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ix

Foreword

A bad Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) sheet is one that is composed not of the

questions people actually asked, but of the questions the FAQ’s author wished peo-

ple had asked. Perhaps you’ve seen the type before:

Q: How can I use Glorbosoft XYZ to maximize team productivity?

A: Many of our customers want to know how they can maximize productivity through

our patented office groupware innovations. The answer is simple: first, click on the

File menu, scroll down to Increase Productivity, then…

The problem with such FAQs is that they are not, in a literal sense, FAQs at all. No

one ever called the tech support line and asked, How can we maximize productiv-

ity?. Rather, people asked highly specific questions, like, How can we change the cal-

endaring system to send reminders two days in advance instead of one? and so on.

But it’s a lot easier to make up imaginary Frequently Asked Questions than it is to

discover the real ones. Compiling a true FAQ sheet requires a sustained, organized

effort: over the lifetime of the software, incoming questions must be tracked,

responses monitored, and all gathered into a coherent, searchable whole that reflects

the collective experience of users in the wild. It calls for the patient, observant atti-

tude of a field naturalist. No grand hypothesizing, ...