Kate sounds off on knowledge sharing and docs stewardship

The Not-Boring Tech Writer

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22d ago 16:18

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In this solo episode, Kate shares an update on her content update progress. She also reflects on Marcia Riefer Johnston’s interview (S3:E8) and on the idea of docs stewardship as opposed to docs ownership.

I’ve continued my work to update the KnowledgeOwl Support Knowledge Base to align with major navigation and UI changes that were rolled out in December. I updated an additional 91 articles since my last episode, taking my total to 457. 🎉 I also reorganized another three Features subcategories, taking me to the milestone of having updated half those categories using content type-inspired information architecture. I also relocated 12 mice from my basement.

Marcia’s episode prompted a lot of reflection for me. Her infectious, unbridled enthusiasm for this work—from learning new tools to new domains— reminded me of all the reasons I love the craft of technical writing, and how thankful I am that for the last year I’ve largely “only” been doing technical writing. I also appreciated Marcia’s exhortations to share what you know because you never know what great things will come from sharing your knowledge. Too often, we don’t share what we know because we don’t think we know “enough” (whatever that is). But sharing knowledge is a gift to others.

Thanks to a conversation with a friend, I’ve started to come around to the idea of docs stewardship rather than docs ownership. “Stewardship” comes from the Old English words for house and guard. Stewards originally managed estates for medieval lords. I extend this into the world of documentation (doesn’t “Guardian of the Docs” sound like an awesome way to describe what we do? Maybe a swag idea, too, non?). Most modern definitions of stewardship include the idea of “careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care” (source), though they may also add sustainability, ethical use, or “a duty to protect and maintain assets which might be natural, financial, or informational” (source). Marcia’s observation that a lot of a tech writer’s job involves project and process management aligns with this approach, I believe. I explore some other ways I like this docs stewardship model and then draw a comparison between tech writers and gardeners.

Resources discussed in this episode:

KnowledgeOwl Support KB, Features category
Merriam Webster’s definition of stewardship
meaningdictionary.com’s explanation of Steward
Chris Drew’s 25 Stewardship Examples
TNBTW Episode 8

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Transcript

Kate Mueller: [00:00:05] Welcome to the Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills, and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community.

Kate Mueller: [00:00:21] Hello, lovely not-boring tech writers. I'm Kate Mueller, and this is one of our solo episodes where I share things I'm thinking about or working on. I'm recording this episode at the beginning of April, right after Trump announced many new tariffs and before the NCAA March Madness championship. First, my progress update. Since my last episode, I've updated 91 more articles, taking my grand total to 457. I've also reorganized another three feature subcategories. This was a big milestone, since it means I've now reorganized half of the feature subcategories using these content type perspectives. I still have a long way to go on my article updates, but the content hierarchy changes feel like they're adding a lot of clarity. Although I kind of regret combining all of this into one project in terms of velocity, it's also meant that I'm updating the content itself and the way it's organized all at the same time, so each feature subcategory feels fairly done by the time I've made those changes. Well, as much as any documentation is ever done. Also, if you wanted a mouse infestation update, I relocated a total of 12 mice. 12 as in a whole dozen. I was astonished, maybe a little mortified. Since then, I've implemented my preventive measures. Knock on wood, I haven't heard any scratching in the walls since.

Kate Mueller: [00:01:55] I hope you enjoyed the episode with Marcia as much as I did. I've been reflecting on a lot of things since that interview. The first is that right now, for the first time in my career, I'm mostly only being a tech writer. I'm sure that sounds odd to some of you, but I entered the tech writing world sideways through support and product. Tech writing has been a part of my roles for a long time, but it's rarely been in my job title. I've usually done support or training or software testing or product management alongside writing documentation. Most often, tech writing wasn't something I could dedicate consistent hours to. I had to sneak it in around other responsibilities, or when releases or support tickets seem to demand that a doc be written or updated. But for the last year or so, it really has been the majority of my primary role. And there's something really awesome about getting to fully embrace that role and own it, while also doing this podcast and getting to talk shop with so many amazing writers. So thank you, dear listener, for being here and listening. You help make this possible.

Kate Mueller: [00:03:11] One of my key takeaways from the episode with Marcia was how excited she still is to be in this field, even after 40 years. Her enthusiasm for learning new tools and domains and for continuing to hone her writing craft was infectious. It kind of inspired me. I feel like I'd fallen a little bit into the weeds of working on documentation, and...

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