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Technical publications should contribute to a company's bottom line: they should cut costs and build sales. User guides, help systems, tutorials, installation guides, and quick start guides should be an integral part of products and services: the knowledge required to set up and use those products and services. Unfortunately, we have all dealt with frustrating user guides and help systems that answer simple questions we can figure out on our own but provide no information about concepts we don't understand and tasks we don't know how to do. Those technical publications consume resources while providing little return on investment. Technical overviews and white papers play an important role, too. They should provide the knowledge necessary to understand how technologies, products, and services work, how they deliver business value, and why they are compelling investments. Yet we have all read white papers that are too technical, too simple, too much like marketing brochures, or just plain irrelevant. Once again a company receives little in return for its investment. No wonder some companies consider technical publications an unwanted expense! Technical publications have great potential to make companies more profitable - but only if we design them from the ground up to achieve that goal. How do we do that? We assess needs, establish metrics, and make a business case to show that our technical publications will improve profitability. Before we examine those topics, though, let’s look in greater detail at how technical publications can cut costs and build sales. Go to Cut Costs. |