Re: "If the docs are too good..."

["Mark Baker" <listsub -at- analecta -dot- com>]

Lyn Worthen wrote:

>    Training is intended to provide practical,
>    hands-on experience for using the product
>    on a day-to-day basis.
>
>    Product documentation is designed as a
>    reference guide, and is most useful for
>    answering those questions that occasionally
>    arise, but is seldom practical as a method
>    of learning to actually -use- the product.

This is may be true, but it is not really germane to the question that was
asked. It really doesn't matter what our intention is, what matters is how
customers behave. And it may in fact be that case that users will buy more
training if the documentation is poor. It will depend on a lot of factors.

For instance, if the product is clearly superior to its competitors, poor
documentation may not influence the purchase decision, but may push more
customers to purchase training. This may increase revenues for the company
while lowering development costs for documentation.

On the other hand, if the company is in a tight competitive situation,
documentation may make the difference in a sale. The way to make the most
profit may not be to soak the customer for training, but to provide them
with the lowest possible cost of ownership through superior documentation,
thus grabbing more market share.

Of course, any customer value you leave on the table opens up an opportunity
for a competitor to move in on your market, so a company might choose the
deliver maximum customer value (in the form of good documentation) even if
it does cut into their training revenues.

It may be, however, that the customers choice between training and
documentation is not made based on the quality of the documentation at all
but on the learning style of the individual customer. People tend to either
like training or hate it. In this case it may not make any real difference
to training revenues if the documentation is good or bad.

Another alternative is that the likelihood of the customer buying training
is largely based on their own policies regarding employee training.
Employees may be required to take so much training a year, or they may be
forbidden to take any. In this case, the quality of documentation will have
minimal impact on the customer's decision to buy training.

But whatever the scenario is that governs the particular case in question,
the company exists to make a profit. It will make a profit by delivering
value that the customer is will to pay for. The case for spending more money
on documentation, therefore, has to be based on what the customer is willing
to pay for. The argument has to be made in terms of customer behavior, not
in terms of the information developers intentions.

Mark Baker
Analecta Communications