When is ignorance bliss? When it helps you ask the right questions.

One day, while writing a press release announcing a new software product, I learned that lack of knowledge made me the most qualified for the job.

This was many moons ago while working for a hot software startup. The product was an assembly language utility (or “assembler”) that translates code to give hardware-level instructions to the microprocessor. 

You practically had to wear an Intel bunny suit just to think about this stuff. It made your brain hurt.

I was interviewing the product manager and struggling with the subject. I wasn’t a coder at any level, beyond playing with a few lines of Basic.  I couldn’t visualize how the process worked or what the software did for you.  In the middle of this interview the product manager said something that stunned and educated me about what I was attempting to do. 

He said, “Steve, you’re worried that you don’t know anything about assembly.  But that’s what makes you qualified to write the release.”

To which I replied, “Huh????”

He repeated.  “That’s what makes you qualified.”

On further investigation, I discovered what he knew that I didn’t.  This guy was very smart.  Before joining my software company, he taught English as a second language to Taiwanese students. In Taiwan!  Here’s how he saw it:

• He knew about assembler and about the product (obviously since he was the product manager);
• He knew a great deal about translation, which, as it turns out, is what assemblers do (and also why someone with his background was hired for the job);
• He knew I had no prior knowledge or experience with assembly language programming;
• He knew the trade press editors I was writing for also rarely had hands-on knowledge or experience with assembly language;
• He knew I had basic journalistic skills and experience to ask questions and capture information and report it coherently IF I understood it;
• He surmised that my lack of knowledge would cause me to ask just the right type of questions to act as a surrogate for my audience;
• Being a decent writer himself, he knew that my asking the right questions was the key factor in gaining the kind of information I needed; and,
• He reasoned that I would probably present the product information in ways the editors would understand better than anyone else at the company, who all knew more about it (and therefore wouldn’t ask the right questions). 

So those were my “qualifications” for the writing assignment.  What looked like none actually were some.  I couldn’t see it until he pointed it out with clever irony.

I’ve learned a lot from some great product managers over the years.  But this had a big impact on me.  I never thought lack of knowledge could be an asset.  But it can.  Anything that helps you ask the right questions, capture the information you need and tell the story in a way that makes sense in context to your intended audience is a very important asset for content marketers.

That’s what makes it fundamental.