The US Presidential elections have just ended, and the big winners were the “Quants” – the statisticians such as Nate Silver, who used statistical models of big data sets to accurately predict the electoral college vote results. In competition with the Quants were the “Pundits”. These were the commentators on politics, some of whom said… Read more »
Category: technical publications; technical author
Creating franchise operations manuals that are customisable and controlled
Creating an operations manual is a key part of franchising any business, as it helps ensure each franchisee is operating in the way that made the original, franchised, business successful in the first place. You want reliable, repeatable, consistent performance from every franchised location. However, it’s often the case that there needs to be slight… Read more »
Setting a marketing strategy for a Technical Publications Dept
A good Technical Publications manager will, naturally, set a strategy for their department. In addition to the HR, technical and project management aspects, there’s another factor to consider – the marketing strategy for the department. Sales consultant Richard White advises businesses define and describe the archetypes for their particular product or service. He means the… Read more »
Where does technical documentation fit into a “Freemium” business model?
This short video by Penny Power explains the Freemium model and how it applies to her business: So where does the Technical Publications department fit into this model? Traditionally, the user documentation has been given away free with a chargeable product. It’s not been chargeable in itself, but people have been required to buy a… Read more »
What’s the point of user documentation, from a marketing perspective?
I was talking to a Documentation Manager earlier in the week, who was telling me she had a new boss – a VP of Marketing. She was having to work for someone who didn’t see the value in user documentation, and she was finding it difficult fighting her corner. The challenge she faces is understanding the… Read more »