Meet Delon Walton, TC

December 2016

Delon Walton is a Technical Communicator for Trimble Inc, a Californian-based multinational company. Trimble integrates a wide range of positioning technologies including GPS, laser, optical and inertial technologies with application software, wireless communications, and services to provide complete commercial solutions. Delon caught up with Jim Costello last week.

How long have you been a technical communicator and how did you start out?

I’ve worked as a technical communicator for about 13 years. The last 9 years I have focussed solely on writing, but before this I was also a tech trainer, which is actually how I got into tech writing. As a trainer of in-house systems and various bits of software, I wrote my own training materials. These included handouts and training guides for staff attending the training courses, as well as training course outlines and notes for other tech trainers.

Ok, moving to your current role – what does that entail?

In my current role I mostly write quick start guides which are printed, in the box, and user guides which are delivered as online PDFs for handheld computers. I also maintain help files, user guides, and release notes for a number of software systems.

For new hardware products the user guides are mostly written from scratch. Depending on the product and the release team, I am either given an early prototype of the product or a draft outline. So I either develop the user guide myself from the prototype, or I fill in the gaps, edit the content, and add graphics etc. to a draft outline.

Much of the software documentation I work on was developed before I joined Trimble, and how I maintain these files varies with different releases and product teams. Sometimes I am given the information regarding new or changed features and I just update the documents. Other times I install the latest builds and figure out the changes for myself.

Tell us a little about the organisation?

Trimble develops positioning systems and solutions that help people do their work more effectively and efficiently. The solutions are used across a wide range of industries (land survey, construction, agriculture, transportation, telecommunications, asset tracking, mapping, utilities, mobile resource management, government). The systems include handheld computers, tablets, total stations, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, laser rangefinders, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and a variety of software.

Trimble has offices in more than 30 countries, and a network of dealers and distribution partners worldwide. Trimble products are used in over 141 countries.

What things do you enjoy most about your role?

I enjoy the challenge of having a new hardware product or new or updated software system, and figuring out the best way to explain how to use it. I get a great deal of satisfaction seeing a finished, well organised manual, help system, or set of documents. I enjoy working with the engineers, capturing complex information and transforming it into instructions that are easy to understand.

What TC projects or jobs have recently given you particular satisfaction?

One of my most satisfying jobs was actually not that recent. Many years ago, I worked for a company that was implementing an electronic document management system, attempting to get rid of all paper (project documents, correspondence) from the office. All historic papers were scanned and filed electronically by project, and all new incoming mail was also scanned, labelled, and delivered electronically. I was involved with the user testing of the new system, and somehow became responsible for writing training notes and then delivering the training across the company.

What TC projects or jobs have you found particularly challenging?

Trying to develop or maintain useful user documentation for a software system that is developed by a large team across many different geographic locations is quite difficult. Language barriers can be challenging. The logistics of trying to get help and answers across different times zones, battling different people’s priorities, and trying to keep up with changes and enhancements made ‘on the fly’ is frustrating, particularly when working to tight deadlines. The definition of “Done, Done” is never the same for all stages of development, and tech writers often get forgotten (i.e. not allocated any time in the schedule). Sometimes I end up rushing documentation updates to deliver on time, without really understanding what is required, or what is useful to a user.

If you could give a piece of advice to someone working as a technical communicator, what would you tell them?

Don’t get stressed!

Make sure you stay up to date with latest authoring tools, and trends in delivering content such as online for laptops, smartphones, any mobile devices with small screens, as opposed to printed or PDF outputs.