I started my latest tech writer job fully remote, in the middle of a global pandemic. I was also the first technical writer the company had ever hired (but that’s a story a for another post).
Here are some tips to get off to a great start in your new role.
1. Get familiar with the product
This is my number one, key thing to do as soon as possible. Get access to your product, preferably in a test environment you feel comfortable playing around in.
Learn by doing—see how easy it is to get started and complete basic tasks. Bonus if you are able to use the documentation to work through problems.
This has two main benefits: 1) You gain empathy for end users 2) You can identify places where the documentation could be improved.
Pay attention to UI content; looks for areas that can be improved by updating the copy, adding a tooltip, or renaming a field.
2. Get to know your users
Depending on your team, you may or may not have access to live end users, but there are lots of ways to understand the people using your product.
Work closely with designers, product managers, and customer support. Those roles usually get a lot of feedback and research directly from clients.
Start grouping the types of users. Are there multiple types of users on the platform? What is their level of technical expertise? Map out onboarding user journeys for each persona. Consider where in the journey they might need documentation. You can also ask the Design team if they have personas already defined.
If your team uses a product analytics tool like Google Analytics, Pendo, or HotJar, ask if you can get an account. Learn about how users navigate the platform, and where they get stuck.
If your company uses any type of customer feedback tool like Medallia, ask if you can get access to the written responses.
3. Get to know the team
Collaboration and communication with the greater product team is key to your success as a technical writer. There are many different roles throughout an organization that might be relevant to your job.
Designers
Questions to ask:
- Do you have personas developed?
- What does the general design process look like? How do you work with other teams (product managers, development, etc.)?
- Do you do user research? Would it be possible for me to listen in on a session? Are there any existing transcripts or recordings that you think would be helpful for me?
- What design system do you use? Is content a part of the design system?
- Who does the UX writing for the platform? What does the process look like?
Developers/Testers
The technical team is critical for reviewing your technical content for correctness. Working closely with this team also ensures that documentation is up to date, and released at the same cadence as product releases.
- How do release cycles work? How often are releases? Do you work in Agile or Waterfall?
- What project management tools do you use (JIRA, Asana, Trello, etc.)?
- How have you worked with technical writers in the past?
- How would you prefer to review technical content?
- How should I go about logging defects or changing UI copy?
Product Manager
- What content do you feel is missing?
- Where do we have an opportunity to improve?
- Have you heard any feedback on documentation?
- How does roadmap planning work?
- What’s the best way to stay up to date on releases/designs/roadmap changes?
- How would you prefer to review documentation?
Customer Success / Support
- What are the biggest customer complaints?
- What content do you reference most frequently?
- Where do you feel the documentation could use improvement?
- How can we establish a feedback cycle?
Product Marketing
- How are marketing materials created?
- How do you publicize product updates?
- What do you like to highlight about the product?
- What do you have to hide?
- Website/doc site analytics
4. Understand the ecosystem
You may already have a good understanding of authoring tools like Madcap Flare, Dita, or Git, but it’s important to understand the workflow the team uses.
Make sure you have access to all the correct systems. Usually these fall into the following categories:
Authoring languages
This is the language that you will be asked to write content in. Markup languages are most common. Knowing some HTML/CSS will help.
Examples: Dita XML, Markdown, HTML/CSS, JSON, Swagger
Authoring tools
Once you know your language, you can choose an authoring tool. Some are more heavy duty than others. Or a lightweight text editor might work.
Examples: Oxygen, Markdown editors (Typora), Notepad ++, Arbortext
Content Management System
Your CMS is the central location where documents live. A common CMS allows many writers to work on set of documents and keeps track of versions. You may use a Git-based tool like GitHub or Bitbucket.
Examples: Github, Bitbucket, MadCap Flare, Confluence
Build system
This is usually where you can run builds to staging to preview content, or push it to production.
Examples: Amplify, Buildkite, Jenkins
Guided tour software
Some writers are expected to design and configure UI tours and instructional content. Get familiar with these tools by taking online trainings.
Examples: WalkMe, Pendo
Video software
If you will be creating instructional videos, get a license to your tools of choice
Examples: Camtasia, iMovie, Adobe Premier