A Less Dangerous “Ask Us Anything”

Abstract

When we started really paying attention to how people use IT and how they respond to the offerings our department has, we noticed something fascinating: people have great questions, and they do not always have a space to ask them. Traditionally, our department offered periodic in-person "training" sessions around the type of software applications you'd expect: Word; Excel; Photoshop; InDesign. We (perhaps coincidentally) also noticed low numbers of attendees at these sessions, and the same self-selecting folks showing up regularly. We found that when we identified key folks around campus, we had higher engagement and higher attendance at sessions, as well as a welcome and engaging diversity of questions at the sessions. We transformed our approach from an “us-to-you” delivery platform to a preparation for the types of things many people want to know about a program, and preparation for answering the things people needed to know once they had used the program. We started asking “What do you want to be able to do?” instead of telling them “This is how you should use this application.” Our documentation style changed in response to this change in session offerings. We started writing in a way that streamlined the user path to information. Our mantra became "don't hand me the dictionary when I ask you how to do something." We strive to provide succinct and distinct paths to commonly requested information in plain English, and to address concerns up front with our users. The results of our approach are easy to see – people feel more comfortable when learning on their own terms, and it is easier for our team to help provide meaningful sessions when we have identified people who help identify and target sessions and to help round up attendees. When we listen, we can do better.