In this solo episode, Kate shares an update on her content update progress. She also reflects on Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti’s interview (S3:E20) and the ways exploring models like his Seven-Action Documentation model have helped her interrogate her own beliefs about tech writing, the benefits of self-knowledge in becoming a better writer, and the ways that maintenance docs work helps her recharge.
I’ve continued my work to update the KnowledgeOwl Support Knowledge Base to align with major navigation and UI changes that we rolled out in December, and I’m finally nearing the light at the end of the tunnel: my initial punchdown list has less than 50 articles remaining! Along the way, I’ve also had to re-update docs I already updated as we rolled out more changes to existing features–ahhh, the life of a tech writer.
In his interview, Fabri mentioned that part of his motivation for creating the Seven-Action Documentation model was a frustration that people were taking frameworks like Diátaxis and just rote-applying them to their documentation. We discovered some very deep common ground: that models and frameworks are useful because they help you, as a writer, surface and interrogate the deeply-held beliefs you have about technical writing. They’re tools for exploration rather than step-by-step guides on what to do. In my case, engaging with the Seven-Action Documentation model helped me realize how strongly I felt about appraisal and troubleshooting as user needs. While I’m not necessarily crafting new content templates to handle this, my site structure has naturally incorporated them, and I’m now exploring the idea of review checklists or user journeys that might help me assure that I’m handling all the user needs in some way.
I’ve also been sick with Covid, which slowed down my velocity for more strategic, creative work and prompted me to return to a lot of maintenance work. Fabri mentioned that maintenance work helps him recharge, and I found the same thing. I often call maintenance work “productive procrastination”, since it’s not usually the single most important thing, but it is something I can do when my energy or focus are low so that I’m still improving my docs every day. Consider this your invitation to spend the next month paying attention to which writing tasks fill or drain your cup, what kinds of energy those tasks demand, and how you can better manage that moving forward.
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