Last week, the VP of my department attended a major industry conference at which she was scheduled to give a few presentations. The presentation software we used – a package that works in conjunction with PowerPoint to increase flexibility and add features – is relatively new, and nobody in the company had any experience with it. Thus, as department Tech Dude, I was given two days to figure out how to work the software, apply it to our presentations, and give my boss a crash course.
Long story short, I ended up tossing their 100-page manual aside and compiling a two-page “cheat sheet” based on actually using the damned thing. My boss took it to the conference, where senior reps from the presentation-software company were on hand to provide support (and, of course, to pimp their product if the presentations impressed). They got ahold of my cheat sheet, which apparently had been passed around among the presenters, and decided they liked it.
So, today, they called me. The lady I spoke with heaped praise upon my little document and requested that I send it to her, so that they can distribute it as a guide at future events. I was all set to comply, when my boss suggested that perhaps I ought to be compensated for this, as they most likely paid the person who wrote the nigh-incomprehensible guide they’re currently using. This leads me to my question.
Should I try to get paid for this? To my mind, all I did was figure out how to use their software under optimal and one-to-two-levels-removed-from-optimal conditions, and write it down. Seriously, it’s two pages; it hardly seems like a big deal, and it never would have occurred to me to ask for money. On the other hand, the software company does seem pretty enthusiastic about it, and hey, I’ll certainly take money. Also, if I decide it can’t hurt to ask, how should I go about it?
I figure strangers on the internet will have advice as good as anybody I know, so have at it. Thanks!