A recent discussion on Techwr-l brought out this quote from John Posada, who posted:
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EVERYTHING is marketing[,] right from the tone of voice when the company phone number is called through the usage of the application.
Everything a company does and how they do it makes an impact on every person it touches, always answering the question "Will I buy this again or do I consider buying from the competition?”
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The discussion had to do with whether having all of the help for all of the systems - even ones that are not purchased - is a good strategy. I think it is. I think it is good so that, if in the right area of the help text, the user can read about something they haven't purchased in the hopes that it explains why what they thought would happen - such as a check box being enabled - did not happen - they didn't purchase a system option. It would irritate me to access a window and have a check box disabled and to go to the help and not be able to read why that check box is disabled. I pepper the documentation I write with a lot of "If you have purchased the [blah] system option, the [whatever] check box is eneabled."
What I really like about John's comment is that it is very true in my experience. Every contact you have with either an existing or a potential client is crucial in [all together now] "this uncertain economy."
On a side note, I think that there is a lot going on at work that is positive. I am a member of a project team - I'll call it the Pear project - that is revamping our documentation. It is really exciting to be in the center of an initiative that will improve our documentation. I am certain it will, ultimately, end up with even more work for me to do. I was also invited to a design review meeting on Monday. This project I'll refer to as the Orange project. I got involved more than I initially thought I was going to - since it was the first meeting I was in regarding the project being discussed - but I eventually chimed in and convinced the others in the room that what I proposed was a better approach. It only took 1 hour, 45 minutes.
Both of those projects have meetings to continue the project. I meet with the Orange project team members on Wednesday @ 11. I have an Pear project team meeting on Thursday to review what we will tell the CEO on Friday. I have a couple of other meetings mixed in - status meeting with my (cool) manager, review of recent enhancements to the system, company-wide staff meeting - so that is kind of nice. My wife did notice that I seem to be in more meetings last week and this week.
What I told my neighbor Fred was that I don't mind meetings. Especially with the Orange project, what would happen would be I would get the results of these team meetings to document and if I would question why it was done the way it was, I would be told that was what was decided in the meetings so, basically, don't ask for a change. By attending the Pear meetings, though, I can chime in, as I did on Monday, and offer my suggestion. I am hopeful that I can write more usable documentation. That's the simple goal.
Beyond the Pear and Orange projects, I've been able to knock a few things off my Bucket list. I still have a huge list. I am working my way through a few of them. What I'd like to do is reach a point where I can work on projects as they are routed to me, which I was able to do with a few things this week. My issue, though, is that it seems like I can't really dig into a project without constantly being interrupted for "do you have a minute?" type requests. That's a constant struggle.
That lays out my week.
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