Kate sounds off on docs hierarchy of needs and how we talk to ourselves

The Not-Boring Tech Writer

Το περιεχόμενο παρέχεται από το KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller. Όλο το περιεχόμενο podcast, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των επεισοδίων, των γραφικών και των περιγραφών podcast, μεταφορτώνεται και παρέχεται απευθείας από τον KnowledgeOwl and Kate Mueller ή τον συνεργάτη της πλατφόρμας podcast. Εάν πιστεύετε ότι κάποιος χρησιμοποιεί το έργο σας που προστατεύεται από πνευματικά δικαιώματα χωρίς την άδειά σας, μπορείτε να ακολουθήσετε τη διαδικασία που περιγράφεται εδώ https://el.player.fm/legal.

9M ago 17:07

MP3•Αρχική οθόνη επεισοδίου

In this solo episode, I share an update on working with content types, muse about the idea of a Documentation Hierarchy of Needs, and reflect more on Janine Chan's interview (S3:E4) and how we talk to ourselves about being tech writers.

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I may have overcommitted myself in Episode 3. I have been incorporating content type work into my massive content audit, but after working on four of the nineteen Features subcategories, I realized it was taking too much time and I had to refocus on my main task of updating content to match our UI and navigation releases. However, I like the information architecture decisions this has helped me make and the clarity it’s bringing to the docs themselves and how I organize them, so it’s a project I intend to continue.

Making these kinds of priority decisions is something we all have to tackle all the time. But the content type work got me thinking: I’ve used an intuitive content type sense for a long time. I suspect I’m also using an intuitive decision-making framework for prioritizing my docs work. What would an explicit framework for that look like? In talking this over with a colleague, I realized I wanted a Documentation Hierarchy of Needs. I discovered that MongoDB created exactly this for their documentation overhaul once upon a time and wrote this blog post about it. I briefly run through their Hierarchy of Needs and how my decision to temporarily deprioritize content types might fit within it.

I also reflect more on Janine Chan’s episode (S3:E4) and her point about reframing the way we talk to ourselves from “I’m not technical enough” to “I don’t know how to do this… yet.” And I share my own suggestion for handling that narrative problem.

Resources discussed in this episode:

KnowledgeOwl Support KB, Features category
MongoDB blog post: Applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to Documentation
TNBTW Episode 3 and Episode 4

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