Lavacon 2012: Building Profitability into your Process

Also known as…

 Building a Return on Investment through your
Table of Contents
 How to Build Profitability into Your Process
 Technical Documentation as a Revenue Generator
 Assessing Your Corporate Value

AND

$$$ SHOW ME THE MONEY $$$


ROI out of your TOC

TechPubs becomes the most
pivotal department for a
company’s continued success.


What this presentation isn’t about

 It’s not about cutting cost – This presentation discusses why and
how you can show your value through demonstrating increased
profitability.

 It’s not about spreadsheets or formulas – Since every company
has a financial or cost center, we’ll focus more on the how and why
a company’s investment in TechPubs leads to improved internal and
external customer experience which directly influences increased
profitability.

 It’s not about the procedures you use – It’s about why you use
them. Check that your procedures align with a strategy that
communicates your value.


What this presentation is about

 It’s a mindset – This presentation is designed to build a mindset.
ROI’s can be show through spreadsheets and metrics, but you have
to understand the concept of revenue first to set up your
environment.
 It’s informative – Part of a revenue mindset is to look and discover
value. How valuable is the information you work with and does it
extend beyond process?
 It’s educational – How do you incorporate a business strategy into
a work flow? How do you execute this?
 It’s challenging – You have to move out of your comfort zone to
make it happen. The rewards can be great!
 It’s an evolution – Technical Writers move into Knowledge Brokers.


So, why listen to us?
Christopher Ward Emmelyn Wang
Director of Sales, WebWorks President, STC Austin

4 years of military service in Sr. Technical Writer Consultant,
Army Intelligence High Tech Companies

 Taught to separate Adjunct Professor,
procedure from strategy Austin Community College
and to look at both
differently  Over 10 years of technical
communication (TC)
3 Years with Dell Computers experience across industries.
Impact includes communicating
 Applied analysis the value of quality teamwork,
experience to business the work, and most importantly,
world the process.

 Over 5 years of experience
recruiting, hiring, training, and
building teams both in the
corporate world and for non-
profits.


Why are WebWorks and
STC Austin partnering?

Show how and why TC professionals can
make a critical difference that is measurable
in the company’s overall profitability.
Why is it important that you communicate
the value of your work to help them move
away from just focusing on cost reduction.

 WebWorks was founded 20 years ago and  Every department has the same goals.
innovates and empowers TC professionals Externally to improve the customer
to meet their clients' needs. experience, internally it is to build value
for the company.
 The Society for Technical Communication
is an international non-profit that serves  Customers include both people internal to
TC professionals in academia and in the organization as well as customers
industry from a grassroots level. outside of the organization—basically
anyone who is using the information you
manage.

Why Technical Writers
need to evolve into
Knowledge Brokers
…knowledge is now, and will be, the basic economic resource; value is
created via productivity and innovation. The leading social groups will be
knowledge workers, "who know how to allocate knowledge to productive
use," and "practically all of these knowledge people will be employed in
organizations" (p.8). So "the economic challenge of the post-capitalist
society will therefore be the productivity of knowledge work and the
knowledge worker‖

Clay Spinuzzi's blogpost about post capitalistic society
http://spinuzzi.blogspot.com/search?q=knowledge+workers


Consider this…

The integrity of the content you provide as well as the accessibility
and searchability of that content sits at the core value of your
business model. These three factors positively impact a company’s
profitability.

 ―According to The Gartner Group, poor data quality negatively impacts a company’s bottom
line by an average of $8.2 million annually in operational inefficiencies, lost sales and
unrealized new opportunities.

 In addition, a Forrester research study reveals that only 12 percent of companies actually
use customer intelligence to drive key business functions and corporate strategy. That
means that 88 percent are putting up with the waste, inefficiencies and lost opportunities
that dirty data creates. Companies that commit to data quality use their knowledge of
customers and prospects to maximize top-line and bottom-line results.‖

– White paper "Gaining the Data Edge:
How ongoing data maintenance spurs growth" August 2012


Why Start with Business Strategy?

 ―The Evolution of Online Help‖ – white paper on help systems
and how they are evolving to meet the need of the end user.
 Short follow up survey asking technical communicators what
the primary objectives of their technical writing roles were:
– 95% believed that technical communication is in need of
evolution
– 89% have seen change in technical communication throughout
their career
– Top objective as a technical communicator:
• 49% weighed more heavily on being user friendly
• 35% said to provide accurate information
• 13% put importance on strategic business goals – of the 13% almost all
were tenured technical writers of more than 10 years, with only two
falling in the 6 to 10 years of experience range


Why Start with Business Strategy?


Why Procedures Must Align with Strategy
The principle without the technique is useless.
The technique without the principle is dangerous.
– George Ohsawa

Strategy/Principle

WHY
Reason:
1. Ayurvedic and Macrobiotic dietary principles to increase energy, stamina, and promote
natural healing.
2. Run marathon without injury. Continuous running causes acute and long-term injuries.

Procedures/Technique

HOW
Method:
1. Prepare vegan meals + focus on raw fruits and veggies, balance pH.
2. Jeff Galloway’s method to slowly build up mileage by adding in walk breaks.


In the field


In the field with the new procedure


Dogfooding

How do I discover a strategy that makes sense for my procedure
and vice versa?
 Start small.
 Find a venue to try out your ideas.
 Set up a pilot program to understand how people, processes, and
content fit together.
 Value can be found in slight changes to interactions.
 Continually think about the Big Picture.
Yes, this does sound Agile…

Porter’s General Strategies – apply to any company
in any industry

Strategy Examples
 Cost Leadership
– Can you maintain number
one?
– Continuously find ways of
reducing Cost
– Too focused on cutting cost
and can't react to customer's
changing needs


in any industry

Strategy Examples
 Differentiation Strategy
– Have to always be different
from the competition
(ecosystem)
– Have to be able to clearly
deliver your value message
– Focusing efforts on a feature
that does not provide value to
the market


in any industry

Strategy Examples
 Focus Strategy
– Company focuses on a niche
market and develops products
for that market only
– Can be either Differentiation,
or Cost Leadership with focus
on that niche market
– Same pitfalls of other strategy
as well as missing the
changes in the market


Technical Documentation
can increase profitability
no matter what strategy a
company decides on!


What does this mean for us?
 Audience Poll

 We must not get lost in our role alone.
We must learn how to keep a 30,000
foot view.

 Yes, this means that you will need to
learn how to sell by properly scoping
your work and building a business case
for the value of your work. Once you’ve
done your legwork, speak with authority
and be confident about the value of your
work.

You can’t ignore this, however…

 Just like choosing the red or blue pill doesn’t
change the fact that ―the matrix‖ still exists.

 The revenue mindset is a choice.


Technical content becomes pivotal to a company’s
success. How? By supporting the overall business
strategy and retaining customers.
PRE-SALES
Everything from the company website to architecture/manufacturing specs and proof of
concepts (POC) to marketing collateral, technical documentation is what sales teams turn to
to support their revenue generating endeavors.

Semiconductors – An advanced data brief may be the only POC a marketer has to get his/her chip built
into an OEM board.
Consumers – often look at technical documentation to influence purchasing behavior.

POST SALES
Customer service and support teams turn to technical documentation for answers to follow
through on sales.

MAINTAINING CUSTOMER RELATIONS AND REFERRALS
Customers keep turning back to companies that provide accurate, accessible, searchable
information and a responsive customer experience.

Total Customer Experience

Marketing – Addresses a specific audience, but not a specific problem.
Just flashy enough to get someone’s attention and get out in front of
someone. Total Customer Experience.
Sales – Drill down to needs specific to the customer’s environment and
provide a solution to those needs.
Usage – 90% of the customer’s experience and responsible for
promoting product value and customer loyalty to increase repeat
business. During this phase of the process Help Documentation is the
first opportunity a business will have to influence the customer and try
to increase loyalty, product value and cut down on Customer Defection.


What Kind of Problem is Customer Defection?

 The Harvard Business Review stated that the average business
loses 50% of their customers every five years.

 61% of consumers take their business to a competitor when they
end a business relationship.

 RightNow Technologies says 73% of customers leave because they
are dissatisfied with customer service, but the company losing the
customer thinks only 21% leave because of customer service.


What are the Benefits of Retaining Customers?

 Acquiring new customers can cost as much as 5 times more than
satisfying and retaining current customers.

 A 2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as
decreasing costs by 10%.

 Reducing customer defection rate by 5% can increase profitability
anywhere from 25% to 125% depending on the industry.


Linchpin

Seth Godin says...
 The hard work is being brave enough to make a difference.
 Until you name, recognize, and deal with the resistance (of
what feels threatening, risky, or generous), you will stay
frustrated.
 Indispensable linchpins are not waiting for instructions, but instead,
figuring out what do next. If you have a job where someone tells you
what to do next, you've just given up the chance to create value.
 If value is created by what you choose to do...deciding to overcome
the anxiety (false fear) associated with leading and connecting is the
choice that few are willing to make. Linchpins don't work in a
vacuum. Your personality and attitude are more important than the
actual work product you create, because indispensable work is work
that is connected to others.


Do you follow me so far?

 Technical Documentation becomes pivotal to a company’s success
through supporting the overall business strategy and retaining
customers

 You have to have the proper workflow to do this

 The proper workflow will allow for analysis of information,
continuous improvement and customer involvement


Measure your Success!

 A successful system will always have a way to measure success.
SMART Goals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMART_criteria#Developing_SMART_goals

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound

 Historical data wins it for the long haul, so keep records!
Quantify and Qualify.

 Brag, Brag, Brag and when you are done brag some more.

 Measure yourself through feedback mechanisms
Example: Software Advice.

Likes
• Comments
How to Measure • Shares
• Clicks
ROI through
Social Channels Follows
• Retweets
―The Death of SEO: The Rise of • Mentions
Social, PR, and Real Content‖ • Favorites

– Forbes
Views
• Comments
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenk • Shares/Likes
rogue/2012/07/20/the-death-of- • Connections
seo-the-rise-of-social-pr-and-
real-content/
Views
• Subscribe
• Comments
• Favorites
• Promoted

Blog Views
• Comments
• Link Love
• Shares
• RSS Feed Subscriptions

Example of Increased End User Experience
Through Analytics

Impact graph showing online help system deployed using WebWorks Reverb Help Format
showing a nearly 100% increase in page views over company’s Wiki documentation and
nearly 400% increase over traditional online html help system over six week period.

Reverb Help included Google Search integration and consideration for search engine
performance, including page specific parameters.

In Closing

 Today, Technical Publications becomes the most pivotal department
in a company’s Success

 Technical Documentation
can increase profitability no
matter what strategy the
company decides on, with
the proper workflow and the
mindset of a KNOWLEDGE
BROKER.

 Measure your success.

 It’s your choice…


Follow Me
Christopher Ward Emmelyn Wang
Email address: Email address: emmelyn@live.com
christopher@webworks.com
LinkedIn:
Twitter: @WebWorksChris http://www.linkedin.com/in/emmelyn

Facebook: Twitter: @LifeWingmate
https://www.facebook.com/WebWorks
Chris Google+:
emmelyn.wang@gmail.com
Company Facebook:
www.facebook.com/WebWorksePublis Facebook:
her. http://www.facebook.com/emmelyn.w

My Blog: Corporate Blog:
http://blogs.webworks.com/christopher/ http://www.dovetailsoftware.com/blog/emm
elyn


Question & Answer


Appendix


Presentation Terms

 Techpubs – technical documentation departments.

 Technical Documentation – content that has already been vetted to deliver the intended
message.
 Technical Documentation Process – The Workflow that includes processes and
procedures to gather, develop and deliver Technical Documentation.

 Technical Content – the core technical content before and or after a tech writer
curates/publishes.

 Information – all communications produced and collected by a company, (verbal and non-
verbal) for the purpose of technical content.

 Content Creation – the process of turning information in to technical content.

 Pre-Publishing – the process of determining how to display content on a specific medium.

 Publishing – delivering content to the intended user.

 Next Slide – leaving this slide and finally starting the presentation with the topic of
Business Strategy.


Posted the results and asked Why

Posted the results to Technical Writing World and here were some
comments:
 ―I think that it takes time for new technical writers to understand how their day-to-day work
impacts business goals, and to make the connections necessary to be in the loop
regarding those goals. Veterans are more likely to be in management positions where they
must focus directly on budgets, politics, and the interests of the corporation as a whole. If
we flip this on its head, perhaps the data indicates that technical writers can further their
careers by focusing more on strategic goals.‖

 What your results perhaps show is the more experienced tech writers are more likely to get
that, but the fact that that number is only 13% is actually pretty terrifying for the future of the
profession. If it wants to stay relevant, tech pubs has to start thinking of itself as a business
process.

http://technicalwritingworld.com/forum/topics/the-true-objective-of-a-technical-writer-does-
strategy-even


From ITJobCafe with updated statistics that support Dr. Clay
Spinuzzi's knowledge worker ideas in a post-capitalistic
society:
Big Data to Create 1.9M Jobs in U.S. by 2015 But there aren’t enough skilled people to fill the
jobs, say Gartner analyst. There were a lot of reasons for Gartner researchers to give a
gloomy economic outlook at its Symposium/ITxpo conference, especially after the latest
round of quarterly reports from Intel, IBM and others. But the picture painted by Peter
Sondergaard, Gartner's head of research, was upbeat in a surprising way. Gartner isn't
revising its global IT growth forecast significantly, which remains down from the initial
expectations for this year. But Garter's relatively flat revenue forecast isn't being carried
over to jobs, at least in one sector of IT: big data. Big data, which refers to data collected
and analyzed from every imaginable source, is becoming an engine of job creation as
businesses discover ways to turn data into revenue, says Gartner. By 2015, it is expected
to create 4.4 million IT jobs globally, of which 1.9 million will be in the U.S. Applying an
economic multiplier to those jobs, Gartner expects that each big data IT job added to the
economy will create employment for three more people outside the tech industry in the
U.S., adding six million jobs to the economy. That's the kind of estimate that presidential
candidates, if they focused on IT's impact on the economy instead of fossil fuel fracking
and pipelines, might jump on. But Sondergaard's estimate included a caveat - namely, that
there's a shortage of skilled workers. (continued on next slide)


...continued
(…continued from previous slide)

Only a third of the big data jobs will be filled. 'There is not enough talent in the
industry,' said Sondergaard. '[Education] is failing us.' Griff Law, the CTO of
Northeast Georgia Health System, said it is difficult to fill data analytics jobs, and
IT jobs in general. 'From a healthcare perspective, I can certainly see the
demand,' said Law, noting that his company has had 15 open positions for the
last six months. About six of those jobs involve data analytics, whether as
business analysts who can use BI and big data analytics tools or clinical
analysts, who, in addition to IT skills, are helped by data skills. The company also
has openings requiring other types of IT skills, including network engineers. This
push by businesses to make money from their digitizing efforts will lead to new
types of jobs in the next few years, specifically, chief digital officers.

(continued on next slide…)


...continued
(…continued from previous slide)

By 2015, Gartner predicts that 25% of organizations will have a chief digital officer. Overall,
Gartner expects IT spending to rise to $3.7 trillion worldwide next year, a 3.8% increase
over this year. But that growth projection has been a moving target, especially with major
vendors facing an uncertain economy. The clearest indication of how that uncertainty
weighs on companies came not from the IT sector, but from McDonald's Corp. CEO, Don
Thompson. 'When the economic crisis began in 2008, few people thought the environment
would still be as uncertain and fragile as it is today,' said Thompson, according to a
transcript of his remarks on Seeking Alpha. 'It is clear however that this operating
environment is the new normal,' he said. If people aren't buying $1 fries, will their appetite
for electronics suffer as well? IBM cited an overall slowdown in consumer spending in its
most recent earnings report. In the third quarter, IBM generated $24.7 billion in revenue,
down 5% from the same quarter in 2011. Meanwhile, Intel reported a $2.97 billion profit in
its latest quarter, compared to $3.47 billion in the same quarter last year. Intel CEO Paul
Otellini blamed the economy. AMD also noted economic concerns last week when it said it
was laying off 1,800 of its 11,813 employees. 'The PC industry is going through a period of
very significant change that is impacting both the ecosystem and AMD,' CEO Rory Read
said in a statement. Still, Gartner says consumer demand for tech devices continues to
rise. In 1980, consumers spent less than 1% of their discretionary budget on technology;
it's about 3.5%.

(Courtesy: Patrick Thibodeau Computerworld)

Image Credits
Be Social
https://help.github.com/

Collaboration is everything
http://www.peoplesfreespace.org/vision.html

Crossword
Center for Corporate Leadership: Boston College Carroll School of Management
http://blogs.bcccc.net/2009/06/conquering-the-challenge-of-business-education-
collaboration/

Don't Give Up Trying to Find Your Way...
http://pinterest.com/pin/186547609535621975/

Red Pill, Blue Pill
http://captionsearch.com/pix/thumb/al45blfhqk-t.jpg
http://www.agilitrix.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/redblue_pill.jpg

What Makes Good Information Design?
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/11/10/the-visual-miscellaneum/


Lavacon 2012: Building Profitability into your Process

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