The Cherryleaf 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 solutions they offer to modern problems.

Our discussion spans the capabilities and features of these e-ink devices, delving into the functionality and user experience. Additionally, we identify and analyze a range of potential use cases, illustrating how these devices can fit into various aspects of daily life and work.

We also mention the market leaders driving innovation in this sector. Tune in to get an in-depth look at the future of e-ink writing devices and their role in shaping our digital writing landscape.

 

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

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 Microsoft, Meta, Across Systems, and Cherryleaf, on lessons learnt with AI. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1Utia1tpDy4cceBHsMDZFbyzVMWfijjG

Generative AI and Techcomm playlist on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyzNPwCV9rY&list=PLUsv4sNfwtYe3Crhz-ldp8JRoKLIh7k8l&pp=iAQB

 

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 technical content. This is where AI comes in.

In this episode, we provide an overview of the common pain points technical writers experience and demonstrate how generative AI can effectively address many of these issues. From automating repetitive tasks to enhancing writing quality, AI-powered tools offer new capabilities that will transform the field of technical communication.

We discuss key applications like boilerplate text generation, text summarisation, grammar corrections, writing style adaptability, and more. With the right human-AI collaboration, technical writers can be more efficient, consistent, and creative.

We will publish a transcript on the Cherryleaf blog. 

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

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 portals will become even more important.

We will publish a transcript on the Cherryleaf blog. 

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

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. However, writers generally prefer words because they?re easier to reuse and scale, as well as being more efficient for their overall business. This leads to a rather contentious relationship with video elements...especially with clients specifically requesting more of them.

Daniel regularly works with technical writers on how to bridge this gap and effectively leverage video content to complement their writing. 

We discuss how technical writers can effectively manage this contentious relationship.

We will publish a transcript on the Cherryleaf blog. 

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

 

Techsmith's Research hub includes: - Value of Visuals - Ultimate Guide to Simplified User Interface Graphics (SUI) - The Ultimate Guide to Easily Make Instructional Videos Guide to adding captions to videos

Simplify Tool in Snagit (tutorial) Audiate

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:

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:

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 bridging the gap between the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the specific needs of Technical Communicators, we conducted a survey within the technical communications community. We wanted to uncover the most pressing questions, concerns, and areas of interest related to using AI and ChatGPT in technical communications.

In this webinar, we?ll present some of the questions you raised, and outline the answers to those questions. Additionally, we will present a framework for identifying opportunities and best practices for integrating ChatGPT and AI into their technical authoring processes.

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

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 to sign up to a course.     Link to the video: Intro to UX (User Experience)   We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog.  

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

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 good to take a look at it today.

--

We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog.  

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

--

More information:

Wie gut ist Künstliche Intelligenz in der Technischen Dokumentation? https://www.parson-europe.com/de/blog/kuenstliche-intelligenz-chatgpt-technische-dokumentation   Cherryleaf: What will ChatGPT mean for the future of technical communication? https://www.cherryleaf.com/2022/12/what-will-chatgpt-mean-for-the-future-of-technical-communication/   ICMS GmbH: https://www.icms.de/kuenstliche-intellig enz-in-der-technischen-redaktion-fluch-oder-segen/   Pinecone: Generative Question-Answering with Long-Term Memory https://www.pinecone.io/learn/openai-gen-qa/ 

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'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog.  

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

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 - 27 January, 2023 Five fast facts about docs as code at GitLab How to update GitLab documentation

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

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:

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-content/uploads/2019/08/Five-Pillars-Approach-toolkit.pdf

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 find

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.com/blog/business-playbook/ https://www.tensorflow.org/community/sig_playbook?hl=en https://docs.apigee.com/api-platform/troubleshoot/troubleshooting-introduction?hl=en https://developers.google.com/business-communications/business-messages/files/bm-brand-playbook.pdf?hl=en

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:

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:

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:

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 Almada. https://slideplayer.com/slide/14604162/

We'll post a transcript to the Cherryleaf Blog. 

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

Our new training bundles:

Cherryleaf Technical Communication Courses

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 Copilot

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. 

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?

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:

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

Webinar recording: Major New Learning & Development Updates in MadCap Flare 2021 r2

New free elearning course from Cherryleaf:

Trends in Technical Communication

About Cherryleaf:

Cherryleaf

 

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  Poor quality content No testing or metrics

Take our quiz:  

What type of technical writer are you?

Planning and creating content for customer onboarding ? training course

Cherryleaf

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

 

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

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 time should you schedule? What have been the benefits? What have been the downsides? If people want more information, where should they go?

More information:

The Importance of Using Analytics and Feedback for your Documentation - conference presentation recording

Take our quiz:  

What type of technical writer are you?

 

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

 

 

 

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 Netherlands. Later, he moved back to magazine publishing and conference management in the UK. Toby now runs Strand, the global writing and design agency that serves the enterprise technology sector. And he keeps bees, though not at Strand. (We did not talk about the bees.)

More information:

Strand

Toby Chapman Dawe's profile on LinkedIn

 

Take our quiz:  

What type of technical writer are you?

 

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

 

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 MadCap Flare project

Cherryleaf is a technical writing services and training company based in the United Kingdom. Part of that work involves updating and improving developer portals.  

Cherryleaf also offers a Writing API Documentation elearning course that teaches Technical Writers the keys skills of writing and managing documentation for REST APIs.

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

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 what should go into a course on creating content for (SaaS) customer onboarding?

Cherryleaf's Intermediate/Advanced Technical Communication training course

Vacancies page

 

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/Advanced Technical Communication elearning training course

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

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 newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

 

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 newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

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: [email protected]

We discuss the lessons we've learnt so far from training in a virtual classroom environment during the Lockdown. 

 

More information:

Cherryleaf's training courses

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

Ellis donned his finest brocade waistcoat and riding boots for an episode that was recorded in one of the locations used in the Bridgerton TV series. 

He discusses the location, and the impact of Brexit on technical writing companies such as Cherryleaf. 

 

Image by Maxwell Hamilton, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52540109

EU/UK TRADE AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT (see Annex 4 CPC 84)

More information:

Cherryleaf website

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

We spoke to Deborah Reid, Lead Tester at Bloom & Wild, about usability testing. 

We discuss:

What is testing? Is it only about accessibility? Where is it used? Why should organisations worry about testing/do testing? Does it need a specialist to do it?/ What skills are needed? How did you become a tester/what attracted you to it? How is it done? Browser developer tools When should you test? 

Deborah's Twitter account:

@deborah_reid19

More information:

Cherryleaf website

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

We asked the people who receive the Cherryleaf newsletter what was one goal (relating to work, career, or work-life balance) that they were setting for 2021. We received a lot of replies ? thank you.

In this episode, we go through what you told us. 

More information:

Word clouds from your responses

Ankerwycke

Cherryleaf website

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

Another walking podcast, this time it's from Bedfont Lakes country park in west London.

We gaze into our crystal ball and make predictions for the future of technical communication for 2021 and beyond. We also share the thoughts of others in the profession. 

Twitter thread:

What trends do you think there will be in Technical Communication (including UX writing) for 2021 and beyond?

LinkedIn thread: 

What trends do you think there will be in Technical Communication (including UX writing) for 2021 and beyond?

 

Cherryleaf website

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

The DevPortal Awards bring together the API community to recognize, celebrate and learn from the world?s greatest developer portals and their API documentation. Ellis is one of the judges. In this podcast, he talks about the criteria the awards use to assess the different developer portals.  

 

DevPortal Awards

Cherryleaf website

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

Cherryleaf 

Image of Penton Hook by Motmit

We discuss a thread by Chris Herd on Twitter about working from home, and the future of work. 

 

Chris Herd's thread on Twitter.

 

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

Cherryleaf 

We talk to Bart Leahy about his career as a Technical Writer and his book, Heroic Technical Writing: Making a Difference in the Workplace and Your Life.

 

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

Cherryleaf 

Ellis describes his experience of writing and publishing a book on Kindle. He also discusses creating an audiobook for Audible and the latest options for printing a paperback book. 

 

More information

https://kdp.amazon.com/

https://www.acx.com/

https://www.postermywall.com/index.php/posters/search?s=ebook#

https://www.fiverr.com/

 

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]

Cherryleaf 

Ellis was recently a judge for the UK Technical Communication Awards 2020. In this podcast we look at the process for judging the entries, and the variety of content submitted. 

More information:

Cherryleaf newsletter

To contact Cherryleaf: [email protected]