Skill #22: Using Your Detective Skills as a Technical Writer

📣 Special announcement: The Not-Boring Tech Writer team (Kate and Chad) will be at Write the Docs Portland in May. Thanks to KnowledgeOwl's sponsorship, they’ll be wearing KnowledgeOwl and The Not-Boring Tech Writer t-shirts and giving out The Not-Boring Tech Writer stickers. If you're attending WTD Portland this year, please say hi to Kate and Chad, let them know what you think of the show, and swing by the conference swag table to grab some free stickers so you can flaunt your not-boring tech writer status with the world!_____________________________________________As technical writers, we often wear many different hats within an organization: we write documentation that teaches people how to use a product; we test new features to ensure they’re working properly; we write marketing copy that encourages people to research a product. But, as you’ll learn in this episode, we wear another hat that perhaps haven’t considered but is essential to the technical writers’ skill set: the detective hat. That’s why, in this episode, I have Jamie Roddy on the podcast: Manager of Technical Communicators who leads a team of global technical communicators who, from her love of detective shows, has found that the detective and the technical writer have a lot alike. In this episode, Jamie shares how you can use your detective skills as a technical writer, including:which detective skills are most useful for technical writershow to ramp up those skillshow detective skills can help you transition into other fields within a software companyShow Notes: Michal and Pawel on The Not-Boring Tech WriterJamie Roddy on LinkedInTrue DetectiveGuy Noir: Radio Private Eye