Harnessing Data…

The Dice Salary survey was conducted online with 8,325 employed technology professionals between September 19 and November 21, 2011. The results showed an average 2% increase in annual wages over 2010 (from $79,384 to $81,327). Bonuses looked even better jumping up 8%.

The salary stats speak volumes about the importance of harnessing data properly for businesses and finding intelligent ways to both understand and use it.

It is our technical people that both create and support the systems that capture big data, and use the tools that analyze it. And it’s big data that many are saying is the key to developing truly great customer experiences. Darren Guaranccia agrees with this saying:“ Today’s analytics compress their collected data into summary statistics to save space. Big data is the promise of retaining this beautifully detailed data, and helping us plumb its depths to better engage and interact with our customers, even in real-time.”

There is a growing convergence between IT and business, with many employees starting to work in roles that overlap the two. This enables a technical employee to contribute directly to decisions made that define the customer experience. Whether it’s through analyzing the data and making recommendations, or through designing online systems that utilize that data, the tech employee is no longer stuck in the backroom pumping out code.

Alice Hill, Managing Director, Dice.com had this to say about the salary increases:
“…a continuation of the trends we’ve seen toward tech professionals helping their companies gain more insight into their cost structures, customer behavior and emerging trends. If tech professionals spark companies to win by harnessing their data, that’s when the tech department is no longer seen as a cost center, but a strategic partner in meeting companies’ goals.”

And Harnessing Knowledge

The Dice survey did say that entry level jobs were the opposite of senior salaries though. Which means organizations are likely bringing in less experienced people into entry level tech jobs. To me, this leads to two very important ideas about capturing and sharing knowledge.

The first is, as a general rule (and I lived this to know), senior tech people hate to document. It’s a pain in the butt, but more importantly it takes them away from working on the ideas, and designing great products/experiences. There’s little time to sit down and document formally what is done and why. But it does need to be done. If it’s not, then these newbies that come in the door are running blind with nothing to help them get acclimated quickly.

Second, if starting salaries are low, it typically means that entry level jobs are more prone to employee turnover. So maybe you take the time to invest in someone, only to have them jump ship to the next big paycheck.

Also important to note that high level technical people are in demand, which means the faster you get all that knowledge out of their heads and somewhere it can be leveraged by others, the better off you will be.

There is no way to force an employee to write great documentation, but there are ways to make them write bad documentation. There’s also no way to ensure that a new employee won’t learn everything there is know and then leave, but there are ways to encourage them to stay other than a fat paycheck.

If you want your technical people sharing their knowledge, then invest in tools that allow them to quickly and easily do that. Social collaboration software is a great tool that can be leveraged. The days of novel length PDF documentation are over. Now, people get more information from wikis, blog posts, activity streams. They also like knowing that others are actually reading it, and many are encouraged to write more through things like ratings, comments or games.

Likewise, new employees are looking to join organizations where these kinds of tools are used. It shows that the organization is modern, open to ideas from everyone, and willing to foster knowledge sharing through all levels — not just to employees who’ve been there a long time.

It’s Not all About Money

Money is important, but a forward-thinking, modern organization also considers the other things people look for in the perfect job: an easy way to learn, submit ideas and share knowledge. Experienced technical people want to know that their knowledge and ideas are important to everyone, not just the PDF doc that never gets read by anyone (really, they don’t).  And the new recruits want to know what they get in exchange for a lower salary. What will they learn other than how to pinch pennies?

Unfortunately, the telescope company didn’t particularly care whether I used the telescope or not. I say this because as soon as I opened the box, I saw a telescope in little pieces that needed assembly. Usually assembling things doesn’t freak me out, but when I took a look at what they called ‘instructions’ I was far from excited.

More doesn’t mean ‘better’

Included in the box was not one, but two instructional guides and a DVD. Let’s just say more is not always better. The documentation was like a puzzle where I had to hop from one PDF manual to another and then jump on my computer to download a CD which was full of more PDFs that were supposed to supplement the first two manuals. It was not fun, not pretty and by the time I had halfway assembled the telescope I just gave up. I put the pieces back in the box and went online to return it.

It’s called hypermedia and it’s been around 80 years now

This isn’t just about me getting frustrated when I was putting together a telescope, there is a much more important lesson here. We are now in the age of computers. And guess what–these complex machines allow me to connect to the Internet and interact with hypermedia (that’s what we now call interactive web pages), which Vannevar Bush designed way back in 1930 (see Memex) as a way to foster and accelerate learning and information transfer. Today we’ve taken the hypermedia concept even further by baking “social” into the fabric of the web. With this in mind, why would any company today feel it is appropriate to give it’s user a PDF- literally pictures of paper- and pretend it’s sufficient. Giving users PDFs is a clear demonstration that you do not care about their success and assume they don’t know the difference between a paper manual and a PDF guide online. Whereas, for hardly any more labor the company could have delivered me a hypermedia experience injected with social tools that allows me to interact with the authors and other users of their products; in short, for very little more effort this telescope company could have kept me as a customer and potentially created an advocate.

Note to Companies: the Internet was designed for learning.

I almost laughed when I viewed the telescope DVD. The “help” was the exact same information as in the manual – only the pages were on my screen! What value does that DVD provide to me that the paper manual does not? It just shows how behind the times this telescope company is and gives me zero faith in the product.

In fact, if you read above, I actually returned my telescope. Just think about your product. It may be a consumer’s dream product, but if the user cannot figure how to work it, how to install it, how to assemble it, or what features and benefits it holds, they will get frustrated and assume the product is faulty, poorly made, or just not what they were looking for. In short, if your users can’t succeed with your product they will not use your product; worse, they will tell ten others not to use your product too.

A successful user is a happy customer.

Instead of selling a customer a CRM system and telling them to ‘get to work,’ give them contextual help, so when a user gets stuck he or she can simply hover their mouse over the ? button and get the answer. Instead of making a user wade through bad search results, get search analytics on your help site that brings up the most commonly clicked answers for the search question. Instead of guessing what questions your users have, know what they are: use analytics to see what is most frequently searched and whether the user found what he or she wanted- this shows you if have cracks in your documentation. Also see if users find your Docs helpful in the moment by giving them the ability to rate content.

Don’t be afraid to join the social revolution.

Believe me, social computing is here to stay. Instead of locking up your help site only to vetted technical communicators, allow users to share tips, advice and even submit changes or suggestions to the help documentation. You can edit and modify feedback and use what’s best. Trust your customers first. Then they will trust you.

Don’t assume your customers are stupid and won’t notice your product’s weak PDF help and unorganized documentation. Give your users a social help center that makes your product easy to use, find help, and move them on their way to customer success.

If you don’t know who Dora the Explorer is, I suggest you find a show online and take the time to watch it. Basically though, it always starts with Dora having some problem to solve or task to complete, and then goes through the process of her solving the problem or completing the task. Now doesn’t that sound like the basic starting point for a customer or prospect as well? Exactly.

Dora’s process to complete her task is fairly simple. She relies on two very important things

1. Her friends and acquaintances she meets along the way
2. Her map

Now this is not your ordinary paper map that you lay out on the table and follow with your finger from point A to point B. This map talks to you, it tells you where to start, what key places you will find along the way and where your journey ends. It also offers tips, and hints of things you will need to do to get through certain places. What’s more, as Dora passes through each place on her path, the map remembers where she came from and knows where she is at that point, continuing to point her in the right direction.

Think of your customer as Dora

She comes to your website, or your support site to achieve a task: get information, buy a product, or to solve a problem. Now many of you lay out a lot of content that you feel is organized the best way it can be and you leave it at that.

But what if Dora entered a search request in your search box (you do offer search right)? Are you still going to show her a list of what you think are relevant documents she could read and then let her comb through it all to find what she needs? What if instead, you laid out a path for Dora, by knowing where she came from, remembering when she had been to on your site before (what she did then). What if you used information stored on what other people who asked for the same thing looked at the most and rated or commented on?

As Dora moves through your content, you keep track of what she’s looking at, suggesting related content, encouraging her to provide her own opinion on that content and to read the opinions of others, showing her things other people found relevant. Now you are personalizing her experience and applying relevant context to help get her on the right path to complete her task.

It’s All Social Right?

In the TV show, all along the way, Dora has her friend Boots, and any number of people or animals she meets to help her, offering advice and guidance. And, also of interest, there are always two different languages at play: English and Spanish.

All of this is the same as utilizing social features on websites: commenting, rating, reviews and more. It also points to quality search information and of localization.

In the end, Dora always achieves her task or solves her problem, everyone is happy and we hear what the best part of the adventure was for Dora and Boots. Likewise on our website, when Dora completes her task, she’s going to tell people what was good about the process, or what was bad, typically via social media.

What we learn from our kids

Don’t think Dora the Explorer is the only kid’s shows to provide this experience. Sit down and watch a few and see what I mean. If an interactive map on Dora the Explorer can remember her and help her achieve her goal, then why can’t a support website or a corporate website? If we have the tools to make the experience more interactive and personalized, then we should be doing it.

After all, we are teaching our children to expect it, right?

You’re probably asking yourself right now: how do I win? It’s easy and I don’t want it to take more than 5-10 minuntes. Just follow these three easy steps:

STEP 1. Write a brief summary about how MindTouch has provided an exceptional help or documentation experience for a product or technology you use. Don’t over think this. You can write it about your use of MindTouch or your experience with a product that uses MindTouch for product help and documentation. This can be a brief sound byte, but I’ll be honest I’m looking for quotes. We’re launching a new website here and we haven’t been very diligent about gathering user and customer quotes.

STEP 2. Publish your post, with a link to www.mindtouch.com (link love us), to your blog, G+, FB, whatever and share the the link with us here: http://promo.mindtouch.com/sxsw-giveaway. If you don’t have a place to publish the post, no problem, just post your story here http://promo.mindtouch.com/sxsw-giveaway. We’ll run some of these as guest posts here at the MindTouch blog. When you notify us of your post please also let us know if you can actually make SXSWi or if you would prefer a gift card and/or tshirt.

STEP 3. Surprise! There really isn’t a step three. All you have to do now is wait a couple weeks and we’ll let you know if you won anything. By the way, to be eligible to win you must reside in USA or CAN.

That’s it. Since SXSWi starts March 9-13 we’ll be finalizing the winner in just a couple weeks so that you have ample time to book your travel. Alas no, we’re not covering your travel. However, with this SXSWi pass you will get:

• 5 Days of Interactive Panels, Keynotes, and Featured Speakers
• 4 Days of SXSW Trade Show: The Exhibition for Creative Industries
• Unlimited Networking Opportunities with Cutting-Edge New Media Innovators
• Interactive Awards and Pre-Party
• Interactive Core Conversations and Book Readings



• Interactive Accelerator
• Registrant Lounges
• SXSW ScreenBurn Arcade
• SXSW ScreenBurn Panel Programming
• Online SXsocial, Productivity and Networking Tools
• Continuing Legal Education Program (CLE)
• Interactive Registrant Big Bag
• Interactive Program Book/Registrants’ Directory
• Annual Subscription to SXSWorld Magazine (normally priced at $20)

And, of course, I’ll buy you a beverage of you choice there in Austin. To be clear, we have a SXSWi pass, $50 Amazon gift cards and MindTouch tshirts that you can win by following the above steps. Now you don’t have much time; so, get started on the above three…err…two steps. If you don’t start now you’ll only procrastinate and forget to do it and then kick yourself later for not being more organized. After all the odds have to be pretty good, right? Do it, do it.

Tip #1: Recognize your job is hard

The biggest mistake I made in my first couple hires was to think that my job was standard fare that anyone could handle. I felt like I was being overdramatic to spend too much time vetting the candidates, when it seemed like it just couldn’t be that hard. Anyone would do.

The tricky thing here is that technical communicators have a very wide variety of skills and a broad spectrum of capabilities. A person can have the title “Technical Writer” and have it mean anything from “I know the source code inside and out, help customers directly with technical issues, and consult with the product manager on the direction and design of the product” to “I get a rough draft from an SME and add page breaks in the right places.”

Your job is hard, and not just anyone can do it. You can and should be picky.

Tip #2: It’s not just what’s in the résumé, but also how it’s in there

In our field, the résumé is the applicant’s first writing sample. Using “it’s” when you meant to use “its” doesn’t just demonstrate confusion about possessive pronouns; it also demonstrates a lack of carefulness. Myself, I probably wouldn’t automatically disqualify someone for that mistake alone, but if your position requires a high level of attention to grammatical detail, then this applicant has already shown you they’re not up to the challenge.

For example, one thing I care about is that my writers really consider the user’s needs. But saying “customer focused” on the résumé means a lot less than demonstrating that you considered my needs in reading it. Here are a few examples:

Tip #3: A stitch in time saves nine

Firing people sucks. It sucks for you, it sucks for the company, and it sucks especially for the person being fired. It sucks so much that you owe it to everyone involved to put in the work to pick the right person in the first place. My interview process is a lengthy one, but I haven’t had to fire anyone since I started using it. It goes like this:

Résumé review

I look not just at the content of the career but also the care with which the résumé was put together. We’ve been over that. Let’s move on.

Writing test

This is my favorite part because it’s so very telling. Our writing test has three exercises:

1. The first exercise is an editing test. I took a particularly dense paragraph from an old doc and pumped in a few typos and run on sentences. The test taker is challenged to correct and compress the information. The passage starts out at 294 words, and I see cutting the count as evidence of mastery of these tools we call words. A good candidate can get it down to 200. I can get it down to 95, but I’m really mean like that.
2. The second exercise is the real challenge: I provide some cryptic notes I wrote while researching a feature and challenge the applicant to organize them into a feature guide. Writing an accurate feature guide isn’t the point; this exercise measures your enthusiasm for rolling up your sleeves and trying something you don’t already understand. My team isn’t often held by the hand, so my writers need to have the self-confidence to try even when there’s a chance they’ll be wrong.
3. The final exercise is defining a list of web terms. I’d like to say this is about writing clear reference content, but actually I created this test in direct response to a former coworker who dug up the entirely wrong meaning of an acronym online somewhere and published it in a customer-facing document without questioning why a financial term was suddenly in the middle of a document about FTP. This is an easy exercise, but I guess I feel like I just have to have a reality check in there.

Phone interview

After subjecting the candidate to the test (which only takes a couple hours but people get really worked up about it) I’ll schedule a phone interview where I’ll go over the writing test with the applicant and talk about the choices they made in completing it.

You know, it’s funny: even though all tech writers are dedicated to improving the user experience, I have yet to meet one who didn’t have trouble, at least at first, receiving feedback, even though they know it makes their documents better. There’s something just so personal about putting words on paper, and having someone question you on them directly just hurts. But this is an enlightening discussion because it lets you see how thoughtful the candidate was about the writing in the first place and how well they can handle critique.

In-person interview

If the applicant makes it to the in-person interview, I pretty much already decided that I think they could do the job. This is the time for candidates to interview us, so I want to expose them to as many of the warts of working in this department as I can.

“I love working here, but it’s not for everyone,” is one of my favorite phrases. Then I go on to describe the super-fast pace, the changing priorities, and the frequent need to blaze your own trail. Many documentation departments are downright sedate, and a person who loves that environment is going to be horribly frustrated on my team. And if you’re one of those “I get a rough draft from an SME and add page breaks in the right places” writers, we might as well find out early that it’s not going to work out.

In summary

To sum up, taking pity on candidates during the selection process might seem kind, but it doesn’t really help anyone in the end. You don’t have to be cruel, but putting candidates through their paces will not only save you time and money in the long run, but will also help you find just that right person to fill your all-too-rare open headcount.

What are your tips for navigating the sea of résumés? Share them in the comments below.