RSS 
Email 
Twitter
Facebook
The podcasts I record for I'd Rather Be Writing cover the latest trends in technical communication. I interview tech writing luminaries around the world as well as record STC presentations and other audio content. You can subscribe to podcast specific feeds using the subscription information below.
Podcast page in iTunes
Podcast: Living Multiple Lives — The New Technical Communicator, Interview with Noz Urbina
May 11th, 2008 | Posted in Podcasts, Technical Writing 10 Comments »
Download MP3
Duration: 15 min.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In this podcast, Noz Urbina talks about how Web 2.0 is changing the role of the technical communicator into one who drives product R&D and interaction design. My discussion with Noz was a light-bulb moment for me at the Doc Train West conference.
Podcast topics include the following:
- How the role of the technical communicator has evolved into a diversity of roles
- How awareness of user needs and requirements allows technical communicators to get involved in product R&D and user interaction design
- How implementing a backwards flow of data from hundreds of internal and external users changes the role of a technical writer to one who aggregates, synthesizes, and ensures quality rather than one who merely writes
- How the technical communicator becomes the keyholder on the pipeline of customer data, which in turn allows the technical communicator to direct and define the product
- How to encourage a culture of participation through surveys and other user interviews
Noz is a business development manager for Mekon. He’s also heavily involved in X-pubs.com, a nonprofit conference and information resource that produces seminars, online events, white papers, and annual conferences.
To contact Noz, send an email to noz.urbina@mekon.com
Tags: doc train west, Noz Urbina
Noz Urbina, Stewart Mader, David Holmes, and Alan Porter. This rather lengthy blog post asks the question “Do we really need structured document formats?” One of the things that usability should tackle is a problem a feature tries to solve for the user.
In case you’re wondering, I left in the little preliminary stuff at the beginning on purpose — it adds to the realness of the podcasting medium.
[...] speaker and Programme Manager was invited by MyTechnologyLawyer.com and the very well received http://www.idratherbewriting.com/ to do some interview spots. Both these sessions are available on-demand now: MyTechnologyLawyer.com [...]
[...] CLICK HERE to listen to this very current, informative and thought-provoking discussion on the impact of Web 2.0 on the field of technical communications. [...]
[...] Hi Jon, You posted this a little while ago so let’s hope you’re still looking for info. “My first thought is to identify the pain points, create standard internal processes for researching (specification reviews), writing and review, and establish a common style guide. Then create standard content models and design models.” A note on this – You need to move content/design models up the chain. They will impact processes and a style guide heavily. Review current processes and content, remodel it, and then when you know what the target model is, define processes and a styleguide to get you there. It’s hard to give ‘the best’ advice without knowing more about the personalities involved. At Mekon we endorse a ‘high-touch’ and iterative approach that looks roughly like this: – Take a cross-functional view: — Survey anyone who uses the documentation (clients if you can get them, but if not, training, support or engineers who might refer to docs while working) and find out their needs and issues. Don’t just think in the tech comms box. – Gather a business case based on your surveys (get your content metrics. find the costly ‘legacy’ processes that waste time/money). Can you quantify anything like how long others take to do reviews or how much time might be wasted by having them review content with heavy content reuse in it? – Summarise that into a power-point and a supporting spreadsheet and present it to whomever in management will listen. Invite them based on improving information flow in your organisation, not ‘Please listen because Tech Comms needs your help’. There is a business case for them to listen, even if it’s initially vague. You can refine it as you go. If that goes well, then try to get support for a workshop to refine requirements both around the content and *of* the content. If you have support or other users using the docs, then they may have opinions on how you could improve/remodel them. Participating in workshops is also non-threatening but it does wonders for building bridges. Then get onto your models and everything else as above. Final tip, make sure any changes are implemented progressively. The bigger than bang, the more risk involved. This touches nicely on some issues raised on two recent podcasts that I did after Doctrain West. Check them out here: MyTechnologyLawyer.com http://www.idratherbewriting.com/ [...]
Another really interesting podcast and after listening to this I subscribed to your RSS feed.
Posaos last blog post..5 Najboljih Wordpress Plugina Za Google Adsense
[...] since I came back from Doc Train West and had my epiphany about the transformative, empowering nature of user knowledge with the tech writer role, I’ve [...]
Interesting, thanks to both for the interview. I encounter the same resistance to user-generated content at my work place. But we are starting to discuss feedback mechanisms and surveys.
Regarding printed manuals, does ANYONE read them these days?
Very interesting interview. Thanks for posting this. The notion of technical communicator has evolved a lot in my opinion.
[...] Urbina explores similar themes in his episode of Tom Johnson’s perennially excellent podcast Tech Writer [...]