Who I Am

I have an MA in technical writing from CMU and have spent my career working in the software industry. Besides being a technical writer, I’m also a trainer, an instructional designer, a content strategist, an information architect, and a university instructor. My resume has the details. 

And yes, that’s a lot of “things” to be. I’ve had some great opportunities to pursue what interests me, and it turns out that all of those things? They’re part of creating really great learning experiences in lots of different modalities.

my happy spot: cross-discipline thinking

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Every day, there’s a challenge to give users the content they need (and want). The solution usually requires effective collaboration and it almost always requires cross-discipline thinking.

The information architect side of me has a slight obsession with structuring and organizing content so that it’s findable, searchable, and easy to use. It works well with the content strategist side: I enjoy thinking about how individual pieces of content fit together to make a holistic set of user assistance for a variety of users, roles, and skills.

The instructional design (and instructor/trainer) side of me is fascinated by how people prefer to learn vs. how they actually learn. Lots of people forge ahead with only the UI and their long-suffering coworkers (or Google) for guidance. Others love tutorials or videos. Some like forums or webinars or knowledge centers. Whatever modality they prefer, people REALLY learn by doing: Hands-on practice, problem solving, self-directed exploration … I get a kick out of creating that kind of engaging, active learning experience that has measurable objectives and outcomes.

And, of course, the technical writer side of me has an abiding love for single-sourced, task-oriented documentation (and an equally abiding hatred of 57-step installation guides — Encina on HP, I’m looking at you).

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It really does take a crazy diverse set of skills to create good content. It also takes creativity and a willingness to try new things.

Luckily, I’m a pretty curious person who isn’t afraid to break software builds, do my research, or try (and iterate on) new processes.

I also work with (and teach) some very smart people who’ve helped me in ways they probably never imagined.