Step-1: Define Your Target Audience
The very first step you need to take in the process of writing your technical manual is to define your target audience. You may think you know your customers, but the reality is businesses are frequently operating on assumptions and misconceptions. Get to know your users. Find out how they are using your products, what their challenges are, and the
Step 2: Design A Template
All of your documents within your technical manual should follow a predefined structure. When your users know what to expect, this improves their experience of the manual and makes your content more consistent. This is especially critical when you are using a team of writers to create your manual, as you most likely will be. The template should con
Step 3: Outline The Product/Feature Purpose
When it comes to writing your technical manual, you need to make sure that you are the expert when it comes to explaining your product and how to use it. Set aside enough time to explore everything about the products and their intended use case, as well as their features and how to operate them. At this stage, you’ll probably want to get input from
Step 4: Add Step-By-Step Instructions
You should present your instructions to users in a step-by-step format. There’s nothing worse in a technical manual than a dreaded wall of text, which isn’t very accessible to users looking to troubleshoot an issue. When your instructions are presented step-by-step, you can explain what the system should be doing at every stage of the operation. St
Step 5: Make It Visually Appealing
No technical manual is complete without visual representations of the product and its features. That might be screenshots, diagrams, photographs, or even videos. Visual assets break up the wall of text that users might otherwise be faced with and also enable users to more effectively interpret the documentation. If your manual is for a software pro
Step 6: Extend For Peer Review
Your documentation must be reviewed internally before it is ready for publication. A group of peers that includes subject matter experts are vital for ensuring documentation is accurate and makes sense to users. That’s why it’s also important to employ the services of non-technical users, who will be able to highlight areas when the documentation i
Step 7: Publish The Article
Finally, you’re ready to publish the documentation. You’re likely to have gone through a long process to get to this stage so making your articles live is a big milestone. After you’ve published your documentation, don’t forget to go through and check for any errors you may have missed. This includes ensuring that your content is displaying correct
Step 8: Collect User Feedback
After publication, your technical manual is never completely finished. The advantage of online manuals is that you can collect fairly detailed user feedback on every aspect of your documentation. You can see how many views certain pages have received, upvotes and downvotes, and which pages led to a support ticket. You might also want to survey your
Step 9: Analyze, Update and Maintain
As your products are developed and updated, so should your technical manual. It’s likely that your product team will add new features or fix bugs that are hampering the user experience. Your documentation should change to reflect the product and you should continuously check for accuracy. Sometimes, your product might undergo such significant chang