📣 Special announcement: The Not-Boring Tech Writer team (Kate and Chad) will be at Write the Docs Portland in May. Thanks to KnowledgeOwl's sponsorship, they’ll be wearing KnowledgeOwl and The Not-Boring Tech Writer t-shirts and giving out The Not-Boring Tech Writer stickers. If you're attending WTD Portland this year, please say hi to Kate and Chad, let them know what you think of the show, and swing by the conference swag table to grab some free stickers so you can flaunt your not-boring tech writer status with the world!
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In this episode, I’m talking with Lorna Mitchell, a technology leader, published author, tech blogger, and developer experience expert who is passionate about APIs and developer tools. We talk about why developers writing docs is good for both your devs and your docs, the best ways to build successful collaboration with developers, and more!
Lorna and I discuss her background as a developer who started doing documentation for her own resources and gradually moved into developer relations, developer advocacy, and developer experience. We chat about the wide range of writing she’s tackled–including books, readmes, and her blog–and why developers need to write to improve their skills.
We also discuss strategies tech writers can use to facilitate good collaboration with developers, including treating their role more as editors rather than writers; having a clearly-defined process with discrete, well-scoped requests for contributions; creating content type templates to streamline contributions; and having a second, shorter style guide for developers.
About Lorna Mitchell:
Lorna is based in Yorkshire, UK; she is a technology leader and developer experience expert who is passionate about APIs and developer tools. She is also a published author and regular blogger, sharing her insights on a variety of tech-related topics. Lorna serves on the OpenUK board, is on the Technical Steering Committee for OpenAPI specification, and maintains open source projects.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- Lorna’s developer style guide
- Diátaxis for content types
- Write the Docs’ Docs as Code resources
- Tanya Reilly’s Being Glue
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Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:
We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:
Contact Kate Mueller:Â
Contact Lorna Mitchell:Â
Contact KnowledgeOwl:
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Transcript:
Kate Mueller: [00:00:01] Welcome to the Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast
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