Technical Communication: State of the Industry

By Bernard Aschwanden | Associate Fellow and 2015–2016 STC President

In defining the industry of technical communication, I think we should start with a question that may seem to have an obvious answer. What is the role of technical communication teams within businesses, governments, and nonprofits? I believe it’s not to write, edit, illustrate, index, collate, print, review, or whatever the standard “help wanted” ads say when someone looks for a new hire in our field. While all of these are part of a daily techcomm job, the core reason technical communication exists is to help companies, governments, and nonprofit organizations deliver services and generate revenue.

Technical communicators are responsible for getting information from few to many, enabling them to achieve specific and often measureable goals. Technical communication is about understanding audiences and ensuring that every part of our work is done to meet the needs of the audience. This includes all aspects of content planning and creation, management of that information, delivery in multiple formats, socializing of the message, and then listening to audience feedback and improving the content, process, and strategy. And our audience, like everything else we deal with, is constantly evolving.

Our industry is evolving in the same way. We’ve become better at sharing best practices, planning and implementing a strategy, and making the business case to management teams on the benefits of investing in documentation and related content. We are moving away from manual processes to automation, away from just text and images to video and multimedia, and we are collaborating with our own sales, support, development, and management teams. This is all done as we move towards an audience who consumes content not only in print, but online using computers, tablets, and phones. In a literal sense, we are creating and sharing more content in a few weeks or months—to a broader and potentially global audience—than we ever have in the past in months or even years.

Technical communicators improve the entire workflow. We manage content, deliver it, socialize the message, listen to feedback, and in doing so, we make it easier for people to do things that were once so complex they were the domain of experts only. An everlasting role of technical communication is to improve the way the masses do complex things and to make it feel easy.

Where Are We Headed?

Tools and technology continue to come together in ways that help us do more with fewer resources. Outsourcing content creation is a trend that continues to grow, so everyone in our field (regardless of their geographic location) needs to be able to stand out to be noticed. That can mean becoming a name-brand presenter, the “go to” expert, or a video sensation. Another way is with clear recognition through a degree or other mechanism (such as one of many certifications available in our field and the related fields of project management and business analysis).

Aside from the change in skills, there is also a lot of change behind the scenes in technology, workflow, and a growing understanding of the value of content. We still have a long way to go in making a clear business case for content, but major corporations are helping us do just that.

What’s Trending?

Leading companies include content as part of their business strategy where the work of a documentation team becomes a powerful tool for generating revenue. For example,

• IBM gave us minimalism in documentation as well as the XML standard called DITA,
• Adobe gave us the Technical Communication Suite,
• Microsoft brought us the ubiquitous Word,
• Apple controls the majority of the world’s access to phones and music, and
• Google makes content not only searchable but also findable.

All of these companies value technical communicators. And outdated discussions around cutting costs are less important when we compare the new revenue we can bring in with solid content and best practices. Trends include structured authoring, video, and including documentation as part of an overall revenue generation strategy.

Structured authoring (either as part of a formal workflow with clear style guides and more formal rules, or as XML-based content such as S1000D or DITA) is becoming the new normal. With standard rules in place, it’s faster to create content, and it’s easier to manage it. Since content is developed around a formulaic system, changes to the content are quick, publishing to multiple formats is simpler, and the ability to reuse materials for unique audiences, products, or platforms is more and more common. From one source we can create many outputs and tailor them to the needs of our varied audiences.

Video as part of a support site has increased in popularity, but taking a standard “installation and configuration” and making it into a video that showcases ease-of-use or best practices means that traditional “how-to”-based content has new life as a part of the sales cycle. A perception of “easier” helps to make the sales decision of today’s informed consumer one that can directly tie revenue to quality content. Even a task like installing floor tiles can be rebranded into a sales tool making it seem faster and easier to do, making one product stand out from others. And the source of this? A set of installation instructions, delivered as a video, branded with a company’s logo, and made to seem effortless.

Documentation as part of the total sales toolkit means that the “writer” role is evolving and changing into a career that is linked to business processes, user analysis, sales and marketing, and helping to generate revenue for a company. Again, the need to cut costs becomes secondary if you can show that your work generates revenue. By being a broker for the knowledge of an organization, we can break down silos and get teams into clear and consistent communications, and use that collected information to build up sales. That means, in essence, that documentation, when done right, is part of the process of making money, not a cost center.

How Will We Get There?

In order to get to know your audience, plan and create content, manage information, deliver in multiple formats, communicate with the audience, and then take the feedback to improve the processes, you first need to understand where you are now. This means you need to do a detailed audit of what you have—people, processes, content, tools—and ensure the base metrics are clear and can be understood. You need to know how this all fits into the tactical implementation of your company strategy around, frankly, its potential to bring in money. If you are in government, then your strategy may revolve around services and related ideas, but most corporations work around the goal of generating profits. Once you know where you are and understand where you want to go, it’s a lot easier to map the process to get there.

After an audit, compare the current state with the ideal future. Identify what needs to be done and what obstacles are in the way. Figure out how to get past the obstacles and, if there is no other option, find another path to get to the goal (go “over, under, around, or through” them). In some cases it may mean reworking processes or even giving up favorites that often fall under the adages “but we’ve always done it this way” or “we always include that” or even “but that means we’d have to change/learn/grow.” Most of us embrace change, but if you don’t, then you may be in for a rude awakening when a business unit fails, is sold, or shuts down because it couldn’t adapt. Consider terms in publishing that once were full-time jobs (e.g., typesetters) which today are relegated to a portion of a dialog box. We need to adapt to stay relevant.

After identification of the ideal future, and an understanding of how to get there, you need to start to implement. This could be massive change or smaller steps, but to deliver what is needed today (and tomorrow) there will be changes, so get used to it. Learn more. Don’t just learn how to click in a dialog, get to know the logic behind the software changes so that you can own that skill. It’s much tougher to outsource thinking, planning, and execution of ideas than it is to outsource page layout, translation, and writing based on notes from others. Become indispensible by showing your value as an agent of change who can help transition documentation to an ideal future where it generates revenue. To paraphrase Jerry Maguire, “show them the money.”

Once you begin to build revenue, the rewards continue to be reaped. Need some training? Sure, it’s an investment. New tools? No problem, they increase the scope of what can be delivered and generate more sales leads. Want to attend a conference, get certified, or have requests for other department “goodies”? Once you show management that your job isn’t to cut costs, it isn’t to write, edit, illustrate, index, collate, print, or review, but rather to provide services and generate revenue, it’s a LOT faster to get what you need. Remember to show them the money using metrics of where you were, and where you are, and how you are going make your contribution a winning business case.

Summary

Once we know our audiences, the tasks of content planning and creation, content management, delivery in multiple formats, and communications all become easier and faster due to new tools and improved process. However, just like a great toolkit is useless without the skills of an electrician or a plumber, all the shared knowledge we have is of no clear value without a better technical communicator.

Our industry is moving toward a lot of new ideas and the best need to stand out. A clear way to differentiate between experts in our field is through membership in organizations like STC, via clear accreditation, and a proven track record. Get your metrics and present them well, build content that connects with the customer, show the link between content and the bottom line, and then collect the rewards.

BERNARD ASCHWANDEN (bernard@publishingsmarter.com) is the founder of Publishing Smarter, an STC Associate Fellow, and currently serving as STC President. Bernard has helped hundreds of companies implement successful solutions. He is focused on publishing better, publishing faster, and publishing smarter. He solves problems and helps companies generate more revenue. He guides clients through the best processes to create, manage, and deliver content. Once delivered, he helps them socialize the message, understand and act on feedback, and improve the process and workflow.