The Cherryleaf Podcast

11. Technical communication news roundup July 2017

Round up of recent news in technical communications.
Links:
Cherryleaf Blog
Gregarious Mammal podcast
Gov.UK - Introducing our new product pages and technical documentation
Example of API documentation portal using MadCap Flare
Creating an API documentation portal with MadCap Flare and Swagger/OpenAPI
Take part in the Cherryleaf 2017 European salary survey
The ROI of user documentation: you could break even if you avoided 3 support calls per week 
Daniele Procida How documentation works, and how to make it work for your project PyCon 2017
Free techcomm laptop stickers
WriteLessons - online courses in technical communication
How to Subscribe to Cherryleaf’s Newsletters

10. Recruiting the right Technical Author

This is a recording of a webinar we did back in 2012 on recruiting the right Technical Author. 
We cover:
What are the key skills to look for in aTechnical Author?
What are the key personality traits in successful Technical Authors?
What is the salary range? 
Hiring graduates as Technical Authors
Where do you find good candidates?
Interviewing a candidate Technical Author
If you need help and advice on recruiting a Technical Author, the current salary range, and Cherryleaf's contract and recruitment services, see https://www.cherryleaf.com/recruitment_services/ or contact us via info@cherryleaf.com

9. API Documentation: the undiscovered country

Recording from UAEurope 2017 conference.
With many software developers now spending their time developing APIs, there’s an increasing demand for API documentation writers.
It's a fast changing field, with emerging information design patterns and authoring tools. It's also different from end user documentation, and this means many Technical Communicators are uncertain if and how they should migrate to these roles.
what is an API and what is API documentation?
the role of an API documentation writer, and how it differs from mainstream Technical Author roles
the skills you need as a writer of API documentation
becoming an API documentation writer.
 
 REST API documentation training course http://cherryleaf.teachable.com/p/documenting-rest-apis
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com
 

8. Help through AI, Help like Facebook - UAEurope 17

Reviews of two presentations at the UAEurope 17 conference.
Kristof Van Tomme (Pronovix). Software support and Artificial Intelligence.
Pawel Kowaluk (3di Poland). Knowledge Feed: Make your Online Help More Like Facebook
Interspersed with interviews from at the UAEurope 2017 conference: 
Dr Tony Self. HyperWrite
Willam van Weelden. Adobe
Mike Hamilton. MadCap Software.
 
With thanks to Matthew Ellison
http://www.uaconference.eu/
 
Interviews by Ellis Pratt, Cherryleaf
Links:
Documentation as an API – the docsbot
The T-Bot: A new Help model from Microsoft
The Impact of "Ambient Findability"
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com

7. Every Page is Page One - Interview with Mark Baker at UAEurope 2017

Interview with Mark Baker, author of Every Page is Page One, interspersed with audio snippets from Day 1 of the UAEurope 2017 conference. 
Presentations:
Caroline Loverage (Thermo Fisher Scientific). Teaching by Example: Worked Examples in the Documentation of Complex Systems
Kelly O'Brien (Kayako). Practical Information Architecture: Building Templates For Better Content.
Helena Pichler (Nominet). AsciiDoc to Responsive Webhelp: Agile documentation for small teams.
Image by Mattias Sander
With thanks to Matthew Ellison and Mark Baker.
http://everypageispageone.com/
http://www.uaconference.eu/
Interview by Ellis Pratt, Cherryleaf
Every Page is Page One training courses
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com
 

6. Unifying pre- and post- sales content

Should marketing and technical communications be unified?
 
Google Zero Moment of Truth 
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/micro-moments/zero-moment-truth/
 
David Ryan, Corilla
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd46s-1Hypg
 
XML Documentation Add-on for Adobe Experience Manager
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/xml-documentation-add-on-for-experience-manager.html
 
Selling the Wheel
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Selling-Wheel-Choosing-Company-Customers/dp/0684856018/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1496420933&sr=1-1&keywords=selling+the+wheel
 
Cherryleaf's technical writing services:
https://www.cherryleaf.com/documentation_services/
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com 

5. Writing policies and procedures: The most common issues, and how to fix them

This is a recording of a 2012 webinar called "Writing policies and procedures: The most common issues, and how to fix them."
For more details on Cherryleaf's policies and procedures writing course, see https://www.cherryleaf.com/training/procedures-writing-courses-beginner-and-advanced/
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com

4. Getting users to answer their own Support questions

We look at getting users to answer their own Support questions - why would we want to do this, and how can we do this. 
MetricNet data on the cost of Support calls:
http://blog.kineticdata.com/tag/average-cost-of-an-it-support-ticket/
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com
 

3. User documentation in Agile - Learning from the Lean Methodology

This is a recording from the Agile the Docs - all day mini-conference.
Exploring the tools, processes and challenges documentarians have in an agile development team. Sorry, the audio quality isn't great. 
5th December 2016, London UK
Speaker - Ellis Pratt, Cherryleaf
Video of the presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY77qPOJ0kw
Copy of the slides https://www.slideshare.net/ellispratt/towards-an-agile-authoring-methodology-learning-from-lean-agilethedocs-conference?ref=https://pronovix.com/agile-docs 
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com 

2. Brexit and its effects - communicating change to your business

We look at the potential impact of Brexit on UK businesses, how to manage the changes, and how to communicate any changes to staff. 
 
Examples:
http://cherryleaf.com/example2/#t=Disposal_of_unwanted_or_broken_mobile_phones.htm
http://cherryleaf.com/example3/#Selling_mobile_phones.htm
 
 See also:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/importing-goods-from-outside-the-eu
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-trade-tariff-community-and-common-transit-outwards/uk-trade-tariff-community-and-common-transit-outwards
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/31/uk-ports-struggling-fivefold-rise-customs-brexit-hmrc-mps-declaration
 
Policies and procedures course:
Our next public classroom course will be held on Tuesday 13th June
https://www.cherryleaf.com/training/procedures-writing-courses-beginner-and-advanced/
 
Flickr image: Mike Steele
 
For comments and feedback: info@cherryleaf.com