I'm a dedicated and experienced Technical Writer with over a decade of experience creating and managing technical product documentation. I view the role of a technical writer as both the voice and user of the product. My goal is to translate subject matter expertise available within technical organizations into actionable documentation with clear outcomes. I work closely with cross-functional teams to test and identify issues and offer user experience and usability suggestions during documentation development.
I have extensive experience authoring in DITA XML and proficient in authoring tools such as Oxygen XML Editor and Adobe FrameMaker. I have a strong track record of successfully delivering comprehensive documentation for new product launches. This includes planning, developing, testing, and publishing product documentation from initial commit to general availability. I'm a collaborative team player with a keen eye for detail and a commitment to enhancing user experience.
There are three primary principals that guide how I approach writing projects.
I believe the most vital part of writing good and accurate documentation is to actually use the feature and product you document.
It's the only way you can author earnest documentation and understand what it is you're documenting. Additionally, it allows me to experience the product as an end user to offer constructive feedback during development and improve user experience and outcome.
Relevant data needs to be logically grouped to make information easy to find.
Thinking ahead about how I want to organize documentation reduces instances of duplicative and contrary information. It also helps internal stakeholders, especially customer facing ones, quickly find information when working with users.
I always want to think ahead about what the user needs during their journey through my documentation.
Having used the product and thoughtfully structured my documentation, I want to enrich workflows with useful information to improve customer outcomes. The idea is to want to have the right information available to the user when they need it.