Poll the Docs
WTD Prague - 2016
Kata Nagygyörgy
UX Researcher
kata@pronovix.com
@NagygyorgyKata
Purpose of
Poll the Docs
Particular thanks to David Ryan for the idea and feedback, to Eric Holscher and Kristof Van Tomme for making it happen.
In the beginning of 2016 we put together a survey to investigate how people are doing their jobs, what the current status is of documentation, and what the future will bring.
What you need to keep in mind
Participants
N=100
Method
Data distortion effect
It more reflects the thinking of those who’d like to share information, and contribute to the common knowledge.
1.
Demographics
Some basic data about the community
Age and diversity
Country of residence
(99 responses)
12,1%
65,7%
4%
5,1%
Previous and Current Industry
API Content Developer
API Technical Writer
CEO
CoE Process Manager
Content & Documentation Manager
Content Specialist
Data Specialist
Developer Educator
Developer relations
Developer/Writer
Director of support
Documentation Consultant
Documentation Coordinator
Documentation Engineer
Documentation Program Manager
Documentation specialist
Editorial Manager
Educational Services Specialist
Engineering Content Developer
Engineering Manager
Engineering Operations
Freelance Software Engineer
Freelance tech journalist
Growth Hacker
Knowledge Base Administrator
Manager, Technical Communication
Principal Technical Writer
Priority Technical Support
Product developer (i.e. dev + tech writer)
Product Engineer
Product Owner
Professional Content Developer
QA
Research Software Engineer
Rhetorically sensitive socio-technical mediator (with apologies to Brad Mehlenbacher)
Senior Consultant
Senior Engineering Manager/Director of Engineering
Senior Software Engineer
Senior User Assistance Manager
Staff Technical Writer
Support Customer Experience Manager
Technical Communications Manager
Technical Communicator
Technical Content Editor
Technical Editor
Technical Writing Manager
‘’
Work language
Work experience
How did you start working in the field of documentation?
Coincidence
From Tech Support
Like writing
19%
11%
11%
How did you start working in the field of documentation?
2.
Documentation
How do you work?
What kind of tools do you use in your everyday work?
Documentation standards and style guides
Percentage of use / 100 people
Typical technical writing output
Percentage of use / 100 people
What workflow do you use to ensure quality?
Most important personality skills
Most important technical skills
3.
Comparison
Based on work style
How do you work?
Comparing user groups based on work experience
Work experience | Alone (N=12) | In a team with other professionals (N=53) | In a team with other technical writers (N=35) |
Around 5 years | 58% | 67% | 57% |
Around 3 years | 25% | 33% | 0% |
Around 1 year | 27% | 0% | 43% |
Technical writing output
| Alone (N=12) | In a team with other professionals (N=53) | In a team with other technical writers (N=35) |
Typical technical writing output | Software documentation Online and embedded help User manuals | Software documentation Release notes | Software documentation Release notes API documentation |
Never or rarely used writing output | Training documents Website copy Articles/press releases API documentation Release notes Articles/press releases | White papers Books Legal documents | Training documents Website copy Articles/press release White papers Books Legal documents How-to videos QA/testing documents Project documents (proposals, briefs, etc.) Presentations |
Style guide and review process
| Alone (N=12) | In a team with other professionals (N=53) | In a team with other technical writers (N=35) |
Style guide | In-house style guide None | In house style guide | In-house style guide Chicago Manual of Style |
Review process | Peer review Self review | Review process with team
| Review process with team Peer review SME review |
Career progression and writing trends
| Alone (N=12) | In a team with other professionals (N=53) | In a team with other technical writers (N=35) |
Career progression | Already there Dev Evangelist | Already there Content strategies Product/project management | Already there Content strategies Product/project management |
Technical writing trends encountered past year | API Documentation Plain Text Markup Languages (Markdown, reStructuredText, Asciidoc) | API Documentation Plain Text Markup Languages (Markdown, reStructuredText, Asciidoc) Static site generators | API Documentation Plain Text Markup Languages (Markdown, reStructuredText, Asciidoc) Video content Minimalism |
Thanks.
Questionnaire: