Most people who read my blog regularly will probably have a pretty good sense of who I am by now. If you are a technical writer or doc manager and this is your first time reading one of my mid-week brain dumps, let me start by saying that over the last 10 years, I have sat in hundreds of meeting rooms, listened to lots of company pitches, watched a lot of companies succeed and even more fail. In all of that time, I learned to trust my instincts and some basic business principles I learned way back in high school. I have also acquired a number of great mentors (and friends) along the way. If you don’t have a mentor or someone you look up to, I recommend finding one ASAP.

Michael Eisenberg (one of my mentors) has published a Hummus Manifesto. Inspired by his take on things, I’ve come up with my own version -- one that I like to call “the banana manifesto.”

Many years ago, the original founder of Tech-Tav (another one of my mentors) remarked that “if a company is selling bananas, they better make sure they protect and nurture those bananas.” If they don’t, the company won’t last very long. Companies who operate according to the banana manifesto usually succeed, and if they don’t, at least they usually go down in style.

Work is a thing you do, not a place you go. Well said, Cisco people! I could not agree more, especially when it comes to technical writing.

For the past nine years, Tech-Tav’s technical writers have been working with Cisco on a telecommuting basis. It works for us because Cisco recognizes the tremendous cost savings and benefits of being virtual and on-line in real time. I envision that this type of model will become not only more and more accepted in 2011, but encouraged and embraced by an increasing number of employers. The cost savings alone should make telecommuting attractive to employers, but it has taken today’s ubiquitous cell phone, wireless laptops, Skype, et.al. usage to remove the stumbling blocks and clear the way for a new paradigm.

Many companies working in agile environments insist that the writers be on-site exclusively, but we have worked in agile environments remotely and with great success. Tech-Tav is living proof that not only can it be done, but it can be done well.  Commuting 2-4 hours a day drains every part of the system. Imagine how much energy and productivity your people would have if getting to work involved putting on their favorite music, kicking off their slippers and digging in? Employees who are forced to work on-site probably waste 3-5 total hours per day getting ready for and getting to and from the office. Home lives are happier, people are more productive and families are more stable when people are allowed to telecommute and have lives beyond the office.

I got a number of calls yesterday from potential new customers. Within 20 minutes of one of these calls, I was able to send the potential customer CVs, samples and references. How? Because I have a writing staff and I am not a “job shop”. Within an hour, they chose the writer and we arranged an interview for this morning. If they like my writer, they plan to have him start on Sunday. One of the other callers was looking for a technical writer with a particular skill set for an urgent job. I probably don't need to tell you that HONESTY is the best policy. I think that if you don’t have anyone available at that exact moment with those exact skills, then tell the HR manager or the PM that you don’t have the person.  

I was shocked that within half an hour, two other technical writing companies were culling CVs from random applicants for the same job I had turned down. It didn’t occur to me to advertise on every job and technical writing list in Israel because – given the short time frame – it would mean I wouldn’t have time to properly vet any of the applicants. When Tech-Tav recommends or offers a writer for a project, we take more into account than just the CV. Finding suitable candidates means a whole lot more than finding out whether the writer has mastered a certain tool or has a particular number of years of technical writing experience.

I’m not going to share all my secrets on how I successfully recruit and place candidates, but I will tell you this: before you choose a technical writing outsourcer or recruiter, I think you should always ask them the following questions:

Managing remote technical writers – or any employees for that matter – is full of daily challenges. If you are working in a start-up, especially in Israel, management is dynamic and things are constantly in flux. Deadlines can shift a few times within a single day and the target is always moving. You have to know when and how much to push and when to pull back. Documentation project management is really no different, in my opinion: you have to get to know and understand your customers just as you do with your employees and support staff.

A few months back, I had a hysterical customer in the middle of a product release and publishing deadline. Their dedicated technical writer became ill with a nasty stomach bug and, on top of that, is a single dad with no childcare support at home. This was not the time to push him.

A true story:  my friend – let's call her Susan – is three days into a week-long vacation at the beach when she receives an urgent call from her boss insisting she return immediately. Alarmed and surprised by the news that her job is on the line, Susan quickly packs up, says goodbye to the beach-house and somehow manages to avoid a speeding ticket as she races back to the office. She rolls up her proverbial sleeves, ready to receive the assignment so important that it couldn’t wait or be assigned to a coworker. Instead, aforementioned boss says, “We have to lay off 20% of the workforce and unfortunately your position has been eliminated.  As of the end of this meeting, you are terminated. Please clean out your desk and security will escort you out of the building.”