The Cherryleaf Podcast

114. Nine common onboarding mistakes that software companies make

Ellis looks at nine common onboarding mistakes that software companies make:
Not thinking about jobs to be done, but features
Overloading users with information
Writing for a single audience
Not providing or not co-ordinating the five pillars of onboarding content
Getting the timing wrong
Unclear goals
Leaving "seams" in the onboarding experience 
Poor quality content
No testing or metrics
Take our quiz:  
What type of technical writer are you?
Planning and creating content for customer onboarding – training course
Cherryleaf
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com
 
Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

113. Using heatmaps & recordings to improve Hotjar's knowledge base, with Karissa Van Baule

We talk to Karissa Van Baulen, Customer Education Lead and Knowledge Base Owner at Hotjar.
We discuss how she has used heatmaps and playback recordings to improve Hotjar's knowledge base.
What does Hotjar do?
Why are heatmaps important?
How have you used heatmaps and recordings to improve Hotjar's knowledge base?
How easy is this to do?
How much time should you schedule?
What have been the benefits?
What have been the downsides?
If people want more information, where should they go?
More information:
The Importance of Using Analytics and Feedback for your Documentation - conference presentation recording
Take our quiz:  
What type of technical writer are you?
 
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com
 
 
 

112. Nobody ever wants to buy software, with Toby Chapman-Dawe

Ellis talks to Toby Chapman Dawe of Strand UK about why he claims nobody ever wants to buy software.
Toby is Managing Director of Strand. Toby specialises in communicating the business benefits of enterprise technology. Formerly a journalist in the UK writing for trade and national press, Toby transferred to the world of advertising in the Netherlands. Later, he moved back to magazine publishing and conference management in the UK. Toby now runs Strand, the global writing and design agency that serves the enterprise technology sector. And he keeps bees, though not at Strand. (We did not talk about the bees.)
More information:
Strand
Toby Chapman Dawe's profile on LinkedIn
 
Take our quiz:  
What type of technical writer are you?
 
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com
 

111. Building a developer portal using Flare - A new way to do it

For a while now, we’ve been looking at ways to import API reference content into MadCap Flare, so that we can use Flare to create a developer portal. Here’s the latest update on what we’ve learnt. 
Videos:
Importing OpenAPI/Swagger API reference content into MadCap Flare 2021 to create a developer portal
Importing API reference documentation into a MadCap Flare project
Cherryleaf is a technical writing services and training company based in the United Kingdom. Part of that work involves updating and improving developer portals.  
Cherryleaf also offers a Writing API Documentation elearning course that teaches Technical Writers the keys skills of writing and managing documentation for REST APIs.
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

110. After basic techcomm training, what next?

In addition to the basic skills in technical communication, what other skills does a technical communicator need? 
In this episode, we look at the areas where technical communicators deepen and widen their skill set. We consider what should be the topic for our (Cherryleaf's) next elearning course.
Twitter thread: Does anyone have opinions as to what should go into a course on creating content for (SaaS) customer onboarding?
Cherryleaf's Intermediate/Advanced Technical Communication training course
Vacancies page
 

109. Review of Google's UX design course

In March 2021, Google published the “Google UX Design Certificate Program", as part of its Grow with Google scheme. 
 
In this episode, we look at:
What is promised
How it's delivered
What's in the course
Career prospects
Related information:
https://grow.google/uxdesign/
https://www.coursera.org/professional-certificates/google-ux-design
Intermediate/Advanced Technical Communication elearning training course
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

108. What you said you wanted from a course on creating screenshots and images

Recently, we asked on Social Media:
What do you want from a course on creating screenshots and other graphics?
What topics would like a course like this to cover? 
In this episode we'll cover the responses we got, and why we asked those questions.
Related information:
Intermediate/Advanced Technical Communication elearning training course
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

107. Why communication skills are not enough

We talk about an episode from the Smart Passive Income Podcast (Smart Passive Income Podcast 471 How to Become a Better Communicator with Kolarele Sonaike) and discuss why technical communicators' communication skills may not be enough for them to progress up an organisation's hierarchy. 
 
More information:
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com

106. The mysterious Reuse Files button in Microsoft Word

In December 2020, a "Reuse Files" button mysteriously appeared in the browser version of Microsoft Word. There doesn't appear to be any documentation about it on the Microsoft website.
What does it do? 
In this episode, we do some investigating to find out. 
More information:
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com
 

105. What are the most common problems organisations make with developer portals and API documentation?

On social media, we asked "what are the most common problems organisations make with developer portals and API documentation?"
 
In this episode, we look at the responses we received. We also discuss some of the other common mistakes that we've come across. 
 
More information:
Cherryleaf's API/developer documentation writing services
Cherryleaf newsletter
To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com