I often feel like I’m lucky for choosing a career that I (90% of the time) enjoy. When you’re young, in college and trying to figure out what you “want to be when you grow up,” often the choices are overwhelming. Maybe that’s why I took the long route (8 years) to complete my degree. I dropped out then went back part-time while working full-time in an effort to figure out what I wanted to do. It worked and (luckily) I was already on the right path with my current major (English).
I still feel like I got lucky – I choose a career that I’m genuinely passionate about. Some days you’re excited about getting that next project done or relieved that you’ve finally figured out to present a difficult concept. Other days, work is, well, work. You go. You write. You go home and do something more fun. (Writing is not always fun!)
This morning, I wasn’t sure what type of day it would be until about half way through my morning document development meeting. As I’m scribbling away on my note pad, trying to write down everything the developer was saying I was struck by one of those “This is why I love my job!” moments. Honestly, at this point in the meeting, I really had no idea how I was going to put all the information together. I was still struggling with understanding the concept. It was all slightly overwhelming.
Yet, I was loving it! I had a new, challenging puzzle to solve. (I’m fascinated with understanding how things work. One of my favorite TV shows is Modern Marvels on the History Channel because they take you behind the scenes and show you how things work.) As the development team talked through the concepts, drew and re-drew diagrams on the board, I frantically copied everything to my notes as well as chimed in to ask a few questions.
I have to admit as I walked out of the meeting I was still feeling overwhelmed. I had a basic understanding of the overall process and about six pages of notes about how all the pieces and parts fit together, but there were still a lot of loose ends and questions. Walking down the stairs back to my work area, I began thinking about how to present it. This project would be a fantastic candidate for a more interactive, online document where I could show the progression between each stage. Unfortunately, I’m limited to a static, PDF for the final version. Hmmm, that’s one puzzle to solve.
The second puzzle is how to explain all the information without providing too many details. One of the issues with the current documentation is that it provides too much information. The developers are getting confused; they’re asking too many questions because there is so much background information included. I need to present just enough information to explain the overall process but not too much. That will be a challenge.
Ultimately, I have to understand how everything works so I can present all the pieces and parts together into a coherent, useful document. That’s a challenge I always enjoy (partly because the process of organizing information is a puzzle in itself; it’s also because I love organizing things – just ask my husband out our linen closet.).
Challenges, puzzles and learning how things work – today those are just a few things that I love about being a tech writer.
Have you got a documentation puzzle to solve? Contact me! I’d love to work with you to understand and present the information in a way that’s beneficial to you and your business.