Engineer the Manual Along With the Product

Most technical writers have had the unpleasant experience of finishing a draft of a manual only to discover that engineering made some design changes without telling them—meaning that the manual has to be rewritten.  That in turn makes the product late getting out the door—and of course it’s tech pubs’ fault!  To prevent that kind of problem, learn to engineer the manual along with the product.  In other words, start designing the manual when the engineers start designing the product. 

To accomplish this, you’ll have to accomplish two things:

§         Get in on the product development process

§         Make friends among the engineers

If you are not currently part of the team that works on product development, change that.  Go to product development meetings.  If you aren’t invited, that’s ok—just show up.  After a few times, everybody will assume you’re supposed to be there.  And if you don’t know any of the engineers, strike up an acquaintance.  Ask questions—engineers love to talk about their projects.  They’ll be more likely to give you a heads up when a change is in the offing.

Participating in the product development process reaps big rewards for tech pubs, but it also benefits the other side of the process.  Having “fresh eyes” looking at the product will help ensure safer, better designs as well.