Technical Communications, when it is considered at all, is often thought of as providing the ‘necessary evil’ product manual, to be consulted only in an emergency, just prior to ‘throwing an offending device out the window’. Hence the ubiquitous technical support acronym ‘RTFM‘.
Actually, end-user product manuals are invariably and simply the tip of the iceberg. In many cases, technological products are unusable in isolation (for example a CPU), having no direct end user, and are merely components for integration into more complex and complete products. The vast majority of technical communications are therefore internal or for the use of engineers.
Technical communicators take on the persona of the technology user, acting as their advocate in terms of overall product usability. As such, an important part of the role is to ask ‘stupid questions’ of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), eliciting and analysing information which SMEs may regard as ‘obvious’. Perhaps surprisingly, this means that technical communicators may need far less prior knowledge of particular technologies and industries than many recruiters suppose. Nevertheless, such knowledge is valuable, enabling a quicker learning curve for companies’ particular technical communication needs.
In many cases, especially for smaller organisations where there is less specialisation, technical communicators provide a valuable resource in essential and related areas such as IT, marketing, business analysis, auditing, financial and legal. Even non-technical businesses must fulfil legal (and ethical!) requirements in such areas as managing hazardous substances, even seemingly-benign cleaning products.
Smart product development teams, whatever their workflow methodology, embrace the technical communications role from inception, appreciating its value in terms of optimised UI, customer satisfaction, minimised support requirements and ultimately, success.
Please contact us today to discuss your technical communications requirements.