This week I did something I’ve never done before. I complimented a colleague’s meeting notes.
I had missed the meeting because other meetings.
I opened her notes with low expectations. My usual impression of meeting notes is “you had to be there.” In most cases it’s clear that there was little thought about what problem the notes might solve beyond checking the box that notes were taken.
So it was a nice surprise to find that my colleague’s meeting notes actually solved the problem of my having not having been to the meeting. It was easy get the context, understand the decisions that had been made, the action items going forward, and who was responsible for those actions.
Another way to say this is that she had written for my use case.
Writing well requires empathy and perspective taking, so it’s worth slowing down to ask yourself what your readers need and expect. This is not always easy to do, especially if you’re writing in a context where you’re not sure who will read your writing. It can help to imagine or even write use cases for your readers. What does your reader need? Why are they reading you? What kind of experience do you want them to have?
To make this easier, I have created a questionnaire for understanding your reader that I’ll share out this week with subscribers to the Leaders Write Executive Community. Taking a few minutes to answer these questions will give you a much clearer idea of how to meet your reader where they are so that they can come away as surprised and delighted as I was by my colleague’s beautiful meeting notes.