Give the user a contact point with product immediately.

Documenting the 20% of tasks that people have to use 80% of the time is more effective with new users than documenting all the tasks.

Identify six or seven critical functions to go in the Quick Start Guide.

Prototype documents should be generated early, iterated, and expanded into final documents. Client and user reviews should occur at each iteration.

Get something in front of them fast. Change it fast.

Greatest enemy of the good is the perfect.

User feedback is the killing field of cherished notions.

Users are everything: get user feedback early and often.

Graphic flow-chart overviews with screen captures in PowerPoint are a powerful way to give the BIG Picture.

Communication of the metaphor and the way of working through system are critical.

Train, train, train so the writer can do it right the first time.

Use templates with extensive Autotext and macros to automate standards and, thus, do it right the first time.

Quick Start Guides, either printed or online, are critical to giving the user a contact point with the product immediately.

Why editing sucks: it represents defect correction after the fact. If the writer has been trained thoroughly, has properly researched the audience and tasks, and uses templates and style sheets properly, he/she can do it right the first time and avoid the need for most editing.

Tutorials are effective for blank-slate applications like drawing programs, word processors, and spreadsheets.

Planning and process aren't ends in themselves, but they are important, especially to teamwork.

Involve users and clients in development to get ownership. You can sometimes mentor users into doing the writing and shorten a development process because of their superior knowledge of the job, product, and environment.

Clients don't care about process, just results. Process is, nevertheless, important to teamwork.

Don't rescue clients or teammates. No good deed goes unpunished. People begin to expect to be rescued, in fact plan on it.

Decentralize/coordinate rather than centralize/control.

Mentor, mentor, mentor junior people.

Delegate juicy things, not just unpalatable things, to subordinates to keep their enthusiasm high.

Some people start with the big picture; some people start with the details. Either way is OK.

Some people move very fast in a certain direction and change course very fast if the direction is wrong. Others don't move until they have researched and planned carefully to choose the right path. Both ways work, and often the two types of people get to the same place at about the same time.

Different people have different learning styles. Good documentation accommodates different learning styles.