communication framework and training plan

Running head: COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK AND TRAINING PLAN 1

Communication Framework and Training Plan

Nathan Stone

Southern New Hampshire University

COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK AND TRAINING PLAN2

Abstract

BOLDFlash has a communication environment that needs improvement. The current

environment is having troubles implementing processes, effectively communicating within the

company, and supporting customers through documentation. The main areas that need improved

are its internal business processes, technical service communication, and product installation

documentation. The area of focus that needs revised first will be determined through reviewing

the existing document examples of each area. Once selected a framework for better collaboration

and communication will be addressed and a new document produced to replace the current one.


Background

BOLDFlash has a communication environment that needs improvement. The current

environment is having troubles implementing processes, effectively communicating within the

company, and supporting customers through documentation. The main areas that need improved

are its internal business processes, technical service communication, and product installation

documentation. The area of focus that needs revised first will be determined through reviewing

the existing document examples of each area.

Internal Business Process

The internal business process needs to be standardized to readily apply it to different

projects. This would be achieved by setting clear processes to be carried out that consider the

project as a whole and not just individual pieces. The processes need to be generic enough to be

applied to many projects, yet clear enough to implement them. The current internal business

process doesn’t take into account that the processes currently in place are there for a reason and

directions for processes are vague on implementation. Currently BOLDFlash employees assume

that the existing processes are unnecessary and not implemented for a valid reason. An example

of this is in a memo where they say “no longer include special notes, because we already send

these to Kevin’s admin assistant” (Stone, 2015a). The sender assumes the notes are unnecessary

in the manufacturing package since they are sent to the assistant, but who are these special notes

meant for? Why are they now only sending Kevin’s admin assistant these notes instead and not

to the manufacturers who need them? Is the manufacturer now expected to call them about each

package to ask if there are special notes? The director did not take into account the existing

processes have reasons for being implemented and needs to explain why the new processes

improve the existing ones while still addressing the concerns of the old processes (Stone, 2015a).


An example of vague process direction is a memo sent from the director of product development

to all department heads stating “So we can reduce the time we’re spending on putting this

together.” This direction is vague for implementation because it does not inform the audience

specifically what is being put together. Is the director talking about physically putting the

product together or the project as a whole together? (Stone, 2015a). These directions need to be

specific and clear to be implemented.

Technical Service Communication

The technical service communication does not address the intended audience effectively

and needs to communicate why certain details are important in terms the technical support staff

and customers can understand. The marking and technical support teams need the details

explained in layman terms because they have to interpret them in a way the customer can

understand. For example, the document identifies LBA mode as an important product note but

does not explain why it’s a special feature a customer would want or even what LBA mode is

(Stone, 2015a). The document should also include a picture of the product so the person reading

it knows what the product looks like. Another detail omitted form the document is the

manufacturing price of the product. Without it, how will the marketing team know what to base

their price off of? The document also needs to explain what the product is and what it is used for

so marketing can convince customers that they need the product. They should also include any

awards or reasons why someone should choose this product over a competitor’s product. The

intended audience is ultimately the customer and the document needs address them in a form

they can understand.

Product Installation Documentation


The product installation documentation is delivered to the technical communications

team but is used by the customer to install the product. Therefore the intended audience is the

customer and needs to address them accordingly. To achieve this the document needs to be in

layman terms since our audience may not be familiar with the product. The product installation

documentation needs to explain how to install the product as well as how to solve issues that

may occur during installation (Stone, 2015a). The current documentation assumes the audience is

a high tech audience that understands specific terminology such as what a base directory is, how

to download the file, and how to extract the files. However, to appeal to a larger customer base

and therefore sell more products we cannot assume the audience is familiar with the product.

They may be a first time buyer. To make the products accessible for a larger audience and reduce

potential customer mistakes during installation, the documentation should include pictures for

each step and instructions explaining each step in detail. The larger audience needs to be

addressed in the product installation documentation.

Focusing on a Problem

Given the three areas of communication problems I would focus on the product

installation documentation to fix first. This is because if the customer buys the product and

cannot install it, it becomes useless to them (Stone, 2015a). If it becomes useless to them, not

only will they not buy more products from BOLDFlash, they will tell others not to buy from

BOLDFlash. This will diminish the customer base and without customers the business cannot

exist. Another factor is “the market and technical support teams use this to answer questions and

by providing a very clear and understandable instructions it will reduce the number of customer

inquiries to the technical support team on installation troubles as well as help the marketing team

sell the product to lower tech audiences” (Stone, 2015a, p.5). The technical service


communication explains the details in a way a high tech audience would understand but needs to

appeal to a lower tech audience as well. The internal business process did not take into account

the existing processes have reasons for being implemented and needs to explain why the new

processes improve the existing ones while still addressing the concerns of the old processes

(Stone, 2015a). While all three focus areas need improved, the product documentation has the

greatest impact of the three.

Product Documentation Stakeholders

Fixing the product documentation would primarily affect the following stakeholders:

technical support staff, marketing staff, and customers. The technical support staff is affected

because they have to handle any tickets from customers having trouble installing the product

(Stone, 2015a). Fixing the documentation will eliminate many potential tickets, allowing the

technical support staff to focus on other important issues. Providing clear instructions will better

market the product to a larger audience and assist the marketing staff in reaching more

customers. The customers themselves use the instructions to use the product. Without clear

instructions they cannot use the product which will factor into their decision as to recommend

the product or others from BOLDFlash to potential customers.

Established Communication Practices

To improve the product documentation, there are a few established communication

practices that can be readily applied (Stone, 2015a). One common practice is to include common

problems with the product and their solutions. “According to Gerson, Focusing on problems and

solutions could take the form of focusing on the problem the customer has identified and then

presenting your company’s solutions (2014, pg.67)” (Stone, 2015a, p.6). To apply this to the


example documentation, we could put a list common problems such as how to setup the drivers

to use the SSD. The solution could be an application linked to the instructions that would install

all the drivers needed to run the SSD. Another common practice is to organize information by its

importance to the product installation. For example, the instructions could inform the customer

that the name of the folder the zipped driver is downloaded to is not important but making sure to

unzip the files is very important by stating “Do not continue until all files are extracted from the

zip folder (for instructions how to extract files click here)”.

Framework for Continued Communications

The following framework is to be used to communicate effectively in the product

documentation to our customers. Each step in the instructions should be in layman terms to

appeal to a broader customer base and include pictures indicating what the customer should do in

each step. Each picture should circle the area of focus for the customer so they know what to

look for. Contact information and a frequently asked question section should be provided in

detail to assist customers having trouble. The information needs to be structured in a way that the

customer can jump to the section that they are having issues with. For example, physically

installing the device, downloading the drivers, extracting the drivers, and installing the product

software.

Training Plan

To address the communications issues within the mobile division of BOLDFlash a

training plan needs to be developed. This training plan will cover the new guidelines and

methods being implemented to improve communication. The managers of the mobile division

will be taught these training methods as well as how to effectively convey them to other


stakeholders of BOLDFlash. This training plan will help managers communicate and work

together more effectively than before.

Getting to Know Each Other

According to O’Hara, “the actions taken in the first few weeks and months can have a

major impact on whether your team ultimately delivers results” (2014, p.1, para.1). Taking the

time to get to know each other is the first step to communicating together effectively because it

can reveal individual strengths and weaknesses (O’Hara, 2014, p.1). For example, you may find

out that certain members do not get along with each other and that some are resistant to change

(Stone, 2015b). There is a known problem within BOLDFlash with messages not being

conveyed in a useful way. To overcome this a simple exercise may help. First have the group

divided into pairs and sit back-to-back while one has a picture of a shape and the other tries to

draw that shape based on only on their instructions while not revealing what the shape is (Eyre,

2015). This exercise may be particularly insightful for the R&D manager if they are paired with

the marketing manager or technical support manager that they are currently having breakdowns

in communication with. This is because the R&D is used to communicating to a high tech

audience and needs to break down the information into form a lower tech audience would

understand. Incorporating simple teambuilding exercises like this one into a weekly or monthly

routine could address issues within the group in a fun and trust building way (Eyre, 2015).

Trust in Communication

Groups are formed to accomplish tasks that would be more difficult to achieve alone.

Therefore trust is a necessary component in communication because the group members have to

rely on each other to get things done instead of doing it all themselves (Stone, 2015b). For


example, the technical support manager has to trust the R&D manager on product installation

documentation because they may not know how to install it without their help. “To build trust

the group leader should explain the rationale behind decisions, what rank different priorities

have, and how each member will be evaluated both as a team and individually (O’Hara, 2014,

para.4)” (Stone, 2015b, p.4). To ensure it is clear how they will be evaluated and what is

expected of them, measureable metrics should be used to grade progress (O’Hara, 2014, para.4).

Instead of abstract goals such as “Get it done!” or “Ensure it is a success”, the objectives should

be actionable objectives that are specific enough to be measured towards their success and take

into consideration the resources currently available to achieve that goal (Melcrum, 2015, p.4).

According to Melcrum, “Each objective must be SMART, which means it must

be: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound” (Melcrum, 2015, p.4, para.2).

For example, each member is to contribute a 10 or less step instruction on how to install the flash

drive drivers by Friday July 18, 2015 using images and descriptive text. Each member will be

evaluated on the clarity of their instructions and images to the guest speaker at the meeting on a 1

to 5 scale with 1 being very hard to understand and 5 being very easy to understand. The goal is

specific in telling what to do, measureable on a scale on a scale of 1 to 5, can be attained

reasonably, relevant to the mobile division, and is time-bound.

Understanding the Audience

When communicating to others it is important to correctly address and understand the

audience, which in this case means the key stakeholders. “To understand the stakeholders the

correct questions need to be asked of them” (Stone, 2015b, p.5, para.1). A framework for

understanding stakeholder’s needs is Sue Dewhurst’s BARROW framework (Melcrum, 2015).

“B is for a bridging statement that acknowledges what the customer has asked you for” (2015,


p.2, para.3). Basically you repeat what the stakeholder told you in your own words to verify you

understand what the stakeholder meant by it. For example, the technical support manger asked

the R&D manager about how to install a new BOLDFlash product called “SSD Hyper” using the

product documentation provided. The R&D manager would respond with “It is my

understanding that you need help understanding the product installation documentation of the

SSD Hyper, is that correct?” By repeating the main idea of what the technical support manger

said back to them they prove they are listening to them and then confirm they understood it

correctly. A is for aim, where you ask questions to understand the customer wants to achieve

(Melcrum, 2015, p.2, para.4). Following up the previous question the R&D manager may ask

“What specific part of the product documentation do you need explained.” “R is for reality where

you try to understand the situation form the customer’s point of view” (Melcrum, 2015, p.2,

para.5). The R&D manager might ask “Can you explain in detail why this part of the instructions

is unclear to you?” “The next R is for roadblocks, where questions are asked to understand which

obstacles might get in the way” (Melcrum, 2015, p.2, para.6). The R&D manager may ask “Is the

computer giving you an error message?” or “Have you tried disabling the firewall?” “O is for

opportunities, for what actions or changes would make the fastest or most impact on the aim?”

(Melcrum, 2015, p.2, para.7). The R&D manager may ask “Would it be easier if I provided a

YouTube link showing how to install the product?” “W is for who and when, it is where you

identify who needs to know, feel, or doing something differently to achieve the aim” (Melcrum,

2015, p.2, para.8). The R&D manager may ask “Who am I explaining the instructions for, a

technical person or a customer with little experience with the product?”


Review the Metrics

It is important to make goals measureable but also to review the metrics used to evaluate

them periodically. The roles and metrics can change over time therefore the group’s roles and

metrics should be reviewed to determine if they should change as well to ensure they are

contributing to the overall goal. “The chosen metrics need to be evaluated to determine if they

work as intended or are causing issues and need to be improved (Melcrum, 2015, p.5)” (Stone,

2015b, p.6, para.2). A real life example of reviewing metrics is the ZMS manager role at

Walmart. This role was supposed to act as a training role for those interested in becoming

assistant managers. After reviewing the role and responsibilities it was determined that

employees were not moving up to assistant manager as intended but instead were staying in the

ZMS role for extra pay with fewer responsibilities than assistant manager. “After reviewing this

role it was decided to remove the ZMS position and implement an assistant manager training

program instead (Walmart, 2015)” (Stone, 2015b, p.6, para.2).

Collaborative Culture

For a collaboration strartegy to work, people have to use it. The culture of the company

may determine if a choosen strategy passes or fails. This is because some company cultures are

resistant to change and have diverse ideas on how things should be run.

According to Goman “The basic components of a successful collaborative culture are: (1)

transparent communication across the entire organization, (2) the development of cross-

functional teams, (3) collaboration strategies that involve customers, (4) recognizing and

rewarding collaborative successes, (5) designing collaborative work spaces, (6) creating

training programs aimed at helping leaders implement collaboration” (2015, p.1, para.5).


According to Zumeta, “Transparent communications gives the information that people

need in order to understand what is going on at the time that they need it while advoiding

surprises, follows up concerns regarding the message, remains consistent in content and

process, and creates expectations that are then carried out” (2015, p.1, para.1).

Transparent communication builds trust, which is important for creating a collaborative culture

within the organization (Zumeta, 2015). Transparent communication will assist in understanding

what is going on because the information will not change from person to person. The message

being sent needs to remain the same when given to different people. Often people will downplay

mistakes when telling their superiors which can lead to a false assessment of the situation. The

message needs to remain the same and concerns need to be followed up. Following up concerns

will also help in collaboration since people will feel their contributions matter. For example, if

the technical support staff had an issue with the R&D manager’s latest product documentation

they will want a reply knowing their concern has been heard and will be addressed. “The

expectations arising from the message need to be carried out or people will feel betrayed and lose

trust (Zumeta, 2015)” (Stone, 2015b, p.2, para.2). As mentioned before, trust is important

because people have to rely on each other in a group. If people in a group feel they cannot rely

on each other then they will worry only about themselves and the group not function as

productively as a whole. To better work a whole, cross-functional teams should be formed

because they will allow cross-fertilization of ideas from different areas of knowledge. For

example, by combining the knowledge of marketing manager with a R&D manager the cross

functional team could create a new product that would attract many investors. Furthermore the

customer needs to be involved in the cross functional teams because they are the one buying the

product. Without their help, BOLDFlash will be guessing at what the customer needs and wants


which is risky at best compared to working with the customer base. When the company gains

collaborative successes they need to recognize and reward those involved. This will keep

productivity higher because the members will feel their contributions matter and they are valued

as a member of the team. In addition to rewarding collaborative successes, workspaces need to

be designed to promote teamwork. “Examples of workspaces designed for collaboration are

shared workspaces, communal break-out areas, dining rooms, coffee stations and open plan

offices” (Goman, 2015). These areas promote teamwork which leads to cross-fertilization of

ideas and synergy. To influence company culture into a more collaborative one, training

programs aimed at helping leaders implement collaboration are needed. The purpose of these

training plans is to pass down to newer employees the culture of collaboration to ensure the

company retains the collaborative nature implemented with these changes.

Training BoldFlash

Management is the main stakeholder of the training methods to teach the company how

to better work together to achieve company goals. In order to teach management these new

techniques and frameworks for collaboration and communication, short instruction videos with

practice exercises along with PowerPoint slides will be used. This form of instruction makes

information easier to remember, highlights the main points of focus, and provides practice of the

techniques demonstrated.

Addressing Our Customers

The product documentation is primarily created for the customers and therefore needs to be

accessible to them. The mobile division will focus on providing the customer with a paper

manual and a website for installing the product. The customer may be high tech or somebody


with no experience with our product before so we need to address them in layman terms to reach

a broader audience. While the information will be in layman terms it needs to be categorized in a

way that the higher tech audience can pick out the sections they need. For example, the sections

could have links to subsections like how to create a directory for the non-technical people while

the more technical people will simply skip that section and go to the one they need. The industry

specific terminology needs to be highlighted and defined in a popup page as well as defined in a

glossary page. The instructions should also contain pictures for each step to give a visual to assist

in installation. These pictures will address the needs of diversity issues such as English not being

their first language or even a reading comprehension disability. We will make the assumption

that the customer can reach a website if given the URL but will guide them step-by-step on how

to download and install the drivers. After the initial documentation is created, it will need to be

reviewed to cater to the personality of the audience. To cater to their personality we will employ

electronic feedback forums on the product documentation that the customer will rate their

experience to gain information on the typical customer’s attitude or position regarding the

installing the device. “For example, one a scale of 1 to 5 how clear where the instructions, on a

scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your experience installing the hard drive, or would you

recommend our product to your friends?” (Stone, 2015c, p.4, para1). The customer base will be

diverse and composed of many background and characteristics so we need to avoid biased

language and euphemisms because the customer may not understand the reference. For example,

instead of saying something like you need the irrlicht-1.8 (the curl files) we would simply

provide a list of the exact file names of what they need.


Our Message to customers

We want to convey a message to our customers with our product documentation. That

message is that our products are easy to use and they should recommend them to their friends.

Our product documentation needs to be clear and concise for ease of use. It also needs to reach a

diverse audience and therefore should be in layman terms and in multiple languages with

pictures to illustrate each step in the process. The main focus we need to address in the product

documentation is the installation of the product drivers, list of components needed, how to use

the product once installed, and how to get help if you need it. A link to a contact page as well as

an optional survey regarding the user experience that includes a section they can recommend

improvements should be on the product documentation. The language used in the product

documentation needs to be in active voice to sound as if we are talking to the customer directly.

Critiquing the Current Product Documentation

The current product documentation fails to deliver our intended message to the average

customer. It is written in a biased language towards a high tech audience that is familiar with

similar devices that needs little guidance on how to install the device. For example, it assumes

the customer knows what is meant by “create a base directory” and doesn’t explain what it is or

how to make one. Another example is where it says “Download all files (and dirs.) from the

repository”, it assumes the customer knows how and where to download the files from. “To fix

these issues there should be pictures illustrating step by step instructions on how to do each

process such as creating a base directory with terms the average computer user would understand

such as folder instead of directory” (Stone, 2015c, p.5, para.1). Industry specific terminology

needs to be linked to a definition as well as point to further instructions on how to do a step if

necessary. The target audience is the average customer and not the average technical support


employee and therefore the product documentation needs to be written in terms they will

understand. The documentation should include how to contact technical support if they have any

questions or concerns in a form, such as a selection from a drop down menu, that narrows down

their issue into something more tangible than “It’s not working, fix it”. This form would reduce

the number of tickets to technical support and increase the likelihood the customer would

recommend the product to a friend.

Drafting the New Product Documentation

Thank you customer first name for purchasing the BOLDFlash Flash Drive Product #A23-B. To

install your new flash drive first you need to download the drivers.

Downloading the drivers

1. Create a folder by right clicking on the desktop, hovering over New and then selecting

Folder. This will create a new folder named “New folder” without the quotes.


2. Next right click the folder named “New Folder” and select Rename.

3. Finally type in “FlashDrive” for the folder name without the quotes and click the desktop.

You should now have a folder named FlashDrive.


4. Double click the folder named “FlashDrive” and create a new folder named “Driver”

without the quotes inside of it.


(For Windows Users) If using a Mac skip to step 7

5. Download Irrlicht 1.8 by following this link http://irrlicht.techtoys.net/downloads.html

6. Go to downloads folder, Select the Irrlicht 1.8 zip file, right click, and select Extract

All… to unzip the file. Choose the FlashDriver folder on your desktop and press ok.


(For Mac Users) Windows users skip to next section

7. Download Irrklang 1.4.0 Mac driver by following this link:

http://www.techtoys.com/irrklang/downloads.html

8. Go to downloads folder, Select the Irrlicht 1.8 zip file, right click, and select Extract

All… to unzip the file. Choose the FlashDriver folder on your desktop and press ok.

http://www.techtoys.com/irrklang/downloads.html


Explanation of Adaption

Pictures accompany each step of the way to help guide customers in each step. The

document uses the first name of the customer and active voice to make it seem more personal to

the customer. All website links were highlighted in hyperlink format to show they are websites

and are linked to the intended pages. Biased language and some terminology were changed to

address the audience in terms the average computer user would understand. An example of this is

changing “directory” to the word “folder”. A glossary of terms was unnecessary for this specific

product but may be necessary on more advanced product’s documentation. The language is

simple and concise making it easy to understand and translate into other languages. The

illustrations focus the user’s attention to specific parts of the picture to ensure customers see the

necessary information they require. If the instructions were platform dependent they stated as

such as well as directed the reader where to look for information regarding their platform. The

rest of the product documentation would follow the same format and provide a survey to further

improve the format over time.

Conclusion

The guidelines and frameworks presented can be applied to any product documentation to

create a more user friendly experience for the customer. Recognizing the audience is a key aspect

to improving the documentation as well as communication within the company. The old

documentation was written towards the technical support and was high tech with little detail. The

new documentation is written for the customer and is far more user friendly using layman terms

to appeal to a diverse audience. The new documentation solicits feedback from the customer to

improve itself over time.


References

Gerson, J., Gerson, S. (2014) Technical Communication: Process and Product, 8th Edition.

Longman. VitalBook file.

Eyre, E. (2015, May 6). Team-Building Exercises: Planning Activities That Actually Work.

Retrieved June 6, 2015, from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_52.htm

Goman, C. K. (2015). Your collaboration strategy. Leadership Excellence, 32(3), 19-20.

Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/

1667562008?accountid=3783

Melcrum. (2015, March 4). Communication Strategy: 9 steps to effective strategic planning 380

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steps-effective-strategic-planning#sthash.o3AHziNs.dpuf. Retrieved June 6, 2015, from

https://www.melcrum.com/research/strategy-planning-tactics/9-steps-effective-strategic-

planning

O'Hara, C. (2014, September 11). What New Team Leaders Should Do First. Retrieved June 6,

2015, from https://hbr.org/2014/09/what-new-team-leaders-should-do-first

Stone, N. (2015a). Milestone 1. Unpublished manuscript, Southern University of New

Hampshire.

Stone, N. (2015b). Milestone 2. Unpublished manuscript, Southern University of New

Hampshire.

Stone, N. (2015c). Milestone 3. Unpublished manuscript, Southern University of New

Hampshire.

https://hbr.org/2014/09/what-new-team-leaders-should-do-first

https://www.melcrum.com/research/strategy-planning-tactics/9-steps-effective-strategic-planning

https://www.melcrum.com/research/strategy-planning-tactics/9-steps-effective-strategic-planning

http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1667562008?accountid=3783

http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1667562008?accountid=3783

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_52.htm


Walmart. (2015, April 23). | WalmartOne. Retrieved June 6, 2015, from

https://us.walmartone.com/Education/Professional/Assistant-Manager-Training-Program-

FAQ/

Zumeta, Z. D. (2015, June 7). Transparent Communication. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from

http://collaborateatwork.com/resources/transparency.php

http://collaborateatwork.com/resources/transparency.php

https://us.walmartone.com/Education/Professional/Assistant-Manager-Training-Program-FAQ/

https://us.walmartone.com/Education/Professional/Assistant-Manager-Training-Program-FAQ/

communication framework and training plan

Documents

existing processes

communication framework

new processes

internal business processes

communication environment

clear processes

old processes stone

current environment