API The Docs Podcast
By API The Docs
API The Docs PodcastOct 01, 2020
Teaching and Learning Git - Discussion with Anna Skoulikari
When it comes to learning Git, it can be daunting to navigate the plethora of learning resources out there. Recognising the need for a visually engaging all-levels experience, Anna Skoulikari (JetBrains) decided to write her own self-study book to help learners along the way.
Install ways to check on the overall health of the portal - Conversation with Rachel Lee Nabors
"Key results are the things you're going to do to move that number. Here's the thing where most people spin out. There should be a break mechanism on the things that you're doing […] a culture of experimentation, and objective critique around 'Is this the right thing to be doing?” Welcome back to our two parts episode with Rachel Lee Nabors, we continue with talking about developer portal stakeholders and your metrics based approach.
React.dev and storyboarding with Rachel Lee Nabors
"You can always tell when it's a novice writer or a writer and an artist who are in bad relation because there will be blocks of text everywhere explaining how the character is feeling […] There's a delicate balance to be struck and it's the same with code.” Welcome Rachel Lee Nabors, one of the creators behind the grand award-winning react.dev portal where all 600+ code examples are manipulable, and in each section’s "code challenges," learners are encouraged to fix broken examples by following clues left by the core team.
On the management track - conversation with Claire Waters
Drawing from her role as a wayfinder, Claire Waters (Senior Manager – Product Content Experience, Cloudflare) shares her team’s using the COIN methodology for embracing AI tools as a team, and how they engage in low-stakes AI challenges to foster familiarity and comfort with AI technologies.
The zen of resilience - Discussion with Dan Grabski
You need docs and headspace when a well-oiled system inevitably throws a flat tire. With Dan Grabski we talked from car racing through tech execs mediating at Burning Man, forest fire incident management systems and early expectations setting all the way to API docs and back again.
Writing with humans in mind - Discussion with Ryan Young
Technical writers walk a tricky tightrope between delivering accurate technical information and making it comprehensible for a wide range of users with varying levels of technical experience. In this episode, Ryan Young (Technical writer at Stripe) shares his thoughts on bridging the gap between different content layers and writing for humans in a digital world.
DevPortal Awards Jury Interview - Special Edition Part 4
How can one make their devportal accessible and useful at the same time? What can devportal owners do to support inclusive design? We were honored to ask Susanna Laurin (Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies, G3ict and IAAP Representative to the EU) about these questions in 2023’s DevPortal Awards framework. As she highlighted, developer portals were a new field for her, and she saw many angles to approach accessibility. We are happy to share Susanna’s remarks and suggestions with you.Further resources:
DevPortal Awards Jury Interview - Special Edition Part 3
The API The Docs Podcast brings you a Special Edition series with insights from the 2023 DevPortal Awards.
Each year, the DevPortal Awards seeks the most outstanding solutions with the help of experienced jurors, who are volunteers with extensive knowledge of API programs, developer portals, and API documentation.
In the Special Edition series, we share interviews with the jurors which were recorded during the online Awards Gala events in November, 2023.
How can developer portals incorporate gamification into their workflows? How do jurors Anne Gentle (Developer Relations Leader at Cisco DevNet), Bob Watson (Senior Technical Writer), and Michael Richardson (Advanced Software Engineering Manager at Kroger) see the importance of user experience research and design? In 2023, the DevPortal Awards jury members discussed the possibilities, and their remarks could help to create a better user experience for devportals. We are glad to share the episode with you.
Further resources:
DevPortal Awards Jury Interview - Special Edition Part 2
The API The Docs Podcast brings you a Special Edition series with insights from the 2023 DevPortal Awards.
Each year, the DevPortal Awards seeks the most outstanding solutions with the help of experienced jurors, who are volunteers with extensive knowledge of API programs, developer portals, and API documentation.
In the Special Edition series, we share interviews with the jurors which were recorded during the online Awards Gala events in November, 2023.
What could be the similarities between Choose Your Own Adventure games and developer portals? Is it possible to reach that level of interactivity to interlocking journeys? In 2023, the DevPortal Awards jury members discussed a few possibilities that could be more than sci-fi. We are happy to share the interviews with you. In this episode, you hear insights from Kruno Golubić (Technical Writer at Memgraph), Marco Spinello (Senior Technical Writer at sanity.io), Richard Smedley (Principal Technical Writer at Couchbase), and Ryan Clifford (Platform Group Product Manager at Spendesk).
Further resources:
DevPortal Awards Jury Interview - Special Edition Part 1
The API The Docs Podcast brings you a Special Edition series with insights from the 2023 DevPortal Awards.
Each year, the DevPortal Awards seeks the most outstanding solutions with the help of experienced jurors, who are volunteers with extensive knowledge of API programs, developer portals, and API documentation.
In the Special Edition series, we share interviews with the jurors which were recorded during the online Awards Gala events in November, 2023.
If everything would be possible, what could be the future of developer portals? What aspects do experts welcome, and what elements would be better to leave behind? In 2023, the DevPortal Awards jury members shared their insights with us. We are honored to bring the interviews to you. In this episode, you can learn from DevPortal Awards jurors Chris Bush (Lead Developer Educator at MongoDB), Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti (Principal Technical Writer at Splunk), and Koichi Shiroma (Senior Product Development).
Further resources:
Harnessing the power of customer success - Discussion with Charlie Edwards
Connected to both customers and internal teams, customer success is a powerful source of valuable information throughout the entire feedback loop. In this episode, Charlie Edwards (Customer Success Manager at CAE Technologies Limited) explains how the feedback from customer success teams contributes to the comprehensive improvement of products.
The API The Docs Podcast was brought to you by Pronovix.
https://pronovix.com/
Building empathy with a beginner’s mindset - Discussion with Adrienne Braganza Tacke
Adopting a beginner’s mindset allows you to explore familiar concepts through a lens of curiosity and openness. But how does that translate to documentation? In this episode, Adrienne Braganza Tacke (Sr. Developer Advocate & DevNet Community Programs Lead at Cisco) explains the unexpected benefits of writing with newcomers in mind and how it can take documentation to the next level.
Docs anthropology, and how to make content useful for the future - conversation with Portia Burton
How does a biological anthropologist become a professional docs auditor? Portia Burton, founder of DocumentWrite, narrates her meandering journey from biological anthropology to ESL China, through blockchain technology community engineering, all the way to content audit services. We talk about what to look for in an audit, and what is often critical for a successful content inventory [spoiler: speed]. Where to dive in to make the most of the existing content for the future?
Demystifying DevRel and Tech Writing - Discussion with Kruno Golubic and Katarina Šupe
Technical writing and developer relations are relatively new areas, and they have both grown out of a need for these specific skill sets. However, for newcomers in the IT landscape, it might take a while to understand what they actually mean and how they support the work of developers. Kruno Golubic (technical writer at Memgraph) and Katarina Šupe (DevRel at Memgraph) explain the benefits of a successful mentorship initiative, the different definitions of developer experience, and the challenges of technical writing that set it apart from other disciplines.
Fostering an API-first culture in a startup environment - Discussion with Alex Akimov and Helen Kosova
From rapid changes to learning on the fly, startups face unique challenges that require creative solutions. Alex Akimov (Head of API Platform at Monite) and Helen Kosova (API Technical Writer at Monite) discuss how Monite’s API council supports the adoption of an API-first approach at the company.
Empowered community through user-centered design - Discussion with Anthony Pichardo
With Anthony Pichardo, product manager at Visa Developer Platform, on the value of user-centered design and building non-zero sum environments where everyone wins. Community is not just an afterthought, it’s an integral part of strategy. The platform team conducts regular user research to gauge pain points, and constantly strives to minimize the learning curve to better serve the community’s needs.
Unified documentation hubs versus documentation islands - Discussion with Christoph Weber and Kristof Van Tomme
We explore how developer documentation hubs enable a unified information architecture, at least outwards: our guests Christoph Weber (Pronovix) and Kristof Van Tomme (Pronovix) talk about the nuanced, socio-technical nature of large scale documentation processes, the need for a central API docs team, and the future use of private LLMs.
Why convert from markdown to confluence? - Interview with Paula Cristina Vaz
Developers are the ones who know their APIs best, but they need an easy documentation process that wouldn’t be too different from the coding lifecycle to produce the technical documentation at scale. Senior technical writer Paula Cristina Vaz outlines the Documentation Framework at Farfetch, created to process markdown files and convert them to Confluence HTML. She talks about the page and document templates that help writers structure their documentation in a standardized way.
Innersource and the meaning of collaboration - Interview with Daniel Izquierdo and Kristof Van Tomme
Daniel Izquierdo (Bitergia) and Kristof Van Tomme (Pronovix) explained their journey with innersource and open-source communities. They also discussed what a company can do with documentation islands (or silos), and what are the role of technical writers in this process. What is the connection between innersource and documentation? How can we define true collaboration?
Resources:
- Innersourcecommons.org
- API The Docs Virtual 2023: Feedback, Metrics, Analytics series – Recaps
- Complexity podcast with Jabe Bloom (Part1, Part2)
- Developer Portals Newsletter
The valuable problem: about Domain Driven Design with Luca Vettor
Business and technical personas may have different skills, and in many cases, they use different terminology. Luca Vettor (Information Architect at Deltatre) explained how Domain Driven Design and event storming create transparent communication between the two personas. What is induced and intrinsic complexity? How could we define the problem space when the customer is in a complex environment and their problems are intertwined? Luca Vettor helped us to answer these questions.References:
A love letter to technical writing - Passo Uno, Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti
Why did Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti (Senior Staff Technical Writer at Splunk) write a love letter to technical writing? How could technical writers create a bridge between the different parts of a company? With an MSc in cognitive psychology, Fabrizio shares a nuanced perspective in his ‘Docs' hierarchy of priorities’ and associated metrics.References:
Docs-as-Code for better collaboration at Amadeus for Developers - Interview with Anna Tsolakou and Mathieu Pincovai
Anna Tsolakou (Developer Advocate) and Mathieu Pincovai (Customer Success Specialist) shared with us the journey on how Amadeus for Developers created consistent and clear documentation. We also talked about why the docs-as-code approach is so crucial for them, and how they can create the right documentation for their APIs.
Advocacy at Spotify for Developers - Interview with Serah Njambi Kiburu and Alvaro Navarro
Spotify Senior Developer Advocates Serah Njambi Kiburu and Alvaro Navarro talked with us about the two enemies of developer empathy, and their practices to optimise and scale for the community’s real needs. We also asked why Spotify even needs an API developer portal, and why isn’t it built on backstage? (spoiler alert) They have good reasons for that.
Typical patterns in the process of API learning – Interview with Emese Hallgató
Our guest Emese Hallgató works as a UX researcher at Pronovix Developer Portals. Her education and experience in computer programming and in psychological research open the door to better understanding developers and their needs. How do developers approach coding, and what do they need to reach a state of flow? We talk about the archetypes of systematic, opportunistic, and pragmatic developers.
If you would like to deep-dive into the topic more, read Emese’s ‘How do developers learn about APIs?’ article.
Techwriting, DX and DevRel working together at Miro - Part 2
In Part 2 of our conversation with Miro's DevRel Lead Anthony Roux and Senior Techwriters Mira Balani and Marco Spinello, we walk deeper into how their respective teams complement each other, and we will also get a detailed narrative from Anthony about their process to aggregate all types of feedback, whether it's a feature requests, bugs, or documentation improvements into one central base.
Techwriting, DX and DevRel working together at Miro - Part1
With our three Mironeer guests, DevRel Lead Anthony Roux and Senior Techwriters Mira Balani and Marco Spinello, we talked about how they joined their teams, what they learnt since, how and by whom their developer docs came to be as they are today, and what two documentarians are to do if they disagree.
Interview with Anthony Sansone, staff technical writer at MongoDB - The importance of onboarding in techwriting
Our guest is Anthony Sansone, staff technical writer at MongoDB, who has spent 20+ years in computer hardware, software, and services, specializing in data protection and user security. His experience ranges from startups to large multinational companies. In this episode, Anthony shares his insights about the techwriters’ onboarding and the inspiration you can get from new hires.
Interview with Marc Burgauer part 2 - Will social practices eat your change strategy for breakfast?
Or, maybe you could map it: what does each of you do, why, and how? We converse about integration of practices and practice networks with Marc Burgauer, co-founder of Contextualise. Together with Chris McDermott, they assist large organizations in their transformation efforts through maturity mapping. We are teasing out our ideas on how can the understanding of social practice theory–and the acceptance of complexity–possibly help write better technical documentation. How can we better ease and inform the users of the docs into the context in which the artifact operates? What would be the minimum shared vocabulary and methods to change anything for the better in a persistent, self-stabilizing socio-technical system–our workplace–and do we need to name practice theory at all for it?
Interview with Marc Burgauer part 1 - Will social practices eat your change strategy for breakfast?
Or, maybe you could map it: what does each of you do, why, and how? We converse about integration of practices and practice networks with Marc Burgauer, co-founder of Contextualise. Together with Chris McDermott, they assist large organizations in their transformation efforts through maturity mapping. We are teasing out our ideas on how can the understanding of social practice theory–and the acceptance of complexity–possibly help write better technical documentation. How can we better ease and inform the users of the docs into the context in which the artifact operates? What would be the minimum shared vocabulary and methods to change anything for the better in a persistent, self-stabilizing socio-technical system–our workplace–and do we need to name practice theory at all for it?
When is no news good news for a scheduling platform? - Interview with DevRel Kristyn Bryan and Application Architect Dmitry Pashkevich from Calendly
We asked DevRel Kristyn Bryan and Application Architect Dmitry Pashkevich from the Calendly API team about the new, v2 of their API and the upgraded devportal. Why and how did they redesign the legacy API? They adopted a design-first approach to building APIs. How does this new strategy manifest in their daily jobs, what are they now doing differently? What are their teams' practices with customer feedback, and with internal mentoring?
Source code access, consistency: some ingredients of Adyen's API program
Interview with Ruby Batallones, Technical Writer at Adyen and Aleksei Akimov, Head of API at Adyen
Involve your technical writers already from the API design discussions: this can help ensure a consistent user experience across all APIs, and in finding the middle ground between the usability requirements and the architecture requirements.
At Adyen, technical writers have the ways and means to add and maintain the descriptions in the source code, they can make sure that all the bits and pieces are linked together and enough context is provided everywhere. This practice brought that techwriters habitually use the developer tools as well, and have a deeper technical understanding of the API, which in turn enables better communications earlier on.
The recently open sourced Adyen Explorer and documentation won 2 prizes at the 2019 DevPortal Awards: Best API Reference Documentation and Best Decision Maker Documentation.
Our guests are Ruby Batallones Technical Writer at Adyen, former solution architect and implementation engineer, and Aleksei Akimov, who started his career in software development, then added technical writing, was leading the Documentation & Developer Experience team and is now responsible for Adyen API design, strategy, and governance.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Confidence and Critical Thinking in Techwriting: Part 2
MongoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL database programs, providing both on-premise and cloud-based solutions. Tony works as a senior technical writer on cloud based tools. He has 20+ years experience in computer hardware, software, and services, specializing in data protection and user security, and he is a long-time supporter of API The Docs.
In this second part of the interview we continue our conversation:
- Adoption of OpenAPI specification
- How to save large amounts of documentation time?
- How to keep the specifications up-to-date?
- How to simplify API documentation?
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Confidence and Critical Thinking part 1: techwriting is life-long learning - Interview with Anthony Sansone, Senior Technical Writer at MongoDB
Confidence and Critical Thinking: techwriting is life-long learning - Interview with Anthony Sansone, Senior Technical Writer at MongoDB
MongoDB is one of the most popular NoSQL database programs, providing both on-premise and cloud-based solutions. Tony works as a senior technical writer on cloud based tools. He has 20+ years experience in computer hardware, software, and services, specializing in data protection and user security, and he is a long-time supporter of API The Docs.
In this interview, Tony and the hosts are delving into the following topics:
- How has the technical writing job market changed lately?
- Speeding up complex onboarding and training of new technical writers at MongoDB
- Embrace inquisitive juniors and help build confidence, keep open office hours
In Part 2, Episode 22, we continue our conversation:
- Adoption of OpenAPI specification
- How to save large amounts of documentation time?
- How to keep the specifications up-to-date?
- How to simplify API documentation?
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Building a DevRel Team - Interview with Lorna Mitchell, Head of Developer Relations at Aiven.
Building a DevRel Team - Interview with Lorna Mitchell, Head of Developer Relations at Aiven.
Lorna is an open source software developer and project maintainer, published author, blogger and conference speaker, who is with us today to talk about the skills and roles that contribute to successfully operating a devrel team:
- Priorities and structure when developing a new devrel team
- Roles and responsibilities
- Involving a technical writer in the team
- Career path, growth and collaboration in a devrel team
- Insights of creating a new open source devportal
- Aiven open source data tools and products
- Maintenance of documentation and workflows
Sources:
- Read more about Lorna’s work here: https://lornajane.net/
- For job offerings at Aiven, please visit: https://aiven.io/careers
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Feedback is the key! - Interview with Alex Hoffer, Developer Relations Engineer at Plaid
Alex Hoffer is a DevRel engineer at Plaid. Previously, she was managing the QA team at Dropbox for 6 years. At Plaid, she's been working on documentation and an overhaul of the Plaid developer docs. Developer experience is extremely important at Plaid and the docs are a big part of that. Tune in to hear more about how to create an excellent developer experience:
- How does a cross-functional team work together with other departments in order to improve the developer functionality?
- How developer experience is about product, documentation and engineering collaborating together?
- What is her role in the API Review Committee, which helps ensure APIs are standardized and maintain their API style guide?
- Docs revamp - how have they approached it, why have they done it, where is it going next?
- How does the entire doc editing and authorship process work at Plaid?
- And last but not least, how have they incorporated user feedback into the docs process!
The host is Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix).
Sources:
https://plaid.com/blog/new-plaid-docs/
plaid.com/careers
Getting into the tech industry through technical writing - Interview with Carolyn Stransky, Frontend Engineer at Bryter
Former technical writer, previously a journalist and now fronted engineer, conference speaker and workshop organizer. Tune in to learn about Carolyn's career journey.
- How did she transition from journalism to technical writing and how did her previously acquired journalism skills support that journey?
- Why and how did she become a software engineer?
- What was her role in the Google Season of Docs program that connects experienced technical writers with the open source community?
- What does humanizing your documentation mean in practice?
- How to write a good FAQ page to best support the onboarding process?
In this episode we are exploring a new topic that hasn't been touched on yet over the API The Docs podcast series.
The host is Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Sources:
A good design is not about how something looks, it's about how something works - Interview with Liam Gallagher and Jake Eastham from Barclays
Today our guests are Liam Gallagher (UX Designer/API Platforms) and Jake Eastham (Front-end Developer and Accessibility Champion) from Barclays:
“It's very easy to get caught up in aesthetics, you want to design something that is really cool and you think it is amazing.. You actually want to show it to everyone, but you completely messed up the accessibility part. As I matured, I realised that good design is not about something that looks good, but how something works. A good design is naturally inclusive. “
“An accessibility champion is someone who fosters within their environment, within their own team, while being aware of the different accessibility challenges you have and why we are designing and developing our products, what is the importance of it. “
Join us for an inspiring conversation with the two times winner of DevPortal Awards in the Best Accessible Portal category.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Creating a fully self-service API program - Interview with Alvaro Navarro and Anthony Roux
Meet the Developer Relations & API product management team on Amadeus for Developers - Open API Product for the travel industry. Our guests are Alvaro Navarro and Anthony Roux.
“Building trusted relationships is actually what matters in our job.. and empathy is what makes the big difference. Put yourself into the shoes of the other person, that's how you're going to learn how they use your product. And that's how you're going to be successful.“
How has Amadeus innovated a framework and a new set of self-service APIs, where developers can connect in a matter of only three minutes?
How have they scaled up and automated all the processes to make the onboarding as smooth as possible?
Why is testing and user centric feedback, API Governance and product management support important when creating solutions that provide the best developer experience for your API consumers? Tune in to hear more.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Tech writing for software engineers - Interview with Barry Rosenberg
Our guest is Barry Rosenberg, technical writer at Google and co-author of courses Technical Writing One and Technical Writing Two. At the beginning of his professional journey, Barry was starting out as a teacher for a smaller group of undergraduate students at MIT. How did he become a teacher of a highly scalable class for thousands of engineers at Google? How has writing fiction helped him to write better technical courses? Join us to learn more about his inspiring career and the courses he created:
- How and why have these courses been developed?
- Why is it valuable to teach tech writing to engineers?
- What are the prerequisites and skills required to become an efficient technical writer?
- What new tech writing courses are currently being created at Google?
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Sources:
Barry Rosenbeeg - Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and ScientistsInclusion and Accessibility - some suggestions from fellow documentarians - Interview with Ilona Koren-Deutsch
We ask Ilona Koren-Deutsch about the Women in APIs initiative, and her advice on how to diversify a team. We talk about considerations to ensure accessibility for your content, and what can propel the company-wide use of a conscious inclusive style guide. Where should you be channel agnostic as a techwriter? Does feedback need feedback?
Tune in to find out, where to get mentoring and support, how to take an active role in empowering other women in the industry, and how to create equal opportunities, regardless of gender, language barriers or other impairment issues.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of the Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Ádám Balogh (Technical Writer at Pronovix).
Sources:
Where Product Marketing Meets the Docs – Interview with Liz Couto
We are talking with Liz Couto, Product Marketing Manager at Shopify, about the role of marketing and an amplifier, where the CTA is often pointing to the developer documentation. How did Shopify empathize and empower in 2020 with the exponentially growing community? Can there be too many communication channels, should you let go of some if ever? How do the many teams involved work in concert on Shopify's products and what feedback loops have they built into their docs?
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portals Newsletter, Co-Founder of Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Music: Virgill - Its over now (CC)
Feedback Management & Documentation Workflows - Interview with Uwana Ikaiddi
“It’s a misconception to think that documentation is a solitary endeavor” says Uwana Ikaiddi (Documentation Manager, BigCommerce). Getting involved in cross-team discussions as early as possible while preparing for a project is a key element of a documentation workflow. But how do you avoid death by collaboration?
The interview also explores how you can empower your audience to communicate with you in the most efficient way possible, and in what ways you can triage and address internal and external feedback.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portal Newsletter, Co-Founder, Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Music: Virgill - Its over now (CC)
Intentional Jargon and Technical Documentation – Interview with Erin McKean
The Good Docs Project aims to create open source documentation templates, and most recently an information architecture template too. Erin McKean, one of the central orchestrators behind the Good Docs Project, is our guest for this episode. We talk with Erin about why it is so important to intentionally include jargon in your technical documentation and where to do that. She shares her practice on curating a project documentation wishlist to keep the future focus going, and why and how to get documentation treated as a key core feature of a product.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portal Newsletter, Co-Founder, Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Music: Virgill - Its over now (CC)
DocOps and Automation to the Delight of Technical Writers! - Interview with Paula Henk & Patrick Hammond (Adyen)
What are the main principles a documentation team operates on in a fast-moving industry? How to adopt DocOps? How does a documentation team decide on what should be automated? What is hard to automate? What is the point when you should not neglect the human eye? These are key questions that we try to find answers to in this interview with Paula Henk (Technical Writer) and Patrick Hammond (DocOps Manager) from Adyen.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portal Newsletter, Co-Founder, Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Music: Virgill - Its over now (CC)
Remote Onboarding and Technical Writing: Things We Can Do Better
How can you onboard new technical writers when your office just turned into remote-first? This podcast episode focuses on the mistakes Karen Sawrey (Contract Technical Writer) made and the issues she’s encountered and solved when joining a team of tech writing colleagues. The interview also touches upon documentation security and testing, the importance of guidelines, and how the technical writer role is transforming today, in the time of remote working.
The hosts are Laura Vass (Editor of Developer Portal Newsletter, Co-Founder, Pronovix) and Anett Pozsár (Senior Technical Writer, Pronovix).
Intro music: Virgill - Its over now (CC)
Developer-friendly API Documentation with Milecia McGregor
“When you’re working on APIs that developers use, they need to know exactly how to use them. Great documentation is the way to do this & it gives development a chance to make things more user-friendly.” In this podcast, Milecia McGregor (Developer Advocate, Conducto) reviews why API docs are important and she also shares some tips about how to manage their development cycle.
The Evolution of a Documentation Platform - Interview with Fabian Rodriguez (Vonage)
Vonage’s developer platform journey started in 2017. Little did they know the impact that some of their design decisions were going to have now. In this interview, Fabian shares how the platform evolved over the years, what challenges the team needed to overcome and what new features are in the pipeline. Tune in to get some tips about separating the prose from the code, and find out what developer advocacy is necessary for the success of this new tool chain!
Insider's advice on actions your tech writers can take to create quality API documentation
At the 7th API The Docs Virtual event Michelle Fredette, technical writer at New Relic and Chris Cowell, Oregon-based technical trainer and writer presented on the issues of onboarding writers with different knowledge gaps and how to solve them with 8 hours of training. Uwana Ikaiddi, Developer Documentation Manager at BigCommerce explained the significance of external and internal audience feedback, and gave guidance on how to improve API documentation by them. In the Q&A panel of the event, they reflect on their talks and provide further insights on:
- Do you also train your developers on how they can document for themselves?
- What would you recommend for people who want to change career-path from development to techwriting?
- Is there a need for anti-personas, i.e. people who aren't specifically the core audience of the API documentation but might need to consider when writing the docs?
- How to build trust with your internal audience?
- Can you speak to techniques who are getting collected external feedback to the appropriate writers on a large writing team?
- Does teaching developer students technical writing support a faster and more efficient on-boarding process in the long run?
Dev-first API products, API explorers & Microservices
At the 6th API The Docs Virtual event Egan Anderson, head of developer experience at Galileo, explained ways companies can prioritize developers’ needs. Larry Kluger, lead developer advocate for DocuSign, presented how to create easy to use graphical drag & drop tools for creating and trying complex API requests. Michael Haberman, co-founder & CTO at Aspecto, explored maintaining API production while using microservices to collect data and by that, help development and testing phases. In the Q&A panel of the event, they reflect on their talks and provide further insights on:
- What are the milestones in API documentation processes?
- How to make sure all advocates are being heard during the development?
- How to boost morale & excitement in an internal audience when it comes to API initiatives?
- Which is a better approach: design-first vs. code-first?
- Why use Blockly library for API exploring?
- Is there a need to develop own libraries for open source APIs?
- How to make your APIs self-documenting?
- Which are the instances when reducing the number of your services is recommended to maintain your system?
Dev Doc Trends w/ Tom Johnson
On 27th Tom Johnson, senior technical writer at Amazon, presented his comprehensive research on how API documentation trends differ from other tech comm trends. In the Q&A panel, he reflects on his talk and provide further insights on:
- What methods does your team use to estimate time for creating a documentation?
- How to improve the dynamics inside and outside of your documentation team?