Forget Product Reviewer Guides. Instead, Do Product Evaluation Guides.

Once upon a time, as far back as 2004, enterprise software Product Marketing Managers and Product Managers spent time creating “Product Reviewer Guides.”

These documents were intended to step technical journalists through the process of installing and using the product, all for the purpose of getting the journalist to write a smashing review of the product and publish it in the likes of InfoWorld, Information Weekly, or some similar trade rag.

Because these documents were geared toward reporters, certain shortcuts could be made.  Since reporters only had limited time — a few hours tops — to work with the product hands-on, PMMs could create pathways through the product that were not typical, but avoided broken functionality or other ugliness.  They could skip directly to the sexy stuff in the product by using pre-baked examples and sample databases.  Further, these documents had a lot of “marketing-speak” — in hope that the reporter would just parrot it directly in their article.

Well, those days are gone.  The “Product Reviewer Guide” for reporters is no longer very relevant.  Instead the “Product Evaluation Guide,” for actual potential customers, is what’s needed.

What are the differences between Product Reviewer Guides and Product Evaluation Guides?

1. Evaluation Guides are geared toward potential customers, where Product Reviewer Guides are geared toward reporters.
2. For Evaluation Guides, the goal is getting potential customers using the product so successfully that they start using the product for real world tasks and even integrate it into their business — all prior to purchasing.  For Reviewer Guides, the goal is to support a favorable product experience  — basically a demo — that lasts a few hours.  After working with a Reviewer Guide, the reader is usually not ready to start using the product for real world tasks, but is ready to write about the product’s benefits and how it compares to competitors.
3. Evaluation Guides get readers using the actual product successfully in their own environment by stepping users through the typical ways to use the product, and by starting with step one.  In contrast, Product Reviewer Guides carefully step around ugliness in the product, even if it means showcasing the product in an atypical way.  Further, Reviewer Guides often skip the (necessary, but sometimes ugly) first steps by having readers use pre-baked examples and sample databases.
4. Evaluation Guides take a matter-of-fact tone and are generally free of marketing-speak, in support of the goal of getting users productive in the real world as quickly as possible.  Marketing-speak makes this more difficult, and can be very frustrating to users that are simply trying to learn if a product can do what they need. In contrast, Reviewer Guides usually have lots of marketing-speak because the company hopes reporters will quote it verbatim in articles.

Why are Product Reviewer Guides on the way out?

For one, the influence of traditional technical media is shrinking as the clout of social networks is increasing. Spending time on Reviewer Guides is not necessarily a good use of marketing dollars anymore.

However, the more important reason why Product Evaluation Guides are rising as Product Reviewer Guides wane is that most software companies now offer free product trials to potential customers, even for enterprise-grade products with multi-million dollar price tags.  And while free product trials are not exactly new, they are now offered earlier in the sales process than ever before, often prior to any contact with a sales rep.

So, next time someone says they need a Product Reviewer Guide, think twice.  A Product Evaluation Guide will often have bigger impact for the same effort.