All the documentation goodness from 2022

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to be sitting down to write my 2022 year-end blog this quickly. It only feels like yesterday that Australia finally opened its international borders and people were actually allowed to travel overseas without having to provide a reason, after 2 years!

Compared to last year, 2022 was definitely more positive and has been a satisfying year professionally as well as personally. I have had some great opportunities to add to my professional equity as a technical writer and also as a mentor.

When I look back at my blog post in 2021, here is how 2022 shaped up for me.

Documenting cloud offerings

I joined Amazon Web Services (AWS) Australia in April 2022 as part of a solutions engineering team, documenting our solutions for our customers. This has included, but is not limited to landing pages, implementation guides, workshop material, user guides, along with helping the development team with the README file, contextual help and UI text. I am currently the first Technical Writer in the APJ (Asia Pacific and Japan) Solutions Engineering team at AWS Australia.

Amazon's interview process is legendary and well-documented, and that experience was no different for me. I blogged about this when I completed my 6 months AMAversary in September.

It is one of the most intense experiences I've ever had, but when you get to the other side of it, you know why it is so.

Along with my core role, I've also had a very thorough onboarding process, including getting certified - Cloud Certified Practitioner (CCP) and Speaker certification, for preparing to speak at AWS and non-AWS events.

I've really enjoyed these last 8 months working with multiple teams, and getting to contribute in more ways than one, challenging my technical writing skills, but also adding greatly to my technical knowledge of AWS products. I work with some amazing folks with an intense passion for delivering for our customers, and superb technical knowledge for creating solutions. To be honest, I've never ever seen teams this customer obsessed in my entire 16 years of technical writing!

Mentoring (and learning!)

One of things on my wish-list for 2022 was to get an opportunity to mentor folks who are new to the space or coming into documentation. Personally, I’ve felt the need of a mentor myself when I started out and something that I didn’t get to experience, but I hope I can share my experience and help someone find their niche in documentation.

Earlier this year, I signed up to adplist.org, to provide mentoring for folks interesting in technical documentation and writing. I've had a steady start to this, but have greatly enjoyed the conversations, the thoughtful questions, and curiosity from my mentees.

Being a mentor goes way beyond the rewarding feeling of 'giving back'.?More than being able to help someone, I find the craft hugely beneficial because it gives me a chance to become a good listener, improve my self-confidence and awareness, and share my personal experiences.

It has been a very fulfilling experience and I hope to continue this next year.

Events and conferences

In the second half of this year, when an opportunity presented, and when I was finally able to jump on an international flight, I was delighted to present at the TechCommNZ conference in Christchurch in Oct. It's an awesome community and I generally try and find any reason to visit their conference every alternate year. This was my third visit to the TechCommNZ conference in the last 7-8 years!

I shared my experiences with creating a technical writing portfolio - tools, processes, and how to promote and advocate for your work. While I was there, I did get to enjoy some really nice downtime as well.

In 2023, I am looking forward to presenting at the STC Summit in Atlanta, Georgia in May, and will be trying something different for the first time - a hands-on two-part workshop on how to build a functional tech writing portfolio. I can't promise that some form of mild panic won't set in, but I'll try my best to keep it entertaining and educational.

Technical Writing and the art of advocacy

I started off the first few months (in 2022) working at Redocly as a Technical Writer Advocate,?where I was not only able to deliver product docs at a good cadence,?but also contribute to the product user experience, content strategy and information architecture, and interacting with the documentation community through different channels.

A few of my favourite projects while working there were:

• Putting out a monthly blog about our new features and enhancements to keep users in the loop.
• Publishing a yearly roundup of everything we released in the previous year.
• Helping with product demos for potential new customers.
• Working with the developers and testers on doc-testing new features before they were pushed out to our customers.
• Helping to improve the information architecture of the documentation site.
• Advocating for Redocly products and how they help technical writers create delightful API documentation for their products.

I was also invited on a couple of podcasts and YouTube channels:

• A documentation podcast episode on "Let's Talk Docs", a show where they talk about documentation, open source, tech, and the intersection of the three.
• Talking about Embracing Discomfort and Challenge the Status Quo for Advocacy and Visibility on Inside TechComm with Zohra Mutabanna.
• Life as a Technical Writer in Australia with Amruta Ranade.

Write the Docs Australia

The Write the Docs Australia community completed 6 years in July 2022 and we now have over 1075 members. The ongoing economic climate and uncertainty over travel encouraged us to keep our events virtual for yet another year and and I organised 4 remote meetup events in 2022. The Write the Docs Australia community is a part of the Write the Docs West Coast Quorum as well, which allows for more collaboration and cross timezone events.

After a deliberate pause on the Write the Docs Australia conference in 2021, I was glad to work with a stellar team to deliver the fifth Write the Docs Australia conference in December, a couple of weeks back. We had an amazing range of speakers and we were happy to see a good number of attendees return this year.

Here is a quick recap of the conference, along with links to the sketchnotes, and the videos from the conference.

Looking after mental health

This was as much in focus this year, as it was in the last 2 years of the pandemic.

Compared to 2021, this year felt like a reset. Living in Melbourne where the lock-downs were not the most enjoyable over the last couple of years, I am only happy that 2022 saw things return to some sense of normality. I've actually enjoyed getting into some sort of an health and well-being routine thanks to being able to work remotely.

I was glad I could actually fly overseas and see my family after a gap of almost 3 years. Although it was a short trip, I made sure I spent some quality time with family and friends.

I did end up catching the Delta variant middle of the year, but thankfully the vaccinations made sure I didn't feel it that bad at all. The 7-day isolation did mean getting inventive with fitness routines, though some indoor cycling and finishing things around the house helped me get through it quickly.

Books I read this year

I really enjoyed preparing for the Amazon interview earlier in the year, and picked up a couple of books around the same time that gave me terrific insights into the culture, processes, and the story behind Amazon.

• Working backwards, by Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
• The everything store, by Brad Stone

In addition to this, a couple of interesting books I am currently carrying around in the eternal hope of finishing:

• The Pay Off: How Changing the Way We Pay Changes Everything, by Gottfried Leibbrandt, and De Terán Natasha
• Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely
• Masala Lab, by Krish Ashok

Wish-list for 2023

• I would like to contribute to the global documentation efforts at AWS, at scale.
• Continuing on from this year, I hope to find more opportunities to mentor folks who are new to the space or coming into documentation.
• Finish co-authoring the book! Yep, it is still in the works, but more on that for another time.