Lean Writer

How does a tech writer create value in the customer-centric era?

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Still optimizing for editorial skill?#

Though the job title of Tech Writer is nothing new, the scope of a tech writer’s work is never clear-cut.

Traditionally, tech writers are responsible for:

• editing the drafts provided by developers
• applying some editorial styles
• publishing the final user documentation

Such a perspective puts tech writers at the downstream of product development and leads to the practice of allocating one tech writer to multiple projects (often across different products). Not surprisingly, many see the work tech writers do as mainly “cosmetic, secretarial”.

While “let people do what they are good at” might appear efficient, it becomes dubious when examined under the lens of Lean philosophy, which believes that expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer is wasteful.

When there are numerous tools to improve writing, what is the point of having professionals spending most of their time toiling through cosmetic, secretarial work?

The changed landscape#

Lean philosophy belives that to achieve maximum efficiency, organizations need to create the most customer-centric business model/product.

While in the early days, you usually do not see a user manual till you opened the box that has the product you just purchased. Now it’s more likely that you have gone through tech docs online before you consider paying for a product or service.

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More important, in almost every industry, there is the ubiquitous concept of ecosystem and partnership. The constitution of customers has changed. They need different types of information about your product or service.

Imagine there is a new international standard release. Your developers are tasked to implement it.

At the same time, customers are asking whether you can provide some guidance in advance so they’ll be ready for integration test once your new feature is delivered.

You might be wondering, is this even a reasonable requirement?

Well, it depends on how you look at it.

If in the past most of the products are already “finished” when ready for delivery, today’s technology product or service is more often staying open, customers may need to build upon it or integrate with other products or services in their system.

In the context of nowadays customer journey, tech docs start before the feature delivery.

Cater to the full journey#

Some organizations have come to face the new challenge and re-evaluate what their tech writers can do to create value. In the job market, there are more and more positions that expect tech writers to bring in unconventional skills and to work with different disciplines, for example, product marketing, training, UX, etc. On the other hand, there are also companies that still intend to keep tech writers, UX writers, content writers siloed.

You might have witnessed or experienced the frustration caused by the silo approach. Yet, it takes time and effort to get senior management team or leaderships’ buy-in for organizational structural support .

So, what you, as a tech writer, can do?

If you believe in creating value in a customer-centric way, pay attention to the following domains:

• User Experience (UX)

• Design Thinking

• Content Strategy

• Product Marketing

Become a Lean writer, cater to the full customer journey.