When publishing blog or Road Test report, do you know your audience ?

I definitely agree. You need to concentrate on what your audience cares about, not what you want to say.

I'll give an example.A friend and I were doing a presentation to a few develops and testers about Docker and ho wit could be used for building and testing software. My very knowledgeable friend described how Linux has file system overlays, etc. When I took over I just said "it's like a virtual machine, but lightweight and only the bits you need". He was absolutely right but I realised that the people listening didn't care. The wanted the simpler (if less accurate) explanation.

I feel the same applies to road tests. You need to work out what your audience wants to know - and they are likely to not all care about the same things or the same level or detail. Maybe they want to know "is this easy to use". Mabye they want to know if it fits their requirements.

Anyway my point is - don't just document what you did, try to answer the questions you think people would be asking.

And in particular I find that unboxing videos fit firmly in this category. Whilst it might be exciting for the person making the video to open it up see what's in the box, I don't see how it's of any interest to the audience. Opening a cardboard box is the same whether there's some amazing piece of test equipment in there or just a bag of potatoes.

I'm not sure I agree with your boss's evaluation. I would be interested (don't need to respond) in how much coaching your team was provided for the presentation. Over beers, I can count quite a few requests to do something with no framework and then be criticized for not doing it a specific way. "Here I need you to write this letter." "WTF is this letter? That is not what I asked for. You should have done it like this." Sorry I will jump down from the soap box.

I rarely see RoadTest authors put sundry tribulations in RoadTest. I suspect you might get called out for it by other members. Anyone that gets the chance to do a RoadTest will discover they require considerable effort. Well, a good review requires effort. Spending hours editing videos or creating content like drawings or graphs is normal time spent on reviews.

In my RoadTests, I typically speak to a non-sundry tribulation if it is related to the product or support of the product. Documentation or lack of it is a normal beef of mine. I do enjoy reading about what the author had to do to accomplish their goal. "Here is how I bent light to make this happen."

I recall being asked to make a presentation to senior management for project funding. I was acting in the position for a short time and typically rookies don't present to the company executive. I remember sitting on the back steps of my porch practicing the presentation on the dog and asking him what he thought. I hadn't done such a presentation before and didn't know the audience or what to expect. I recalled being warned by an associate, that a specific person would ask a question to stump me. It happened all the time and It was just a power move to show how much they know.

Before I started the presentation I handed each executive three candies and told them they could eat one when they asked a question. I told them I was new at this and was concerned someone would ask a question I would be unable to answer. I started into my presentation as they chuckled.

The project was not funded. I was told later the project would never have been funded. I struggled with creating the presentation because of that very reason. "I wouldn't fund the project, why would I ask the executive to do it."  I never got a clear answer on why all that effort was put into the project, knowing it would not pass muster.

I stayed in the position for six months and struggled for most of them. In the end, I left the bright lights of the highrise office to return to the dim fluorescents of the equipment room.

I can think of a couple of occasions where an unboxing video is actually useful to the audience.

Poor product packaging can lead to an increase in broken contents on arrival which can cause major issues when tight deadlines are involved. Overly complicated packaging can lead to wasted time and waste if you are talking large quantities and even injury if it is all welded seam plastic clamshells.   

Are serial numbers and device addresses present on the outside of the packaging and barcode readable. Having to unbox and rebox 100+ devices just to get those details into your asset management system for pre-install prep is a real pain.

It can often reveal what is and isn't included in the package and what format it takes. e.g. is the power adapter an integrated 'wallwart' type plug or is it a captive lead power supply or an IEC inlet.

Is there documentation and an installation CD provided or is it a download or just non-existent. What cables / adapters are provided.

Is the IR remote control commander actually included or is it an extra (or in some cases that model doesn't actually support an IR control irrespective of what the manual / sales blurb stated).

I'm giving your boss a D for 

- giving the instructions after the fact

- not reviewing a presentation for a wide audience outside the team

... and on the question in the title:

For the content of a road test review: I write what I would like to read, as an interested party. I've always pleased at least one person. Can't please a crowd.

What I do for the readers, is: try to make the report and the related blogs beautiful and structured. I always try to give them a pleasing appearance. 

For the sponsor, I try to give a fair and balanced view that gives them useful input.

Fair enough. I can see how some of that might be useful in specific circumstances.

I suppose I'm thinking of some road tests where 50% of it is photos of the box in various states of being opened - giving very much a "this is what I did" rather than "this is what you need to know" vibe.

 robogary  Fantastic question.  I have been taught the primary question is "What is the purpose of your report / blog / video / etc?"  The second question is "Who is your audience?"  I believe that these two questions are intertwined.  With Roadtests, we give our sales pitch in the application and the sponsor gets an opportunity to decide if our approach meets their intent (purpose / method / level of detail).

If I'm selected, I run with the game plan.  I know that my audience, the e14 community, has really smart and talented people... and that they won't shred me for what I produce.  Skill levels range from just starting out to orders of magnitude beyond my understanding.  So I do what is within my ability to do and I write about it.  I try to be somewhat entertaining and share what I learned along the way - so someone else (similar to me) can learn from my challenges.

As to your boss, .  Most engineers that I know WANT to know the process, pitfalls, challenges and solutions.  The method is as important as the outcome.  The details don't have the same value to the manager as they do the engineer because the manager has different accountabilities.  Again, what was the purpose of the presentation?  If not objective was shared, that's on your boss.

The e14 membership is quite diverse, so gearing a blog to interest everyone is a tall order. If you get into detailed design at a guru level most members will get nothing out of it, if they even read it. If you provide a detailed step-by-step explanation at an entry level, the experts will be totally bored. A decent strategy is to dive into the gee-wiz flashy features pretty quickly and if someone is interested they can keep reading into a more and more detailed description further down. You still want to wrap it all up with a meaningful conclusion because many people will read that first to see if it is worth going back to read the details. Basically try to structure the blog so that each person can get what they want from it without wading through stuff they aren't interested in.

I like unboxing videos where the unboxing process is just an animated backdrop that allows the reviewer to talk about interesting stuff like historical tidbits or anecdotal experience, or the significance of the product, etc. Cardboard boxes and Styrofoam are not interesting and neither is describing how cardboard unfolds, but what the reviewer is saying can still be very interesting. Doing a bunch of talking while presenting a static image of the product is not usually the most effective use of multimedia.