In this episode, Ellis discusses the importance of networking and meeting other technical communicators, especially for those who work solo or in small teams. He explores various avenues for connecting with industry peers, from conferences and meetups to virtual groups and informal gatherings. Key Topics Discussed: Challenges of Solo Technical Comm…

We explore an intriguing development in content creation: AI-generated audio from technical documentation. We’ve prepared two examples to showcase this technology, and we discuss its potential impact and applications. We used the user guide for Audacity, the popular audio editing application, to generate an AI-narrated overview: https://youtu.be/yP…

In this episode of the Cherryleaf podcast, we explore the latest trends in technical communication as revealed by an in-depth analysis of conference themes from 2024. By examining data from leading events such as Tekom, TC World, LavaCon, and the STC Summit, we identify eight major themes shaping the industry, with a surprising dominance of AI and …

Remember the excitement when ChatGPT burst onto the scene? Suddenly, it seemed like AI was going to revolutionise everything, including our field of technical communication. But now, 18 months and six Cherryleaf AI podcast episodes later, we're asking the big question: Was it all just hype? You've probably heard some folks saying AI isn't deliverin…

We've created some YouTube Shorts on promoting the value of techcomm. We talk about the process of creating the videos and the content in the videos. See also: Cherryleaf's YouTube Shorts Uncovering and communicating the value of your tech comm teams' work, with Keren Brown We'll also publish a transcript of this podcast on the Cherryleaf blog. Abo…

In April 2023, we conducted a survey into the use of AI and ChatGPT in technical communications. We thought it would be interesting to carry out a similar survey again. In this podcast, we talk about the results from the survey and describe what has changed over the last 12 months. We'll post a transcript on the Cherryleaf blog. About Cherryleaf: C…

This month's podcast looks at the language of persuasion and how technical authors can use it. What do we mean by persuasive language? What is nudging and are we as technical authors able to use this type of language? As part of the research for this podcast I watched some public information films and read articles which are mentioned in the podcas…

In this episode, we look at the current demand for contract Technical Authors in the UK, using statistics from ITJobsWatch.net. We look at the the number of vacancies and whether this has affected the rates offered. We'll also publish a transcript of this podcast on the Cherryleaf blog. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf…

This month's podcast looks at how large organisations create useful, informative content which is accessible to a wide, often global, audience. As part of the research for this podcast I looked at various websites which are mentioned in the podcast. Many thanks to those organisations and their expertise. Here are the links to the ones mentioned in …

This month's podcast looks at what is involved in a corporate re-brand and what is involved for technical authors if their organisation decides to rebrand. What is a corporate brand? And what is involved when an organisation decides to rebrand? As part of the research for this podcast we looked at various websites which are mentioned in the podcast…

Welcome to the first episode of 2024! In this exciting instalment, we dive deep into the evolving world of e-ink writing devices. Will these gadgets gain momentum in the tech world? We explore their rising popularity and forecast their potential to become mainstream tools. We'll dissect the key issues these devices address, unveiling the unique sol…

It’s that time of year for us to gaze into our crystal ball and share your and our predictions for the future of technical communication for 2024 and beyond. We've posted a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf Microsoft's Akash Dubey has created a YouTube playlist that contains a series of interviews with people from Micr…

In this episode, we look at what Techcomm problems can generative AI solve. Technical writers today face numerous challenges that can hinder productivity and impact content quality. From managing high volumes of documentation to keeping pace with rapid product changes, it takes great effort to produce and maintain helpful, accurate, and engaging te…

We talk to Kristof Van Tomme, CEO of Pronovix, about the role of API and developer portals in Generative AI systems. We discuss how organisations can prepare for AI. We talk about what documentation infrastructure organisations should have in place to be able to use AI safely from an information perspective. We also discuss whether developer portal…

We talk to Daniel Foster, Director of Strategy at TechSmith, about the contentious relationship between technical writers and video content. A growing trend among technical writers is the integration of video content alongside traditional documentation and visuals, offering a dynamic and immersive medium to enhance user understanding and engagement…

We reflect on the lesson learnt so far as a result of developing our upcoming elearning course on using Generative AI in technical communication. We will publish a transcript on the Cherryleaf blog. About Cherryleaf: CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

As part of our research into using generative AI in technical communications, we ran a survey to discover the questions that technical communicators are asking. In this episode, we review those questions and identify some common themes. About Cherryleaf: CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

When people talk about AI, chatbots, and tools like ChatGPT, all the new terminology can make it hard to understand how it all works. In this episode, we're going to look at the definitions of some of the words that you might hear. Register for our webinar Using AI in techcomm: What you asked, and the answers Thursday 29th June 2023 As a way of bri…

In this episode, we talk about writing procedures that are needed for regulatory compliance. By this we mean organisations that might be investigated by a regulatory body. We describe the different approaches to creating the content. We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf…

We wanted to talk about some ideas that we've taken from Google on how to present elearning video content. And to share them in case you are also involved in e-learning, and you wanted to copy these ideas as well. We examine one of Google's videos from its UX Design course. These courses are on YouTube, so it’s possible to view them without having …

It's been about three months since ChatGPT was launched. And we thought it would be good to look at really the status of what ChatGPT might mean for the future of technical communication. And we did a blog and we did some experiments back in December, as have others, and people have reflected on the pros and cons of it. And we thought it would be g…

In January 2023, there's been quite a few layoffs in the tech sector. It's reported that Google has laid off 12,000 people, Microsoft 11,000, Amazon 18,000, Salesforce 8000. And there's also been layoffs at Meta, Cisco, Spotify, and other organisations. In this episode, we're going to look at dealing with being laid off or being made redundant. We'…

We talk to Diana Logan, Manager, Technical Writing at GitLab, about Gitlab’s approach to documentation and code. We discuss: Working in an “Docs as Code” environment The upcoming GitLab Docs hackathon Working for a fully remote, asynchronous organisation We've posted a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. More information: GitLab Docs Hackathon 23 - …

It’s that time of year for us to gaze into our crystal ball and share your and our predictions for the future of technical communication for 2023 and beyond. Thread on LinkedIn Thread on Twitter We've posted a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

We asked on Social Media Someone joins as/becomes a manager of technical writing team.What would you advise they do in their first 90-100 days? In this episode, we go through the responses we received. We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf The five pillars of content strategy: https://www.scroll.co.uk/wp-conte…

We look at optimising technical documentation for Search Engines. We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf Links: Podcast 62 Looking back on the presentations at The Evolution of TC 2019 conference 99 Percent Invisible: Search and ye might findDi Cherryleaf

We look at playbooks. We ask: what are they, and why create them? We also discuss our approach for creating playbooks, and the different ways to publish them. We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf Links: https://trainual.com/manual/what-is-a-business-playbook-and-how-to-use-it-to-scale https://sterlingwoods.co…

We look at the value of retrospectives at the end of a documentation project, and how you can run one. We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

We look at the types of skills we, and others, are looking for, when taking on freelance and permanent technical communicators. We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

We asked: Does anyone have any techcomm timesaver tips they'd like to share? This is what you told us... We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

We look at different ways to measure and check the quality of the content we produce. References: Developing Quality Technical Information (DQTI), Hargis, IBM, 1997 Peter Morville’s User Experience Honeycomb Ilene Burnstein, Practical Software Testing Teste e Qualidade de Software Software Reviews and Other Static Software Analysis. Rodrigo Back Al…

We look at GitHub and how technical communicators are using GitHub for creating documentation. Our new training bundles: Cherryleaf Technical Communication Courses Video: Creative writing with GitHub copilot Hands on - AI pair programming with GitHub CopilotDi Cherryleaf

In this episode, we look at the skills needed for developing a developer portal. We also talk about our new e-learning course "Creating API documentation and developer portals", and Google's recommendations for the content needed on a developer portal. We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf…

Happy New Year. We posted this question on social media: What lessons have you learnt over the last 12 months? Working from home, wins, losses, mindset, managing the pandemic etc. In this episode, we go through the responses, and reflect on what was said. About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf Pexels image: Julia M Cameron…

It's that time of year for us to gaze into our crystal ball and share your and our predictions for the future of technical communication for 2022 and beyond. Thread on LinkedIn Thread on Twitter About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf Image: Tuesday Temptation on Unsplash.Di Cherryleaf

Cherryleaf's Ginny Critcher and Ellis Pratt discuss using the Redocly platform to create a developer portal and API documentation. More information: Redocly What is your developer portal’s KPI score? CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

With the Dev Portal Awards 2021 under way, we look at the characteristics of an award-winning developer portal. Dev Portal Awards 2021 What is your developer portal’s KPI score? About Cherryleaf: CherryleafDi Cherryleaf

If a startup came to you asking for a checklist of actions they should take/consider when it comes to writing their first docs, what would you tell them? We asked that question on Social Media. In this episode, we reveal what people said. Get the ultimate user onboarding content checklist for start-ups About Cherryleaf: Cherryleaf…

Unexpected bonus August episode. We spoke to Jennifer Morse, Vice President of Customer Success at MadCap Software, about the new Learning and Development features that have been included in latest release of MadCap Flare. More information: New Release: MadCap Flare 2021 r2 Bridging the Gap Between Technical Authoring and Learning & Development Web…

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 P…

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 ti…

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 Netherla…

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 …

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 wha…

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/…

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…

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…

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…

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 newslet…

We look at some of the common content challenges organisations face with their developer portals, and ways to fix them. We also look at creating a friction log, and the complexity of banking related APIs. More information: Cherryleaf's API/developer documentation writing services Cherryleaf newsletter To contact Cherryleaf: info@cherryleaf.com…