When writing a document, you can either send it out for review, solicit feedback, and expect everyone on the team to return their comments to you by a given time.
A documentation review meeting, however, gives everyone a chance to review a document (or documentation set) once, together. People might not like the idea of another meeting, but they will become more agreeable when they can see how such meetings help ensure documentation accuracy and a quicker turnaround.
Consider these tips when preparing for your documentation review meetings.
1. If possible, get your drafts out before the meeting.
This isn’t always possible because you receive suggested changes all the time, including in the minutes before the meeting. But if you can get your drafts out in advance, and your team has a chance to review them before the meeting, it’s better for everyone because the meeting will run more smoothly.
2. Highlight what text has changed.
In a perfect world, your team would review everything in the entire document set. This becomes more important if you’re creating the documentation from scratch.
More often than not, you will be updating or revising an already-existing document or documentation set. In such cases, highlighting the changes enables your team to review things more quickly.
Besides highlighting the actual changes in the draft, summarize the changes in any e-mail you send with the draft.
3. For questions requiring answers during the meeting, know who likely has the answers.
Often a team has specialists who can answer questions about their part of the project. You can ask your questions of these people during the meetings.
Others on the team will also have useful input. Use your expert as a starting point for issues the team must explore and resolve.
4. If possible, make real-time changes to the text during the meeting.
When you get feedback during your meeting, a good answer is, “Thanks, I’ll make the changes immediately.” A better answer is, “Let me make the change here, on the screen, so we can all see what it looks like.”
It makes a difference. When people see their changes in real time, they immediately start thinking about whether they have made all the points they need to make, and that those points are all accurate.
5. Following the meeting, summarize any outstanding issues.
There are times when a question might get raised, but not answered, at a meeting. Someone must do some more research before an answer presents itself.
In such cases, summarize the outstanding issues in your follow-up notes. Be sure to include the names of those who are to address those issues.
Consider these tips when preparing for, and leading, your next review meeting.
