Technical writing for safe, on-schedule and standards-compliant documentation

For services in technical docum­ent­ation, kothes currently charges the following hourly rates:

• Technical writing for instruction manuals: 89 euros per hour

• Technical writing for risk assessments: 99 euros per hour

• Project management: 109 euros per hour

For an eight-hour project day, this corresponds to daily rates of 712 euros, 792 euros and 872 euros resp­ect­ively. Billing is based on the agreed scope of services. For clearly defined projects, we can estimate the expected effort in advance and prepare a transparent quotation on this basis.

How many hours are needed for a project depends, among other things, on the complexity of the product, the quality of the initial information, the need for research and coord­in­ation, as well as regulatory requir­em­ents. Therefore, the hourly rate alone does not allow you to deduce the total costs of an instruction manual or a docum­ent­ation project. Feel free to send us an enquiry!

kothes combines prof­ess­ion­ally qualified technical writing with a systematic quality concept. Our teams bring together different technical, scientific and editorial perspect­ives.

As a result, customers do not simply receive editorial capacity on an hourly basis. They commission specialists who familiarise themselves with products in a structured way, work according to agreed methods and can draw on the quality management and project structures of kothes. Depending on the task, we complement the editorial work with expertise in risk assessment, project management, translation, consulting and technol­og­ical implem­ent­ation.

A low hourly rate does not autom­at­ic­ally lead to low project costs. What matters is which result is achieved within the billed time. If a provider needs sign­if­ic­antly more hours for the same task, the initially cheaper offer can end up being more expensive. Conversely, a high hourly rate alone does not guarantee high prod­uct­ivity or good quality.

For a robust comparison, companies should therefore not only look at the price per hour, but also:

• what qual­if­ic­at­ions the specialists involved have,

• how quickly they familiarise themselves with the product and the task,

• which services are included in the hourly rate,

• how research, coord­in­ation and quality assurance are organised,

• what effort is expected for a comparable result,

• who takes resp­ons­ib­ility for deadlines, quality and project management.

At kothes, the majority of staff are acad­em­ic­ally trained prof­ess­ionals. These include technical writers as well as specialists with a technical, scientific or didactic background – for example from engineering, electrical engineering, biology, chemistry or teaching. In addition, new employees at kothes are meth­od­ic­ally and prof­ess­ion­ally qualified and complete a six-week induction programme.

Yes. Our technical writers work with the systems, templates and approval processes you use. We reliably apply existing editorial guidelines and writing rules. If such spec­if­ic­at­ions are lacking, we work together to create a reliable basis for the project.

Every instruction we create has to pass a six-eyes review. In addition to editorial processes, we verify content as well as the agreed standards and guidelines through our quality management. This is followed by a linguistic proofr­eading. We align the individual review steps and approvals with the respective project.

No. We can continue to carry out projects according to our established processes without AI support. If AI use appears sensible for a given task, we discuss with the customer which steps could be supported, which data would be processed for this and which general conditions apply. We only use AI in the respective project on the basis of a joint agreement.

Yes. In the beginning we clarify which legal, normative and customer-specific requir­em­ents are relevant for the product and the docum­ent­ation. We take these requir­em­ents into account in creation and quality assurance. The extent of resp­ons­ib­ility kothes assumes in this regard is clearly agreed for the respective project.

For technically correct docum­ent­ation we need a technical contact person, reliable product information, the risk assessment and relevant regulatory information. Existing product and design documents as well as access to the product or prototype make famil­iar­is­ation easier. We can also start with incomplete docum­ent­ation. We identify and supplement missing information together in the project.

We take on the technical writing, but we need your product expertise for it. Your specialists support us above all during famil­iar­is­ation, with open technical questions as well as with reviews and approvals. We structure these coord­in­ation steps in such a way that the effort for your team remains manageable. Clear resp­ons­ib­il­ities and reliable response deadlines help to implement the project swiftly.

The duration of a project can range from a few days to several months. A manual for a simple consumer product can be created within a few days if good source material is available. Docum­ent­ation for a complex machine or system, such as a wind turbine, can take several months. The key factors are above all product complexity, scope of docum­ent­ation, quality of the existing material, number of variants and languages, as well as coord­in­ation times. After an initial analysis, we prepare a realistic project plan.

We start with the available documents and have discussions with your specialists. Where possible, our technical writers also work directly with the product or prototype. In doing so, they look at functions, typical workflows and possible risks.

Our aim is not to replace your design engineers. We translate their product knowledge into information that your target audiences understand and actually need. After all, your product was not developed only for the people who designed it. We record open questions in a structured manner and clarify them together with your contact persons.

No. Everything we create on your behalf belongs to you. You receive the technical docum­ent­ation including the agreed source data and can maintain it yourself, have it further developed by kothes, or commission another partner. Before the project starts, we clarify transpar­ently which formats and systems will be used and how later updates will be organised. You always decide yourself how the docum­ent­ation will be continued.