Asking Your Users and Doing What They Need: The Story of How Federal Express Ground Operations Revamped Its User Manuals  

Worldwide Communications & Policy is a relatively new department in Federal Express, created to manage communications and produce policy and procedure (P&P) manuals for the largest division in our global company. We asked an outside consultant, JoAnn Hackos & Associates, to evaluate the existing divisional P&P manuals and conduct an audience analysis. We emerged from the process with a plan to change the existing manuals, which tried to be all things to all people, into a collection of audience-specific, task-oriented documents.

Gill, Sadie P., JoAnn T. Hackos, Mary Hartmann, Carol Sowell, and Julian S. Winstead. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Policies and Procedures