“If a user is even reading documentation that a technical writer has produced, they’re probably already annoyed."

Helen Scott is a technical writer and Java Developer Advocate at JetBrains. In this episode, we discussed many things about technical writing, such as the technical writer role definition, the traits of a good technical writer, and how to create a good technical content, including a few gotchas that a technical writer needs to be aware of. Helen also shared with me the concept of community mentoring, and how it can be helpful for the mentee, the mentor, and the community altogether. Towards the end, Helen shared some content creation and sharing tips/hacks based on her popular blog post.

Listen out for:

• Career Journey - [00:05:46]
• Technical Writing - [00:10:48]
• Good Traits of a Technical Writer - [00:14:25]
• Elements of Good Technical Content - [00:19:59]
• Inlining Technical Content - [00:25:38]
• Examples of Good Technical Doc - [00:27:27]
• Open Sourcing Documentations - [00:29:38]
• Structure of Good Product Documentation - [00:31:31]
• Blog Posts to Attract Talent - [00:36:37]
• Community Mentoring - [00:38:04]
• Hacks for Content Creation and Sharing - [00:45:25]
• 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:50:24]

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Helen Scott’s Bio
Helen is a Java Developer Advocate at JetBrains. She has over 20 years’ experience in the software industry which has been gained in a variety of roles including developer, technical writer, product owner, and advocacy.

Helen is passionate about the journey of learning and discovery. She enjoys challenging herself to learn new tools and technologies and sharing the highs and inevitable lows of that journey through the content that she creates.

Helen believes that the role communication plays throughout our personal and professional lives is critical and often overlooked. She strives to put communication front and centre of all her interactions and loves working with and meeting like-minded people.

Follow Helen:

• Website – https://www.helenjoscott.com/
• Twitter – https://twitter.com/helenjoscott
• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenjoscott/
• GitHub – https://github.com/helenjoscott

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For more info about the episode (including quotes and transcript), visit techleadjournal.dev/episodes/29.