Discovering Your Product's Voice

Libby — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:39:04 GMT

Writers often hear about “discovering your voice” when writing fiction. After all, the challenge of fiction writers is to craft a story that is compelling, interesting, and dynamic. Your characters must be likable; your readers must be able to relate to them or else they will simply set your story aside for something more interesting. The voice in fiction is often your character’s or narrator’s voice. It is that voice, the tone, the choice of words, how those words are arranged into sentences, that convey the deeper nuances within good fiction.

I am an avid reader. I revel in delightful, compelling fiction yet my attention can be equally captured by the solid, thought-provoking prose in a non-fiction novel. Good non-fiction has a compelling voice else there would be very few of us who continued to buy non-fiction.

Enter technical writing. Technical writing is non-fiction writing, yet many people (both companies and consumers alike) treat their technical documentation as an afterthought -“We have to document our product because we need to offer online help, user guides, etc. But we know our customers rarely use them.” Why is it that customer’s shy away from the technical documentation offered with products and services?

I think it comes down to voice. Let’s face it, most technical documents are boring. We, as technical writers, try to spice things up, but there are only so many ways you can say “Now, click Next.” Too often, companies are in a rush to get their documentation out with their products. This causes writers to rush – they do their best at getting the information down on paper but have little time to consider the voice of the whole publication. They’re just happy when they meet the ever looming deadline. The documentation gets out, hardly ever gets read, and customer service continues to receive the same types of calls in spite of those issues being thoroughly documented.

Now imagine how things might change if the application or service suddenly became a character. You’d still explain all the technical details about your product. You’d still include all the screen shots, tables and instructions, but the tone would be different. Your product would become the main character and, as such, it would have a distinctive voice. Maybe the voice is more familiar and includes current technology slang if your audience is of a younger generation. Perhaps the voice is more formal, but concise and friendly, for a corporate business audience. Either way, the product takes on its own persona. Your writers have the ability to include more details, tidbit, and side bars about how the application works, its quirks, and, ultimately, its power. The documentation becomes an extension of the product itself instead of simply an afterthought.

Once the documentation becomes an integral part of your product, you’ve opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. High-quality, comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and training materials can then become revenue-generating tools that could set you apart in your industry. Your documentation becomes an integral part of your business, driving sales and providing actual ROI to both you and your clients. Your customer service related calls are reduced. Your clients have more successful implementations and adoptions of your products. In short, you’ve reduced overhead while boosting sales – all because you discovered your product’s voice.

Write Now ... in the world of Technical Communication - Composition

Discovering Your Product's Voice