Alchemy in Adversity (How to become better and more resilient tech writers in a turbulent work environment)¶
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Description
The pandemic situation and working from home has affected the majority of the world, and most industries as well. Most employees, including technical writers and technical communications teams were also affected by the pandemic, WFH policies, lockdowns and other regulations in some form, and to various degrees.
Working in software development, my technical communications team was no exception, and we experienced challenges on several levels and in various forms during these past months. However, the team managed to find creative ways to overcome these challenges and managed to avoid becoming invisible within the organization (which is still a widespread issue for tech comm teams). In fact, we even managed to turn less than ideal circumstances around, forging an agile team and stabilizing our position within the organization during the process.
The challenges include difficulties on a personal level, the team’s level, and on an organizational level as well. They encompass work-life balance, workflow, workload & productivity, cross-teams communications & collaboration, and processes. Although my team was in a rather specific situation, I will present adaptive methods and techniques that can be used by anyone who might have to face and overcome similar challenges.
In my talk, I will also cover what the team learned from facing and overcoming these challenges, and provide a few examples of how you as an individual technical writer, or as part of a team can become a better expert and team member in similar circumstances.
- Conference: Write the Docs Prague
- Year: 2021
