If you want help creating documentation, get to know the trainers. I am frequently amazed at how little communication some companies have between the training and the documentation departments. In many cases, the training departments develop their own materials – existing as a completely separate unit. This can be an enormous waste of time and money. More than once I have sweated over creating a procedure, only to find out later that it was already in the training materials.
Trainers not only get to know the company’s products, they get to know the customers. For many (shortsighted) companies, the trainers are the closest thing you have to a usability team. They walk through the product in front of the clients, who inevitably have questions about the process or come up with scenarios that point out the limitations of the product. On the flip side, documentation people frequently have information that trainers can use. I am often in the position of telling a trainer that a change in the product is coming. For those trainers who do create their own materials, I always try to provide any editing or formatting assistance they may need.
I attend as many training sessions as I can fit in my schedule. I rarely turn down an opportunity, even if I have been to the training before. When possible, I record the trainings so that I can listen to them later. In some cases, company rules prevent this, but if you can record a training session, do it. One of the benefits of this is that you capture knowledge that could easily disappear if that trainer leaves the company.
Tips for attending trainings:
- Trainings can be dull. Bring a caffeinated beverage or energy drink, just in case you start to drift off.
- Make sure you keep whatever training materials are given out, and get electronic copies if possible.
- Invest in a digital audio recorder. You can then download audio files of training sessions directly into your computer.
- Know your role. In some training sessions, especially client training sessions, you may need to be a silent observer. In other training sessions you will be able to ask any question you want. Check with the trainer beforehand.
- Some trainers are willing to schedule one-on-one training sessions that you can use to take notes and ask documentation-related questions that might otherwise be distracting in a classroom. This also allows the trainer to practice in a lower-stress environment.
- Share your own information with the trainer. Cooperation will help both groups.
Does anyone else have tips that they would like to add?
Part Four of a Series:
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Just read through your ‘How Technical Writers Gather Information’ series. Very interesting and very right in my opinion. I’m involved in engineering-based technical writing where the information required (we call it source information) has to come from specific sources, usually from whoever the design organisation (or design authority) is. For some products I can see the value in interviewing SMEs and attending training courses – absolutely, but in my line of work, if I can’t trace a set of design drawings or a system performance report containing the facts and figures that I need, I generally have to think twice before I publish it. That’s more about engineering governance and product safety than anything else. I wrote a few articles relating to this subject, the most relevant of which you can see at http://www.freewritingadvice.com/articles/index_files/downfall2.htm
Keep up the good work – the articles are great.
Thank you for the interesting perspective. I do intend to add some more information gathering methods, but my poetry project pretty much takes up all my energy for the month of September.
Great article John. I blogged it at my site because your piece reminded me of two recent companies I worked at. At one, we writers got a special training class and access to the trainers for the day. At the other company we couldn’t take any course that cost money, so we couldn’t take any live training classes. (Even though these were internal charges.) Guess which doc was easier to write.
I just rediscovered your blog and am enjoying it. Thanks.
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