Trendy product documentation has advanced past the only objective of conveying data. It additionally performs a vital position in assembly varied enterprise calls for, comparable to constructing model repute and buyer belief, gross sales enablement and advertising help – together with consumer adoption and engagement. At its core, fashionable product documentation should be intentional, and it should anticipate sure consumer outcomes.
Gone are the times when documentation merely supplied help in establishing options or resolving errors. Right now’s product documentation ought to goal to affect consumer habits, serving each short-term and long-term outcomes. Technical writers can accomplish these targets by adopting a proactive method and crafting purpose-driven documentation.
This weblog submit explores the importance of figuring out a user-centric objective when writing product documentation and sustaining it all through the doc to ship intentional, outcome-focused assist articles. Whether or not you’re a seasoned technical author or a newbie looking for to reinforce your abilities, this submit goals that can assist you unravel the philosophy and technique behind writing purposeful paperwork so you’ll be able to grasp the artwork of writing fashionable product documentation.
The contents of this submit:
Creating purposeful paperwork includes a two-step course of. The preliminary step entails figuring out an appropriate objective for the doc, whereas the following step focuses on persistently sustaining and delivering this objective all through everything of the doc.
Figuring out the aim of a doc
It’s essential to know from the outset that the aim of your documentation ought to be your consumer’s real-world end result.
As an example, let’s write a assist article about establishing a channel supervisor integration.
A transparent title, “The best way to arrange X integration,” establishes consumer expectations from the start.
The introductory paragraph supplies background data, addressing questions on who can carry out the duty, the place it suits inside the system, why it’s crucial, when it’s executed, and what the combination is about. This paragraph serves as a concise but wealthy abstract of the duty at hand.
The primary content material of the “The best way to…” assist article usually includes an ordered, step-by-step checklist of exact directions.
It is value highlighting right here that the technical author’s job and the aim of the article shouldn’t be depending on whether or not the consumer efficiently units up the combination. The consumer’s true objective is to extend income with the channel supervisor bookings derived from establishing the combination.
To reiterate, the consumer’s objective shouldn’t be studying the assistance article to “arrange an integration” however to “obtain channel supervisor bookings and enhance income.”
Figuring out the one true objective of your doc means figuring out the consumer’s real-world objective.
As soon as the true objective is recognized, sustaining it all through the doc turns into important, making certain what I check with as “Purity of Objective”.
Purity of objective
Purity of objective means attaching a singular recognized objective to your documentation and sticking to it all through.
Overloading the doc with a number of functions at greatest confuses customers and at worst deters them from the first meant objective. When your doc by no means wavers from its one true objective – “Enhance income from channel supervisor bookings” for instance – it provides lot extra worth to your consumer than simply “establishing an integration”.
Purity of objective makes the author’s job that a lot less complicated and extra streamlined: to incorporate all data important to attain this real-world objective. Sustaining purity of objective brings about varied far-reaching advantages, together with:
- Establishing clear expectations for each the author and the consumer
- Enhancing the readability and effectiveness of the documentation
- Streamlining content material to forestall overwhelming customers with irrelevant particulars
- Facilitating higher content material administration via distinct categorization of content material
Purity of objective in publication channels
Purity of objective additionally extends to the content material publication channels past the standard assist database. This contains launch notes pages, e-mail communications, in-app assist sources, and assist chatbots, amongst others.
By extrapolating the idea of purity of objective from product documentation to those publication channels, organizations can establish the one true objective for every content material channel.
As an example, launch notes could goal for “easy consumer adoption of recent options” reasonably than merely “broadcasting new options.” Equally, a assist web page ought to try to advertise “customers selecting self-service to resolve points” reasonably than mere passive studying of assist articles.
Sustaining consistency throughout product documentation and all content material publication channels with this “purity of objective” method yields vital real-world outcomes for organizations, together with the event of a self-sufficient group of “tremendous customers”.
Tremendous customers and their significance
Tremendous customers are these product customers who possess a deep understanding of tips on how to leverage product options to their benefit. They play a pivotal position in driving characteristic adoption and contributing to the success of each the product and the group.
Tremendous customers actively have interaction with the product and add worth to the consumer group. They’re the “influencers” of your consumer community. You could find them in your group’s energy consumer curve.
Tremendous customers willingly share their information inside the product group and like self-service for downside decision. A rise within the variety of tremendous customers who’re motivated to self-serve means decrease buyer help prices for organizations, as illustrated within the determine beneath.
Mews’ dedication to user-oriented content material
In my position because the Content material Supervisor at Mews, I’ve the privilege of guiding a devoted crew of technical writers who pursue a purpose-driven method, aiming to encourage self-service capabilities amongst our customers. Our major focus is creating user-centric and outcome-based paperwork. Right here’s an illustration of our method:
You’ll be able to see that though the title is “Including minibar objects…” the sections within the article cowl all the knowledge that will allow the consumer to activate the characteristic and eventually view the added objects within the buyer’s invoice utilizing the Mews app. That’s the real-world end result that the consumer desires to attain. The article additionally informs the consumer concerning the exceptions to this motion, proper originally.
Abstract
The essence of recent product documentation lies in its purity of objective. Writing purely purposeful product documentation provides quite a few advantages for customers, writers, and organizations alike. By creating purpose-driven documentation, technical writers can domesticate a group of tremendous customers who can fulfill their real-world functions.
Technical Writers within the present enterprise surroundings want to put in writing product documentation with the goal of making product tremendous customers by figuring out and satisfying their real-world objective. Write with the purity of that objective!