Liz Pohland
STC participates in communicating the value of technical communication for its members in several places, such as on its website, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, through education programs, with certification, and in its journal and magazine. Many of the articles in this issue of Intercom focus on the value of technical communication and in building business cases—for your own work, with your clients, and with your supervisors.
In “Ten Tips for Preparing a Business Case to Successfully ‘Sell’ Major Technical Communication Initiatives,” Saul Carliner provides tips for building a business case or support for your work and funding your technical communication projects. Karen Giventer’s article, “Building a Great Relationship with Your Client,” defends actions you can take, such as setting expectations and communicating regularly, to build strong relationships with your clients. Also related to client-based work, Katherine Brown-Hoekstra shows us how to create an effective statement of work, including defining work components such as scope, deliverables, schedules, costs, and assumptions. And Daniel Maddux, in “The Value of Technical Communication,” takes on the challenging issue of proving your value in your workplace. He believes that we must focus on communicating our value to our employers and stakeholders, and he provides several steps for doing so.
This issue also offers a new column from Scott Abel titled Meet the Change Agents, in which he will interview thought leaders in the field—those behind new ideas, standards, methods, products, and important technologies that change the ways we live and work. This month features a discussion with Ann Rockley, who is named by Scott as “the mother of content strategy.” In the interview, Ann talks about her “unified content strategy” method and describes her experiences with publishing, mobile, and eBooks.
Columnist Jack Molisani’s “Seven Career Lessons I Learned from Selling Ginsu Knives,” explains how the techniques he learned for knife product sales, both in person and in writing, apply frequently to his technical writing and staffing business. They may help you sell your product or yourself.
Join in the discussion of these and other articles on the Intercom website at http://intercom.stc.org. And send your ideas for future issues to me!
alexdombroff@alexanderdombroff.com