3 posts tagged with "Technical Writing"

Something I read on Reddit last week really stuck with me—a developer complaining that every software datasheet looks the same: feature lists, bullet points, and technical specs that could put an insomniac to sleep. "Why can't vendors make this stuff engaging?" they asked. It's a fair point. Most datasheets are written for procurement departments, not the people who actually use the products.

A colleague in marketing shared a similar frustration recently. Their product team spent months building an innovative analytics tool, but the datasheet made it sound like every other dashboard on the market. Sales calls went nowhere because prospects couldn't see what made it special.

The problem? Datasheets focus on features instead of benefits, and they speak technical jargon instead of solving real problems.

A friend in Product said to me last week: "Our documentation is like a library no one visits. We have 500 pages of guides, but users still call support for basic questions." I've seen this pattern so many times. Teams create documentation plans that focus on completeness—covering every feature, edge case, and API endpoint— but forget that people need quick answers, not encyclopedias.

Something I read on Reddit made me think about this differently. A developer posted about how their team's docs went from ignored to indispensable when they started with user questions instead of product features. "We ask what users struggle with, then document those pain points," they explained.

The issue? Most documentation plans are feature-driven, not user-driven.

I spent time with a manufacturing company recently, and they showed me their product factsheet. It was pages of dense specifications, charts, and compliance certifications—the kind of document that puts people to sleep. Then I asked a simple question: "What problem does this product solve?" The team looked blank.

That's when it hit me. Most factsheets are written like instruction manuals for internal use. They list specs, dimensions, and certifications, but they never explain why anyone should care. And that's a problem, because factsheets are often the first thing customers see when they're trying to understand what your product actually does.

A friend in sales told me their biggest frustration was customers asking basic questions already answered in the factsheet—but written in such technical language that nobody bothered to read it.