Kate Sounds Off On Write The Docs The Not-Boring Tech Writer podcast

Content provided by KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

The Not-Boring Tech Writer »
Kate sounds off on Write the Docs

9d ago 26:51

MP3•Episode home

In this solo episode, Kate shares an update on her content update progress. She also reflects on Sue Brandt’s interview (S3:E10) and on the Write the Docs Portland 2025 conference.

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 50 articles since my last episode, taking my total to 507. 🎉Most of the updates this month were in our payment and plan-related documents, which needed to be updated for a new Billing page user interface and to include changes from migrating to a Merchant of Record.

My velocity this month was lower thanks to teaching KnowledgeOwl’s Authoring 101 class and attending the Write the Docs Portland 2025 conference with Chad. Write the Docs is always a deeply inspiring conference for me, and this was my first time attending in person since 2019. This year, I even gave a lightning talk about dogs and docs, too!

Much of the episode is spent reflecting on the six things I most love about Write the Docs, which include its support for first-time attendees and presenters, the flexibility and thoughtfulness of its design, and the amazing community of documentarians who form the backbone of this community. This year’s conference had a fantastic selection of talks and speakers, including several previous and upcoming podcast guests.

Resources discussed in this episode:

KnowledgeOwl Support KB: the Payments & subscriptions and Plans & pricing categories
Write the Docs Portland 2025 conference
Kate’s Of docs and dogs lightning talk
Full playlist of recorded talks from Write the Docs Portland 2025

—

Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:

We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:

Join the discussion by replying on Bluesky

Contact Kate Mueller:

Contact KnowledgeOwl:

—

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: [00:00:20] 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 in mid-May, right after attending Write the Docs Portland. First, my docs project progress update. Since my last episode, I've updated another 50 articles, taking my grand total to 507. This month's velocity was a bit slower since I spent time prepping for and teaching KnowledgeOwl's 'Authoring 101' class, and of course, attending Write the Docs. My big achievement for the month was a massive update to our pricing and plan related documentation. I removed a lot of detailed pricing info to default to our marketing website, and I also rewrote pretty much every existing pricing related doc we had. Most of these docs hadn't been substantively updated in the last five years. And in that time, KnowledgeOwl has been transitioning most subscribers to a merchant of record. We also recently released a total rewrite to the in-app billing page. Nearly everything here needed major content updates. And, just to make it more fun, since most of these docs were written by someone else long before our current style guide, they also needed to be updated to align with our current style and tone.

Kate Mueller: [00:01:45] This was one of those, "I thought this wasn't going to be a very big deal, and then it ended up being a lot more work than I thought". Have you sensed a trend? I think I'm just optimistic in thinking about docs work. Anyway, I did some major reorganization and was able to get a content review from Anne, our lead billing owl. She caught a number of small inconsistencies, as well as a few fun style and grammar suggestions. So not only are these docs much more up to date, but I also have far more confidence that they're consistent with our billing related support tickets. Normally, I like to reflect on our most recent guest episode during these solo episodes, and Sue Brandt's episode was full of good job hunting nuggets and tips, but I'm not sure there's as much for me to reflect on here other than to say, "Yes". Many of the things I like to do while job hunting are actually reasonably good ideas, but I did appreciate her constant reminder to ensure that all materials accurately reflect your skills as a writer. Having a resume and cover letter with sound structure and well-written content that doesn't get too stuck in the weeds while highlighting the things most relevant to both a first round recruiter and a final round hiring manager. I also found it encouraging that there are still hiring managers out there for whom demonstrated skills in writing and the ability to learn, combined with a depth of enthusiasm, far outweigh experience with specific tools or tech stacks.

Kate Mueller: [00:03:19] The main thing I want to talk about in this episode is Write the Docs Portland, which Chad and I both just got back from. If you've been listening to this year's episodes, you've probably noticed the theme that Write the Docs comes up a lot. Either as a way I've met people or as a recommended resource from some of the guests. It's an excellent community, very supportive, and the conferences have been an important part of my journey as a documentarian and tech writer. A little background there, I attended my first conference in person in 2019, and it was the first time I realized that there were a lot of people who did work that I do. Work that I hadn't always felt sure how to describe, let alone felt like I was a part of a community around it. And that sense of community was really important to me. I presented virtually at the Portland 2022 conference. I gave a talk called 'Beating the Virginia Blues: Thru-Hiking Strategies...

54 episodes