The Care and Feeding of Teams: Strategies for Team Leaders  

Teams, like individuals, go through various developmental stages. Understanding these stages enables a team leader to know if the team is developing normally. Although the team leader’s role and level of involvement vary from stage to stage, there are strategies that the leader can use to spur the team’s growth at each stage.

Hansen, Lauren Y. and Susan M. J. Lester. STC Proceedings (1999). Careers>Management>Collaboration

Creating an Effective Business Plan  

A business plan describes your business’s future, including your vision for your organization, your competition, your products and services, markets you’ll compete in, how you’ll sell yourself, and your financial prospective. A successful plan conveys an organization’s exciting prospects and growth potential. Its overall purpose is to “sell” the business to management and possible backers.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Business Communication>Planning

Effective Project Planning  

Our roles as technical communicators are often dictated to us by other people. Clients come to us after their product has already been developed, saying, 'I need a manual,' or 'I've written the necessary procedures--just make them look nice. ' It's easy to fall into the trap of just doing what we're told when we're told to do it.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Project Management>Planning

Implementing Strategic Plans  

Strategic planning is a process that enables organizations to determine where they intend to be and how to get there. Independent businesses must plan ahead to survive. Many internal organizations, threatened by corporate downsizing and outsourcing, must do the same. But what do you do after you've developed your strategic plan? Committing yourself and your organization to implementing your plan is a long-term challenge.

Hansen, Lauren Y., Mary C. Boyd and LeeAnne G. Kryder. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Management

Organizing Your Professional Life  

There are specific things you can do to organize your professional life. Organization starts with planning. Maintain a “to do” list and a calendar, plan your day accordingly, and follow through on those plans. Allow time to deal with occurrences that are beyond your control. Do what you can to minimize interruptions. Limit physical clutter by either throwing things away or putting them away. Reduce mental clutter by forgetting about what you don’t need to deal with right away. Remember that you can control your time and your life.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Workplace>Planning

Planning and Leading a Successful Review Meeting  

Experienced and novice technical communicators can plan and lead successful review meetings by following this 4-step process: l—Plan ahead. 2—Use an agenda as a road map. 3—Wrap up. 4—Follow up. Although a faceto- face meeting is often the easiest way to get formal feedback on an information product, there are situations in which you should not hold a meeting. If a meeting is appropriate, however, there are specific things you can do to prevent or handle typical problems. Leading a successful meeting involves making a series of conscious choices to make better use of everyone’s time.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

Projects From Hell  

Have you ever been involved in a project that was a disaster from beginning to end? What went wrong? What did you learn from those problems? How did you either salvage the project or decide that it couldn’t be saved? These projects are horrible experiences at the time, but they offer many valuable lessons that can help each of us better manage our information development projects in the future.

Hansen, Lauren Y., Ruth T. Glaser, George F. Hayhoe and Sheila C. Jones. STC Proceedings (1998). Careers>Project Management>Workflow

Staying on Top of Technology  

Staying on top of new technology is a challenge for many information design and development groups. We in the InfoDesign group in DuPont met that challenge by holding monthly 'Technology Topics' sessions to try to address that need. Each Tech Topics session is a meeting dedicated to exploring one or two currently relevant, technology-related topics.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Technology

The Value of Prototypes in Your Documentation Development Process  

Prototyping is one of the most powerful tools for gathering information, testing assumptions, and ensuring a useful, usable docunent. You can develop a more effective paper manual or on-line document by creating and testing a prototype early in the development process. In a traditional prototyping methodology, the writer creates a sample chapter or screen, the client reviews it, and any testing that is performed typically takes place late in the project. There’s a better way: a team develops the prototype and works with users to test it early in the project.

Hansen, Lauren Y. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Usability>Prototyping