LookWriteNow Project Management

You’re in the field of health care,

medical technology or green energy;

the computer industry or the financial sector.

You’re planning a suite of customer publications

to be written and designed for a product developed

by your team.

You need a project manager to coordinate meetings,

create the publication plan, build a schedule,

track the deliverables, resolve problems when they

emerge and ensure that the publications are

delivered on time for product introduction

or shipment.

We do that.

When Phil Johnson was hired as a publications project supervisor in the Networking and Communications Publications

department at Apple (http://www.apple.com/), his manager assigned him 13 projects to supervise on his first day on the job.

Many of these projects were multiple document suites. Phil was responsible for coordinating communication between the

publications team (writers, editor, art director) and Apple engineering and marketing, leading the publications planning process,

setting and monitoring schedules for all projects in parallel, keeping deliverables on track, and ensuring that final delivery dates

were met. Some of the documentation was being developed for an early phase of the Alliance between Apple and Digital

Equipment Corporation. On this project Phil managed communication between the Apple publications team in California and the

Digital engineering and marketing people in Massachusetts.

Later Phil became the manager on the Apple side for the entire Apple and Digital publications suite that was shipped with the DEC

LanWorks for Macintosh product — covering end user, network administrator and programmer documentation for both platforms.

He built strong face to face relationships with Apple’s opposite numbers on the Digital side, and then he managed communication

between members of the Apple and Digital project team, and delivery of all stages of the documentation to complete the

publications requirements on schedule for first customer shipment.