How to Publish Professional & Tactful Teardowns

Published September 26, 2016 by Jane Portman
Categories:

• Articles
• Q&A

Today I’m answering a question from Anna Sabramowicz, an e-learning strategist. Anna would like to publish teardowns within her knowledge domain, and is asking for advice:

“Teardowns are obviously an excellent way to show domain expertise and market yourself. My question is, should I simply find things that are public on the web and do a teardown? Or should I be more formal and notify the owner, or ask for permission? Any lessons learned or things I should watch out for?”

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Thank you for the great question, Anna! I’ve never encountered any problems with the teardowns. However, I’ve chosen to follow certain principles (voluntarily):

• Only pick established products who obviously won’t be hurt by my humble opinion (brand names also help catch reader’s attention).
• Find something you sincerely like or admire, and use it to soften your teardown.
• Try to be objective about a certain educational point, instead of giving an overall evaluation.
• I don’t ask for permission, but obviously it wouldn’t hurt to establish a friendly personal connection.
• Always be friendly and willing to change or remove your publication.

Also, practice makes perfect — do your best to publish tearowns regularly. This will help you develop your own voice, format, and professional reputation.

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