--- title: "Part VI: Results from the survey correlating org models and tech writer value" date: 2020-07-26 description: "Who took the survey Survey responses Favorite quotes Analyzing survey data Trending highlights Revisiting the Takeaways..." canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/blog/reflecting-seven-years-later-about-layoff-evaluating-survey-data/ --- # Part VI: Results from the survey correlating org models and tech writer value 49 to 99 people isn’t a large number of respondents. However, I allowed for a lot of freeform answers, and if you’ve ever tried to make sense of freeform answers from 50-100 people, you know it’s a lot of work. Also, small sizes are often enough to gather a general trend, and these initial responses could always be used for a follow-up survey that is more informed and which has more precise multiple choice options. Respondents spent an average of 14 minutes completing the survey. Also, presumably they read the post series prior to taking the survey. Given the length of the post series (approximately 11,000 words), respondents probably spent at least 20 minutes reading, which is an indicator of their interest in the topic. I didn’t collect details about companies, sectors, age, gender, years of experience, etc. The survey was meant only to be an informal survey to see if there was any support for a correlation between org models and tech writer value. Also, I used branching in the survey, so if someone indicated that they were never laid off, I didn’t ask them why they think they were laid off, and so on. In the following sections, I’ll highlight the survey responses and provide some analyses. Note that with freeform responses, I identified key themes in responses and counted up their instances. Some people gave more than one reason. Because of that, the number of reasons won’t correlate with the number of responses. Also, some people were laid off multiple times at different companies, and they explained differing reasons for each scenario. Finally, I had to interpret their responses into general categories. Again, you can browse the survey results (including all the freeform answers) [here](https://www.questionpro.com/t/PG9KAZh2hD). ## Survey responses Survey summary **Have you been laid off at some point in your tech comm career? (84 responses)** - 48% Yes - 49% No - 3% Other **What organizational model best describes the tech comm structure at the company where the layoff? (29 responses)** - 52% Centralized - 38% Distributed - 7% Decentralized **Why do you think you were laid off? (26 responses)** (Freeform question) - Company doing poorly (14) - Lack of an executive sponsor (5) - Redundancy after merger/acquisition (3) - Attachment to non-strategic projects (3) - Lack of valuable skills (4) - Shrinking workload (2) **Have you ever felt unimportant or undervalued in your tech comm role at a company? (66 responses)** - 83% Yes - 14% No - 3% Other **What organizational model best describes the tech comm structure at the company where you felt unimportant or undervalued? (47 responses)** - 49% Centralized - 15% Decentralized - 26% Distributed - 11% Other (lone writer) **Why do you think the company treated tech comm as unimportant or of low value? (41 responses)** (Freeform question) - Others misunderstand tech writer role, believe anyone can write (18) - Not enough people use docs, or docs aren’t valuable to users (16) - Documentation itself isn’t prioritized (10) - No executive sponsor (8) - Docs seen as a cost center only (8) **Have you ever felt highly valued and important in your tech comm role at a company? (58 responses)** - 71% Yes - 19% No - 10% Other **What organizational model best describes the tech comm structure at the company where you felt highly valued and important? (40 responses)** - 40% Centralized - 20% Decentralized - 33% Distributed - 8% Other (usually lone writer) **Why do you think the company treated tech comm as important and highly valuable? (30 responses)** (Freeform question) - Executive sponsors (9) - Doc quality apparent to others (8) - Tech writer expertise/input on product (9) - Customers express appreciation (5) - Product complexity mandates need for docs (2) - Docs critical for company (3) - Impact visible on other groups (2) - Increased awareness/training for PMs (1) - Supply and demand for TW scarcity (1) **Which model works best for boosting tech comm’s sense of value in an organization? (43 responses)** - 44% Distributed - 16% Centralized - 30% Decentralized **Limiting the tech writer’s project scope to 1-2 projects (rather than 6-10) would result in deeper engagement that might even blur lines between content development and product design. (48 responses)** - 50% Strongly agree - 40% Agree - 6% Neutral - 2% Disagree - 2% Strongly disagree **Engaging deeply on a project in a more focused, prolonged way (rather than being distributed across many projects) leads to a greater sense of value and importance in an organization. (50 responses)** - 50% Strongly agree - 32% Agree - 6% Neutral - 4% Disagree - 6% Strongly disagree - 2% Other **There isn’t much correlation between a tech writer’s value in an organization and the organizational model (centralized, decentralized, distributed, other). (48 responses)** - 4% Strongly agree - 15% Agree - 31% Neutral - 42% Disagree - 6% Strongly disagree - 2% Other **(Optional) Do you have any thoughts you have about how organizational models with tech comm affect the perceived value and importance of tech comm in the organization? (30 responses)** - Recommend hybrid/distributed model, embed with product teams (11) - Sponsor essential (3) - Tech writer community needed (1) - Org model not essential (4) - Other (3)