The evolution of a technical writer - from a nobody to a name

As a technical writer in Israel, at one time or another, you are asked to do any or all of the following:

• Proofread confidential letters between members of the board of directors 
• Edit PowerPoint presentations for everyone in the company, including the CEO
• Translate documents into English 
• Edit job offerings 

And as this newbie technical writer you may think to yourself, "Is this what I am meant to do?" The answer clearly is no, but how do you transform yourself from someone who becomes less of a lackey and more of an authority? How do you change the paradigm from being called the "technical writer" to "the name". Meaning if someone was to ask anyone in your company a question you know the answer to and they didn't know the answer, would they tell that person to "go to the technical writer" or would they say "Go to <your-name>". A name has meaning and position, everyone wants to be in a place where everyone knows your name. 

There was even a TV show in the 1980s centered around the concept. Hopefully you know by now that the place where everyone on TV knew your name was called Cheers.

Wouldn't you love to work in a place like the bar that Norm and Cliff went to? Don't you want everyone to yell your name when you come to work? Yes that can happen. Just as Norm was the element that held the bar together (probably because his tab was larger than anyone else), you too can be the glue to your development team, customer service team, QA team, Product Management team, etc and can be the one integral person who is in the know and holds the team together.

By now you are either laughing to yourself, or have ignored me completely because you think that this paradigm shift is not possible. Not only is it possible, but it has happened. Just as it happened to me, it can happen to you as well. Not every solution I am going to present to you will be possible for you to do, but the more of these ideas you are able to do  the easier it will be for you to become "the name".

1.  Be in the know, not only now but all the time 

This may be a bit challenging at first, but the more information you know the more you can share. This means you need to be involved or at least aware of every decision being made about the products you document. Become a fly on the wall at lots of meetings, especially meetings where decisions are made. If you have managers above you who are attending the same meetings, you may opt out of them thinking - X has it covered for me, but what that does is help X become "the name" and you become the person on X's team. If there are meetings you simply cannot attend due to timezone/conflict, make sure you read the minutes and get involved in other channels. You should be at the following meetings:

• Planning meetings
• Progress meetings
• Design Reviews
• Customer Reviews
• etc...

You can spend your entire life at meetings, so choose the meetings that will give you the biggest reward. By that I  mean the meetings that allow you to participate and quickly become a part of the agenda. If the teams you work with agrees to have  a dedicated "docs liaison" to keep you up to speed following their meetings, it lessens the number of people you have to interact with on a daily basis, but don't allow the liaison to become "your voice" for all the meetings. It is best if you are personally involved. After all, it is YOUR NAME you are trying to build here! 

2. Change from being the fly on the wall to a mosquito and then evolve into a butterfly 

Once you have made everyone used to your presence at meetings, start becoming a voice at the meetings. Whenever the opportunity rises, make sure that all parties are thinking about the documentation impact and about the customer. At first you may think you are a nag (ie the mosquito buzzing in someone's ear), but if you persist and make sure that everyone knows who you are and why you are there and the impact you can make on them and on the customer as a whole, the more of a name for yourself you will make. Some suggestions you can use to make this happen include:

• Keep your name in the front of their minds - this will help you everywhere you are and everywhere you go. For those of you who are shy it will be hard, but it will make you on everyone's mind. Just make sure that the feelings associated with your name are positive. 
  
•  Exceed expectation - if you want to become the
  "Go-To-Guy/Gal" (GTG), you will need to go beyond what is expected. Let them see first hand how your services matter, and how you are the go-to person and not the go-for person.  This can be done by committing for x and giving 2x. I am not advocating under committing on projects, but I do think that you should give more than 100% to all you do commit to do. Treat your position like a profession and not like a job. Technical writers provide a service to customers. Consider yourself a service provider, not only to customers but to the rest of the company as well.
• Blog, podcast, or do something else than "just guides" - this has two benefits. First it helps you diversify and collect additional skills and second it lets others see you as more than just a user manual author. Speak at meet-ups, conferences or whatever you can do to round out your portfolio. Become the one who is not only in the know but the one who can do it all. You can even give internal or external training sessions, or create how to guides, and other information pages for your company staff and customers.
• Give people a reason to look for you and recommend you - Make sure to assign yourself one or two action items at every meeting (if at all possible). This way you can report on them at the next meeting giving you a purpose for attending. Once you become "the name" this happens naturally. If it hasn't then you need to do things for people to make an everlasting positive impression. 

If you are thinking "this sounds so much like brand marketing!" it is because it is. The exception is you are the brand you are marketing! 

3.  Weave a fabric of teams together where you are the tailor 

If you have gotten to this point in your career you are in a good place. You are reaping the fruits of your labor. It may take a year, five, or fifteen, but when you get to this point in your career it feels totally awesome. When this happens you can expect any or all of the following:

• Developers will come to you with ideas about a new feature and ask you how you think it will effect the customer.
• Customer Service will come to you and invite you to visit an on-site installation.
• Collaboration is abundant. You will find yourself working on teams that you never thought would value what you think and respect what you do.  You are the glue that holds it all together.
• Everyone will want to know the documentation impact (at the beginning of the product development cycle (ie. the Planning Phase))
• You will be able to make suggestions on how to improve the product without feeling the need to explain yourself
• Individuals when asked will say "Oh you need to go see ----Insert your name here----, about that he/she knows"

When that happens, you have reached the nirvana level of brand-marketing. Enjoy it, you have worked hard to get there! For me working at Red Hat it wasn't only possible for this to happen but did happen and it will for you as well if you make sure you are a name that all can remember. 

Good luck and please share your branding story.