notes. When you find data relevant to “A” (the business problem), underline that copy and mark a big “A” in the margin (in red?) . Keep working through until you have marked up relevant coLast quarter I talked about interviewing / gathering data. So now you’ve got several thousand words of notes, hopefully digitally recorded. What comes next?

GETTING ORGANIZED

I suggested organizing your interview questions into 4 groups. I’m going to label them for you A, B, C, D.

·what is the business problem? = A

·what is the high level solution? = B

·can you tell me more about the solution? = C

·why should I trust you (as my vendor?) = D

Any decent piece of writing has a beginning, a middle and an end. So before you start editing / writing you want a map, to show you where you are going. Take a blank sheet of paper, write four major headings and label them A, B, C, D, as above.

Now read your notes. When you find data relevant to “A” (the business problem), underline that copy and mark a big “A” in the margin (in red?) . Keep working through until you have marked up relevant cop

suggested organizing your interview questions into 4 groups. I’m going to label them for you A, B, C, D.

·what is the business problem? = A

·what is the high level solution? = B

·can you tell me more about the solution? = C

·why should I trust you (as my vendor?) = D

Any decent piece of writing has a beginning, a middle and an end. So before you start editing / writing you want a map, to show you where you are going. Take a blank sheet of paper, write four major headings and label them A, B, C, D, as above.

Now read your notes. When you find data relevant to “A” (the business problem), underline that copy and mark a big “A” in the margin (in red?) . Keep working through until you have marked up relevant co

B

·can you tell me more about the solution? = C

·why should I trust you (as my vendor?) = D

Any decent piece of writing has a beginning, a middle and an end. So before you start editing / writing you want a map, to show you where you are going. Take a blank sheet of paper, write four major headings and label them A, B, C, D, as above.

Now read your notes. When you find data relevant to “A” (the business problem), underline that copy and mark a big “A” in the margin (in red?) . Keep working through until you have marked up relevant co

ou start editing / writing you want a map, to show you where you are going. Take a blank sheet of paper, write four major headings and label them A, B, C, D, as above.

Now read your notes. When you find data relevant to “A” (the business problem), underline that copy and mark a big “A” in the margin (in red?) . Keep working through until you have marked up relevant co

notes. When you find data relevant to “A” (the business problem), underline that copy and mark a big “A” in the margin (in red?) . Keep working through until you have marked up relevant copy for all four sections of your piece.

You will be leaving out anything that does not seem suitable as you go.

THE CUT AND PASTE JOB

Next comes a cut and paste job. Group together all the “A”s, then the “B”s, “C”s and “D”s.

Next, take a look at all the ideas you have in the A group. It helps if you take a new sheet of paper and write a list of the ideas or facts in the A group. Now prioritize. Be ruthless. And trust your first instinct. If an idea seems to leap out and have life, put it first. The less important ones come later. Weed out any repetition or weak data. Now you work on flow. Do you have a logical flow of ideas that your reader can follow? Are you telling him/ her a story that you yourself could believe in?