On the friction that isn’t technical, and the knowledge work that removes it.
The essentials to start with: Documentation is product thinking, Helping knowledge move, and Hired to write, ended up pioneering.
About a question I couldn’t answer, until I remembered I’d already lived it. A colleague and I were wondering a while ago whether technical writing should work closely with management, or more …
Continue reading : What if technical writing reported to the CTO?On doing your best work where nobody looks, and what that means for being seen. A friend of mine has a job you can explain in one sentence. Mine takes a paragraph, and even then people nod politely. …
Continue reading : Beating the drum for engine-room workWhy the technical writer’s perspective belongs in the room before there’s anything to document. My mind keeps wandering back to a time when I worked in a highly regulated environment: wind energy and …
Continue reading : Writing arrives last, thinking should notOn recognizing what the job actually needed, and building that, too. When something genuinely excites me, it shows immediately. I get a hundred ideas at once, I’m in full “let’s do this” mode, and …
Continue reading : Hired to write, ended up pioneeringWhy mentoring is not a one-way street. This is about a great young talent, who started as an intern, continued as a working student, and became my mentor along the way. Fresh out of her bachelor’s …
Continue reading : Who’s mentoring whom, anyway?There hasn’t been a new blog post here since June. I did have a lot to write about, but I was busy getting this website up and running — again. What started as a fairly small personal project …
Continue reading : What rebuilding my website taught meUsually, I do write a blog post first and then I bring a teaser on LinkedIn afterwards. This time, things happened the other way around (or the story goes in circles). After sharing some thoughts …
Continue reading : Helping knowledge moveFriends, how much longer were you supposed to wait until I finally post something about API docs?! Waiting is over. Here we go. I’ve actually procrastinated on this topic for quite a while, because I …
Continue reading : Finally talking about API docsDo you know those moments at work when something suddenly clicks? When a thought becomes clear, a connection becomes visible, or an idea sparks? These moments happen surprisingly often when technical …
Continue reading : Magic moments happen between rolesExploring the gap between business and technical documentation cultures. Because so much of the real work doesn’t happen in systems or tools, but in the gaps between roles, where assumptions collide …
Continue reading : The space between how we work and how we documentWhy technical writing is less about precision, and more about making the right decisions (even in the age of AI). I make fast decisions. Not careless ones. Just clear ones. I walk into a store, try …
Continue reading : Clarity over perfectionOr: why „technical writer“ is the most misleading job title in tech. There’s a small professional paradox I live with. I’m trained in linguistics, which means I tend to take words very seriously. …
Continue reading : The strange case of the „technical writer“Why good documentation starts with product decisions, not last-minute writing. Let’s clear up a common misconception in software development: documentation is not something that happens after the …
Continue reading : Documentation is product thinking