(Thanks to Dave Baldwin - poet-in-residence (i.e. editor) for helping me refine this post)

The documentation content provider is an artisan who produces goods for a consumer. The content provider is similar to the car manufacturer who produces vehicles and the baker who produces bakery goods. In each case, the artisan gets materials from suppliers and uses tools provided by vendors, as summarized in the following table:

Product Supplier Artisan Vendor Consumer
Bread Flour Bakes bread Sells ovens and pans Buys bread to eat
Cars Metal Manufactures cars Sells robots Buys car to drive
Content Product/ideas Writes content/help Provides builds/
technical review tools		 Reader consults help

 

Also, in each case, the most important thing for the artisan is to satisfy the consumer. To do this, the artisan needs to get the very best materials and performances from suppliers and vendors. For example, you might be a great baker (artisan), but if you have poor-quality flour, no matter what you do, you will never produce great bread. The following diagram shows how the business model works:

What happens when the artisan loses sight of the consumer and becomes more focused on the wants and needs of suppliers and vendors? Invariably, consumer satisfaction declines. Left unchecked, the consumer will switch to a new artisan. This is just as true in the content-provider business as it is in the automobile and bakery businesses. Our implicit contract is with the consumer (the reader) of our goods (the technical content), and not with the supplier of the idea (the product team).

I've provided my interpretation of a classic business model. In the model, a supplier provides raw material to an artisan who adds value. The artisan then transacts with a consumer who pays a higher price for the finished good.

How does this relate to documentation? You may have excellent writers, but a faulty content-review  process could lead to inaccuracies and other deficiencies. Thus, your reader will not be satisfied. In order to produce good content that satisfies readers, you need to work on at least two relationships. First, you need good tools or service from your vendors and, second, you need information from your supplier—the product team—that is both useful and timely.

    (sticking to my 4 paragraph guideline - I'll talk more about this in a later post.)