Two football teams are about to play for the national championship. I grew up in the shadow of one. Which raises the question: What I did learn in that town that relates to what I do today? Here are three college-football, tech-writing lessons, and a few related questions:

1) Brands matter. The local university adopted a new logo when I was in grade school. Decades later, it still triggers memories: fall days, screaming fans, marching bands, acrobatic cheerleaders, large football players. With a winning team, a university brand tends to self-perpetuate, one incoming class and season after another. Most companies must work harder to grow, protect and market their identity. Five years ago, Comcast launched Xfinity to put a new name on its residential service. Was it successful? In acquisitions, common to the tech industry, a brand may vanish. What does the new brand or logo mean? How do customers react to it? Is there distance between image and reality?

2) Individuals matter. A head coach makes decisions. Individual players make – or miss – plays. And the great ones look like heroes, especially to kids. Teams amplify individual efforts, to be sure. But do you notice how much attention Clemson’s Deshaun Watson is getting? In the tech world, we often focus on the engineering or science or other abstractions. Yet behind them, you find individuals: inventors, builders, implementers. The same thing applies to consumer demand, which is simply an aggregation of many personal choices. Individual fans fill a stadium. One by one, customers keep us in business. (Thank you!) So who filed the patent? Who submitted the RFI? Who decided to deploy? Who are the buyers? (Or at least, what are their personas?)

3) Winning matters. It’s not the only thing, of course. Recruiting violations in the 1980s led my team to a two-year ban on bowl games. Games have rules. But competition raises the level of play. When winners play winners, you should get a great game. What happens behind the scenes are the smaller wins. That seems to be what drives Nick Saban’s pursuit of perfection at Alabama. Focus on the details and promote a winning culture. For a writer, hitting a daily or hourly deadline is one of the little wins. The bigger goal here is creating deliverables that help tech companies put points on the board. Are you looking for wins? Let me know how I can help.

So Which Team Is It?

My father was a professor at Clemson University. But my blood does not run orange, as they say in that part of South Carolina. I spent my high school years in Northern Virginia and then went to U.Va. Still, I’d love to see Clemson win. Given the competition, a close game would be good, too.