Tough Situations for Technical Communication Managers: Saul Carliner at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

Tom Johnson — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:18:14 +0000

In this video interview, I ask Saul Carliner to give practical tips for handling some of the toughest situations that technical communication managers face, including firing, metrics, frank conversations with underperforming employees, and more. Saul gave a two-day workshop at the STC Summit for technical communication managers.

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Managing Writers: Interview with Richard Hamilton (podcast)

Tom Johnson — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:13:38 +0000

Download MP3 (to download, right-click and select Save Target As)
Length: 35 min.

Richard Hamilton is the author of Managing Writers: A Real World Guide to Managing Technical Documentation. His book, published in 2009, is one of the few books written specifically for managers that addresses the diversity of issues that managers face today – everything from hiring and firing to motivating, metrics, outsourcing, localization, content management, and more.

Managing Writers

Richard describes the book as follows:

Managing Writers is a practical guide to managing technical documentation projects in the real world. It is informal, but concise, using examples from the author’s experience working with and managing technical writers. It looks beyond big project, big team methodologies to the issues faced by smaller, less well-funded projects.

I actually met Richard Hamilton at Doc Train West 2008. At the time, he was still writing his book, but he handed me a brochure describing the book title and its contents. I’m glad to see that some months after our conversation, he published it.

A few weeks ago, Richard sent me a review copy, so I decided to interview him for a podcast. In our conversation, we cover the following:

Hiring and firing employees
What to look for in resumes
Danger points in interviews
Motivating your team
Rating and ranking
Overcoming differences about tools
Measuring success with metrics
The importance of documentation plans
Getting involved early in the software development process
Ensuring proper allocation and balance across your team
Evaluating whether writers need managers

For more information, see Richard Hamilton’s book, Managing Writers. You can also read Richard Hamilton’s blog. He has made a sample chapter available here: What Doc Managers Look for in a Resume.

I'd Rather Be Writing » firing

Tough Situations for Technical Communication Managers: Saul Carliner at the STC Summit in Dallas, #stc10

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Managing Writers: Interview with Richard Hamilton (podcast)

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