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I think that organizations, in order share information well internally, should make certain people "writers" who get extract information from their colleagues a

I think that organizations, in order share information well internally, should make certain people "writers" who get extract information from their colleagues and convey it to the team. They would be like the secretary in a meeting, but more ubiquitous. This would be part of their job description and KPIs and compensation. I've seen organizations I think would benefit from this kind of role (both in the technical sector, and outside it). Unfortunately, it's been void for a long time-- and one that's not able to be "enabled" by some new technology (meaning that organizations could have been doing it already if they saw value in it). I think the long-standing fact that it remains a void probably means it's an idea that won't ever gain traction. I'd love to see some case studies or hear anecdotes about businesses that either had-but-eliminated such roles, or businesses that developed such roles. I've worked in organizations where talented people handle this work adjunct to their "real job". I've been amazed and delighted to be able to refer to documentation in those organizations where it existed. I've also seen those people leave and witnessed the product of their work lay fallow and "rot". I've seen some documentation come out of more scientific-oriented technical industries (think 'Theory of Operation' texts accompanying old lab instruments) that are just wonderful. I get a real sense of "we have our stuff together" when I see that kind of documentation in a Customer-facing situation, and it gives me a (potentially false, of course) sense that the manufacturer really knows what they're doing if they can bother to produce documentation like that in a Customer-facing scenario. ("Imagine how good their internal documentation must be?") Then again, I'm apparently an odd duck because I get a lot of satisfaction out of creating and using good documentation.

jschwartzi 7y ago
> I've seen some documentation come out of more scientific-oriented technical industries (think 'Theory of Operation' texts accompanying old lab instruments) that are just wonderful. I often use documentation as a gauge for how engaged a company is in making sure their product works in a way that makes sense. I've dropped part manufacturers before because they handed me documentation during evaluation that doesn't make any sense. Like the words are all on the page and someone obviously spent time writing the documentation but they don't make sense, like nobody actually read it. My bottom line there is that I'm not going to waste my time emailing you every time I need to solve a new problem with your product. I pride myself on being able to respond to questions about how our product works and I refuse to become the middleman between our end customer and your sales engineer. The first product I dropped for this was a thermal printer. After reading the documentation 3 times front to back I could not figure out what command to send the thing to make it issue a printout. I had to email the manufacturer for an explanation of the most important thing a printer can do.

jschwartzi 7y ago

> I've seen some documentation come out of more scientific-oriented technical industries (think 'Theory of Operation' texts accompanying old lab instruments) that are just wonderful. I often use documentation as a gauge for how engaged a company is in making sure their product works in a way that makes sense. I've dropped part manufacturers before because they handed me documentation during evaluation that doesn't make any sense. Like the words are all on the page and someone obviously spent time writing the documentation but they don't make sense, like nobody actually read it. My bottom line there is that I'm not going to waste my time emailing you every time I need to solve a new problem with your product. I pride myself on being able to respond to questions about how our product works and I refuse to become the middleman between our end customer and your sales engineer. The first product I dropped for this was a thermal printer. After reading the documentation 3 times front to back I could not figure out what command to send the thing to make it issue a printout. I had to email the manufacturer for an explanation of the most important thing a printer can do.