Jun
4
I’m fascinated by movies involving multiple personality disorder. Although in real life, the events causing this are often tragic, I’m intrigued by the fact that a single person could be holding multiple people in their head. One head. More than one person.
I realized this is exactly what a white paper writer has to do. They take multiple perspectives, often with conflicting agendas, and incorporate them into the development process. The perspectives, conflicts, and edits from each viewpoint eventually congeal into a coherent (and hopefully effective) white paper.
The 3 perspectives are:
1) Producer perspective – This is the viewpoint of the product manufacturer. The relevant information here all relate to product. What are the benefits? What are the strongest selling points? What problems does it solve?
2) Writer perspective – The writer perspective is all about communication. You must have the ability to disassociate yourself from everything and focus on the communication of the information. Am I communicating this point clearly? Is this the best possible phrase? Can this point use further elaboration?
3) The consumer’s perspective: This is essentially: “Why do I want this product?” This viewpoint is always considering, “Is this product useful to me?” and “What am I getting out of this?” During the discovery of the paper, you should consider, “Why will I read this white paper?” During the reading of the paper, this perspective will be thinking at each moment, “Is this bringing me some type of value?” If the reader ever says ‘No,’ then you’ve lost them.
You should try to hold these perspectives in your head simultaneously, but not many people have the ability to do that. In fact, it’s quite a hard trait for anyone to do.
In practice, I find a sequential process can work as well. When you are doing your research, use the perspective of the Producer. What are the key benefits? What problem am i solving?
While you are writing, keep your writer’s hat on.
After you’ve reached a fairly stable draft, pretend to read from the customer’s perspective.
When you’ve completed a few papers, you’ll soon be able to carry to all 3 perspectives in your head. And, if you get really good at it, you can start adding your psychiatrists bill to your invoice.
Comments
