Ask HN: How can technical writers be proficient working remotely
For context, I'm the program manager of a technical documentation + training unit that recently got consolidated into a single team -- whereas in the past they worked on and were part of different departments. On the technical writer part, though, we've had positions open for months on end, and have really struggled to hire people, particularly because we feel that to work in product documentation, they would really benefit from being close to our R&D department. Things happen fast, and members of our group are being allocated dynamically to development teams, working alongside them when the time is right to actually produce the end-user documentation, all the while participating in the teams' ceremonies as much as possible. We felt that, in order to acquire enough context to produce quality documentation, and to make sure nothing's lost in translation, they'd really benefit from being located here and being able to come to the office, be among the developer teams. Everyone's encouraged to work remotely whenever they feel the need to (comms through Slack and Zoom). One additional aspect that we try to keep in mind is that the team's job is also to make sure that documentation is not an afterthought. Developer teams, as usual, are not very keen on creating documentation to start with, so it's our team's job to take care of the process more end-to-end. We've tried being open to having remote technical writer team members, tried it unsuccesfully, particularly as we struggled with time zone differences, and a somewhat low quality of the documentation produced. The problem in the near future, that will probably make allocation a nightmare for me, in particular: our R&D department is doubling its size this year... whatever they produce is clearly going to need docs and training. What recommendations would you have, in your experience working with or managing technical writer teams, for being able to accomodate remote writers? 0 comments on Hacker News.
For context, I'm the program manager of a technical documentation + training unit that recently got consolidated into a single team -- whereas in the past they worked on and were part of different departments. On the technical writer part, though, we've had positions open for months on end, and have really struggled to hire people, particularly because we feel that to work in product documentation, they would really benefit from being close to our R&D department. Things happen fast, and members of our group are being allocated dynamically to development teams, working alongside them when the time is right to actually produce the end-user documentation, all the while participating in the teams' ceremonies as much as possible. We felt that, in order to acquire enough context to produce quality documentation, and to make sure nothing's lost in translation, they'd really benefit from being located here and being able to come to the office, be among the developer teams. Everyone's encouraged to work remotely whenever they feel the need to (comms through Slack and Zoom). One additional aspect that we try to keep in mind is that the team's job is also to make sure that documentation is not an afterthought. Developer teams, as usual, are not very keen on creating documentation to start with, so it's our team's job to take care of the process more end-to-end. We've tried being open to having remote technical writer team members, tried it unsuccesfully, particularly as we struggled with time zone differences, and a somewhat low quality of the documentation produced. The problem in the near future, that will probably make allocation a nightmare for me, in particular: our R&D department is doubling its size this year... whatever they produce is clearly going to need docs and training. What recommendations would you have, in your experience working with or managing technical writer teams, for being able to accomodate remote writers?
For context, I'm the program manager of a technical documentation + training unit that recently got consolidated into a single team -- whereas in the past they worked on and were part of different departments. On the technical writer part, though, we've had positions open for months on end, and have really struggled to hire people, particularly because we feel that to work in product documentation, they would really benefit from being close to our R&D department. Things happen fast, and members of our group are being allocated dynamically to development teams, working alongside them when the time is right to actually produce the end-user documentation, all the while participating in the teams' ceremonies as much as possible. We felt that, in order to acquire enough context to produce quality documentation, and to make sure nothing's lost in translation, they'd really benefit from being located here and being able to come to the office, be among the developer teams. Everyone's encouraged to work remotely whenever they feel the need to (comms through Slack and Zoom). One additional aspect that we try to keep in mind is that the team's job is also to make sure that documentation is not an afterthought. Developer teams, as usual, are not very keen on creating documentation to start with, so it's our team's job to take care of the process more end-to-end. We've tried being open to having remote technical writer team members, tried it unsuccesfully, particularly as we struggled with time zone differences, and a somewhat low quality of the documentation produced. The problem in the near future, that will probably make allocation a nightmare for me, in particular: our R&D department is doubling its size this year... whatever they produce is clearly going to need docs and training. What recommendations would you have, in your experience working with or managing technical writer teams, for being able to accomodate remote writers? 0 comments on Hacker News.
For context, I'm the program manager of a technical documentation + training unit that recently got consolidated into a single team -- whereas in the past they worked on and were part of different departments. On the technical writer part, though, we've had positions open for months on end, and have really struggled to hire people, particularly because we feel that to work in product documentation, they would really benefit from being close to our R&D department. Things happen fast, and members of our group are being allocated dynamically to development teams, working alongside them when the time is right to actually produce the end-user documentation, all the while participating in the teams' ceremonies as much as possible. We felt that, in order to acquire enough context to produce quality documentation, and to make sure nothing's lost in translation, they'd really benefit from being located here and being able to come to the office, be among the developer teams. Everyone's encouraged to work remotely whenever they feel the need to (comms through Slack and Zoom). One additional aspect that we try to keep in mind is that the team's job is also to make sure that documentation is not an afterthought. Developer teams, as usual, are not very keen on creating documentation to start with, so it's our team's job to take care of the process more end-to-end. We've tried being open to having remote technical writer team members, tried it unsuccesfully, particularly as we struggled with time zone differences, and a somewhat low quality of the documentation produced. The problem in the near future, that will probably make allocation a nightmare for me, in particular: our R&D department is doubling its size this year... whatever they produce is clearly going to need docs and training. What recommendations would you have, in your experience working with or managing technical writer teams, for being able to accomodate remote writers?
Hacker News story: Ask HN: How can technical writers be proficient working remotely
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February 12, 2020
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