What I Actually Do

Now that I’ve switched over to marketing, people — co-workers, even! — keep asking me what I actually do all day.

Fair question. Since I’ll probably get asked the same thing in San Jose next week, I figured I’d write it up.

The team

Our team could be a small software company on its own — we have engineers, testers, designers, and a person who makes movies. Everything I do is part of working with that team.

If you think I’m being paid to be a blogger and podcaster, you’re not too far off the mark, but that description misses some things.

I’ve traded in Xcode for BBEdit and Marked, since most of what I do is writing. I write for the blog and for the podcast, of course, and also lately I’ve written:

• Inside OmniFocus blog posts
• App Store editorial pitch
• Sponsorship blurbs for podcasts
• App Store description for OmniFocus 3 for iOS
• Product pages and related pages for OmniFocus 3 for iOS and OmniFocus 2 for Mac
• Some first-run text in OmniFocus 3
• Press release
• Other release-related email
• Omni microblog (OmniDogs!)
• Newsletter
• Various tweets

Note: again, though, it’s a team effort. Some things go through extensive feedback and editing before being finished.

And some things — like the product pages — will evolve a bunch during design and production. As it takes shape we can see where the writing needs to change.

And some things I write — especially anything that ends up in an app — will probably get revised by other people before it ships.

I do some things besides writing. I edit customer stories for Inside OmniFocus. I work with people who write to Omni’s marketing email address.

And even the writing isn’t just writing — I help figure out what to write, and when, and how to talk about things.

So there you have it. I’m part of a team, and my particular role is the words. And there are a lot of words.

PS See How We Do The Omni Show for what all goes into making the podcast.