What exactly is technical writing?
You might think that it is all about manuals, and instructions. Or perhaps architectural blueprints, or even the coding of the machines that produce things.
In an industrial setting that tends to split functions, we also tend to see a task as related to “our” function – where we are placed in the big picture, thereby leaving all the rest of the story to be told by others.
And maybe it has to be like that to be practical. After all, in a company with, say, 200,000 employees, producing thousands of different products across the world, to be sold on many markets, to many different people, you really can’t be in touch with everyone through all of this, can you?
I will claim that you can. And should!
Just like the product itself will be known by anyone from the initial inventors and designers over the production staff, the packagers, the distributors and resellers, and actually all the way through the recyclers – also the descriptions of the product can follow the product all the way.
Of course, different people need different information, but they all need some. By designing a totally covering package of information, you can control much of what is happening with and around your product, thereby avoiding unpleasant surprises such as a bad reputation for your product or your company, and shitstorms or other negatives in the public communication space.
Some of the places where technical writing is needed
The design process, for communicating the details between people involved in developing the product. This is both technical staff, including engineers, architects, designers, etc., depending on the product type, and people from the supply chain, sales, production, marketing, etc., who all need to be involved in decisions around a new product, to make sure that it can be produced and sold, and that materials can be sourced, and the product’s full lifecycle can be handled properly.
Production planning, where machines need to be purchased or made, space for the production itself arranged, as well as for all parts and their delivery paths, and needed ventilation and other safety equipment to be established. The product has properties and specifications that must be observed when planning all this.
Packaging design, where the product will need bags, boxes, pallets, etc., and both the visual appearance of the sales box or bulk packagings need to be considered, and also the practical aspects of how the product can be stacked (or not), and which conditions it requires when transported. Different versions of the products, or different sets (with different accessories) may then need careful considerations to ensure that there is an easy packaging process and also a clear way for resellers and customers to differ the products from each other.
Distribution and reseller nets, where many people need technical details of the product, including all procurement and sales people along the sales paths, but also those dealing with customs and other regulations. A carrier who transports the product, or many of them, will need to know about safety concerns, which chemicals are contained in the product package, etc., and every single person who ever needs to pick the right package should be able to do so based on product knowledge and the information on the box. Catalogues and part lists are needed, and so are specifications of related products, especially when a product is shipped in several boxes that need to go together.
Shops, be they internet or physical shops, need to show the product and describe it to potential buyers. They also need to know such as the size and weight of a box, to be able to both store it and ship it correctly. Most often, they will need a list of key information about the product, to be able to advise the customer and prepare various sales material. Everything to be sold through webshops should better be provided with a set of info, including headline, description, fact box info, pictures, etc., to reduce the risk that the shope does this wrongly (copy-paste errors are frequent in this space).
End users, who will need to know all about the product and its different features, how to use, maintain, clean, and dispose of it, and how to choose between different versions of the product.
Technical and other supporters, who need to assist anyone along the way, such as the end user or someone else who has anything to do with the product. There can be different levels of support, having different people involved with different needs for information, but they all need to know something about the product and how to use it.
Recyclers, who deliver an increasingly important part of the product lifecycle, will need to know which materials the product is made of, how it can be separated into its different materials, and how it all needs to be handled to provide a safe environment for the recycler and avoid pollution.
If you consider technical writing to be all about writing a manual, you’ll depend on various other people along the way to be able to extract from the manual what is needed for all of these, and more, situations of handling the product.
That requires a lot of trust in their skills! People who you don’t know, and who don’t know the product, should then be trusted to be able to understand all the details of the product and even be able to guide others.
Of course, this will lead to frustrating situations, unhappy customers, and probably both bad reviews and a shorter life for your product.
What to do
Whatever your product is and however you distribute it, it will make sense to consider the full path of the product from early idea to completely recycled, and find out what kind of information each of the people who will ever get involved will need.
This effort should lead to not just one manual, but a set of information, including such as:
Technical drawings, parts lists, etc. for production
Guidelines regarding manufacturing and the equipment needed
Guidelines regarding transportation and storage of the product
Guidelines regarding safety, including such as dealing with leaking chemicals, extinguishing fires, etc., plus safety when transporting and using the product
Guidelines regarding practical use of the product, not just the straight-forward cases, but also the special situation that some users will run into. Describe carefully both what the product can and cannot do.
Guidelines to supporting the product, especially regarding typical problem situations and typical errors and situations where the product may break.
Marketing input, to ensure that whoever design any kind of marketing material will have relevant information to put there.
Sales info, to ensure correct lisings and descriptions in webshops and similar.
Box designs, meaning texts and images to be used on the product boxes and similar material. Some of this design will be up to marketing or product planning people (for instance, guidance on how to open the package or why the customer should buy this product) but various practical information about all the parts contained in the package, how to assemble these, what additional products (for instance consumables) are needed, etc. will need to be made available to the package designers.
Everything about the materials used and how they must be recycled or disposed of. This is relevant to many people along the way, including the ultimate recyclers, but also anyone who, along the way, experience a damaged product.
All of this information, most significantly, should be available in a form and a language that suits the people who’ll need it.
Current state
I have seen many product manuals for all kinds of products, from household machines over cars and trucks, to industrial equipment, and from food packaging over end-user medicine descriptions (inlay notes) to medical study reports. My impression is that most of the needs for documentation have been recognized by the manufacturers, but very often it has been provided in a generic way that often doesn’t fit the situation where it is needed, or the people who need it.
A hospital bed may be equipped with some information directly on the bed (through printed or stamped text, or stickers) for the personnel at the hospital to use. In this special field, the information is often very well-designed for specific use cases. Nevertheless, a manual will often be needed, and perhaps also a course, to get started, as the messages on the product itself tend to be rather diminutive.
In such a professional environment like a hospital, the needs for information will be covered, simply because they have to be, and the hospital itself, or some consultants hired for the purpose, might create and share any missing information themselves.
In less professional environments, however, it often goes wrong. It is typical for a shop to not be able to help a customer with information about a product, for instance, because all the knowledge they have access to is the sparse, advertising-like, text snippets on the product carton.
Support telephones (or increasingly FAQs, etc.) often just ignore any request for practical, technical information, because they don’t have it, or they cannot spend the needed time to provide it.
A manufacturer can do a lot here, by providing useful information in a format suited for the different people who need it – for a customer support, for instance, an easy-to-overview list of needs-to-know, typical problems, and practical guidelines, would be very helpful.
Of course, it is not all on the manufacturer’s shoulders, as a shop might be run in a diminutive way that deliberately exclude the technical support and simply either ignore their customers’ needs or by standard just pay back the money.
Your choice
Which kind of manufacturer would you prefer to be:
The supportive, informative manufacturer with happy, returning customers
The distant (maybe even unknown) manufacturer who sells one item to each customer, after which these decide to never buy any of your products again
That’s actually the kind of choice you’re making when deciding on your strategy for how you provide technical documentation.