Tag Archives: Speaking

TCUK 13 presentation: Planning user documentation when you are a startup business

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TCUK13 logo

We will be presenting “Planning user documentation when you are a startup business” at the Technical Communication UK conference in September.

We’ll look at how to plan a user documentation project when you’re working for a startup technology company. Working in this environment gives you the opportunity to work “from a clean sheet,” but it also has its own challenges of working in a dynamic and rapidly changing environment.

We’ll look at the issues around planning user documentation and the additional considerations when you are a startup. Your budget may be limited and the product or service in development may be constantly changing, so how should you work in this situation? What should you be developing, and what is the value of user documentation for a startup?

We will cover:

  • What is different about working for a startup
  • Lean startup strategies
  • The value of user documentation for a startup and why should you provide it
  • How to document in this environment
  • What you should document
  • What you should measure?
  • What to do when budgets are limited
  • What to do when there is no clear audience

For more information, see Technical Communication UK conference.

See you at the MadWorld conference, 7-9 April, San Diego

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MadWorld conference Some of us will be at the MadWorld conference next week, which is being held in San Diego. Cherryleaf’s Sales and Marketing Director, Ellis Pratt, will be speaking on both days of the conference. If you’re going to the conference or will be close by, then you’re welcome to come and say hello. Email us to find out our precise schedule and whereabouts.

What it’s like to present a lightning talk

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Content Strategy Lighting TalkOn Tuesday night, I presented my first ever lightning talk. It was at the London Content Strategy Meetup.

A lightning talk is a presentation format in which 20 slides are shown for 15 seconds each (giving each presenter five minutes in total). The format is used to keep presentations concise and fast-paced, and to allow the time for lots of speakers to participate in the event.

It’s very similar to “Pecha Kucha nights”, however those give speakers the luxury of an extra five seconds per slide.

So what’s it like to present a lightning talk?

Continue reading →

Content Strategy Lightning Talks: Applying Lean principles to content strategy

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On Tuesday 26 February, Ellis Pratt from Cherryleaf will be speaking at the popular London Content Strategy lightning talk.

Ellis will explain how the principles of Lean manufacturing can be applied to developing and managing content. It’s a way of writing that focuses on maximising the value to the user and minimising waste. Since the Agile development methodology is based on Lean principles, it will help you to position content management within an Agile environment.

Each speaker gets 5 minutes and 20 slides (15 seconds per slide) to share their unique perspectives on content strategy in a blur of energy, passion and intensity.

See Content Strategy Lightning Talks, 26th February

Ellis to provide the keynote at Technical Communications 2011

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Ellis has been asked to provide the keynote presentation at Technical Communications 2011, which is being held Tuesday-Thursday this week. The original presenter is unable to attend, so the ISTC has asked Ellis if he could step in and present on topic – “The role of Technical Communicators today”.

The conference presentations will be videoed.

Turning a Technical Author’s work on its head

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Q. What’s the most popular wiki in the world?
A. Most people know the answer to this: It’s Wikipedia.

Q. What’s the second most popular wiki in the world?
A. It may surprise you to know that it’s WoWWiki, a wiki comprising over 250,000 articles and information. It may also surprise you to know it’s about playing a game – World of Warcraft.

So the second most popular wiki in the world is, to all intents and purposes, a user manual. And the biggest and most popular user manual in the world is (a) a wiki and (b) for a game.

We came across this fact in researching gamification and its potential use in technical documentation. Cherryleaf’s Ellis Pratt will be speaking on this subject at the UA Europe 11 conference in June, and it’s one of the topics we discuss in an book  on technical documentation trends, which we’ll be publishing shortly.

So where does turning a Technical Author’s work on its head come in to all of this?

Technical Authors spend a lot of time making life easier for users. However, according to games researcher Jane McGonigal, one of the key reasons why games are so hugely popular is because:

Games challenge us with voluntary obstacles and help us put our personal strengths to better use.

Counter-intuitive as it may seem, making the goal of finding out the answer more challenging might be more rewarding for the user. Perhaps it might even leave a greater imprint on their memory.

Instead of the Technical Author developing and providing a Table of Contents for the user, could we even see a scenario where the user creates his own collection of information and organises it as he sees fit? Could the Technical Author’s role be not to organise and arrange the information, but instead to provide (a) some (but not all) of the information and (b) a platform where the user can store and organise it for themselves? It’s an approach similar to Pokémon (“gotta catch them all”), where children gain immense pleasure from collecting cards and building their own personal battle decks.  It’s also similar to the FLOSS Manuals website’s ability for users to remix their own personal user guides.

Pokemon logo
Let’s reassure you not all the applications of games theory to User Assistance are as unusual as this. What do you think – could the concepts from games theory add value to User Assistance and could they turn the work that Technical Authors do on its head?