare people off. Be deliberate and unique. Think about what you can do for the leads you are following. To once again reference a past blog post, it's not about manipulation. More and more as technology improves, the old ways of suckering someone into buying something then running are invalidated. What will make you stand out is your passion and your ideas. Connect to, nurture, and help others, and then your success will be limitless.

For more information about lead nurturing, I suggest checking out Hubspot's blog posts. They've got loads of useful information that can deepen your understanding of the concepts I've sketched out here. Like Wistia, they provide both the resources and the opportunity to learn about what they sell. Also, Eloqua has some amazing best practice tool kits that lay out these ideas in very easy-to-consume ways. My words here are only a starting point; after all, I still have much to learn myself about this fascinating discipline. Continue exploring, and I'll see you next time.

Fanciful Friday: Social and Deconstructionist Benefits of Electronic Music

Today, an idea struck me. Since my interests range across such a wide gamut, I've made the executive decision that Friday will be a day on which I diverge from my typical subject matter and pluck a topic from the ether to discuss. Today, I want to delve into a genre with which I've grown increasingly enamored of late: Electronica. Encompassing an unfathomable amount of different sounds and techniques, from the calculated dissonance of Dubstep and DnB to the sweeping melodies of Trance and House, this genre is redrawing the barriers of sonic experience and redefining the public opinion of musicianship and music in general.

In recent years, electronic music has gained a great deal of headway due to its increasing integration into the pop music scene. Artists such as Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, and even rappers like Flo Rida have capitalized on electronic influences to gain notice. While many deeply knowledgeable genre devotees dismiss these appropriations as a cheapening of the electronic tradition, I'd like to offer a different perspective. As a disclaimer, I am new to Electronica, but as such I think that I come at it from a different trajectory than those who have been embedded for a longer time period. To me, it seems that though the co-opting of electronic styles does of course lead to a certain degree of washout, overall this is a striking opportunity for a generalized improvement in music as a whole. You see, Electronica has something that can push pop in a more positive direction: an accepting, nurturing culture.

I'm going to introduce you to four letters that have been a potent driving force behind the general ambiance of electronic concerts: PLUR. Standing for Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect, this philosophy in many ways appears, when combined with the genre it supports, to be a sort of technologized, transhumanist Buddhism. On a basic level, it means that while engaged with others in the enjoyment of music, acceptance and the expansion of perspective are of chiefest importance, and that the narrowing of this experience via the vectors of intolerance or violence are not permissible. Sound familiar? It should, if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time. These principals mirror in many ways the particular brand of Deconstructionist philosophy of which I'm most fond.

To give a two-bit summary, Deconstruction at its highest level speaks about the instabilities present in our language. It teaches that meaning is only ever partial because a portion of it is always already deferred into another related piece of language, causing an unending chain of signification that never quite gets to an authoritative, universal concept. Confused yet? To make it even more simple: words don't allow us to fully sum up the world around us or to express the fullness of reality.

Often, this idea becomes conflated with a downward spiral into a neverending abyss, but that's a somewhat reductive way of looking at it. True, this perspective does strip away our certainty regarding how we categorize and catalog our daily experience, but that doesn't mean living is pointless. In fact, here's the kicker: Deconstruction is negative and generative. It both wipes away our surety and encourages us to play in the new, amorphous space to which it sends us. The social applications are striking: The further you follow the chain of meaning, the more people, subject positions, and general wonders you will encounter.

Now, with that tangent out of the way, how does all that high-mindedness relate to the Nero album that Steve bought yesterday? Well, it's not as complicated as you might think. Electronic music prioritizes this kind of thinking. PLUR, Deconstruction, whatever you call (or don't call) it, this particular genre is a hotbed for thinking that increases social awareness and equality, and its impact has reached many corners of music.

Let's do a quick breakdown of two examples: Enter Shikari and Lady Gaga. Polar opposites, right? Nope, and I thought I already told you that the entire concept of binary poles was right out. While not electronic artists per se, both have clear, strong influences from the genre in their songs. What's clearest, however, is the social responsibility that these artists exhibit. Lady Gaga has championed the cause of acceptance, telling people to embrace difference and flux. She also played a key role in the fight to get Don't Ask Don't Tell repealed. Enter Shikari's music is brazen in its political messaging and advocates for the shattering of national borders as well as promoting government responsibility and economic/environmental sustainability. My argument? I think these impulses, at least in part, stem from engagement in electronic music culture. Exposure to PLUR and other principles like it promotes an ethos of discovery and enrichment that carries through into the lives and work of the people listening, whether they create music or finance reports.

If you're interested in learning more about the many facets of this genre, I've found Earmilk to be an excellent site for reviews, commentaries, and introductions to newer electronic musicians. As usual, I end this post with a challenge: Resist the impulse to fall into the trap that media outlets have laid regarding Electronica. This particular sector of the musical environment is not simply the domain of drug-addled escapists. In actuality, it is the province of dreamers and activists pushing for the kind of social and mental growth that needs to become all the more frequent in our society. If we are to evolve, we must look beyond the fictional polarities and reach out beyond our comfort zones. The beeps and beats can teach us; we just need to listen.