API The Docs Podcast

The API The Docs Podcast brings you a Special Edition series with insights from the 2023 DevPortal Awards.   Each year, the DevPortal Awards seeks the most outstanding solutions with the help of experienced jurors, who are volunteers with extensive knowledge of API programs, developer portals, and API documentation. In the Special Edition series, we share interviews with the jurors which were recorded during the online Awards Gala events in November, 2023. How can developer portals incorporate gamification into their workflows? How do jurors Anne Gentle (Developer Relations Leader at Cisco DevNet), Bob Watson (Senior Technical Writer), and Michael Richardson (Advanced Software Engineering Manager at Kroger) see the importance of user experience research and design? In 2023, the DevPortal Awards jury members discussed the possibilities, and their remarks could help to create a better user experience for devportals. We are glad to share the episode with you.  Further resources:  Best Developer Portals 2023  DevPortal Awards 2023 Jury Interview

The API The Docs Podcast brings you a Special Edition series with insights from the 2023 DevPortal Awards.   Each year, the DevPortal Awards seeks the most outstanding solutions with the help of experienced jurors, who are volunteers with extensive knowledge of API programs, developer portals, and API documentation. In the Special Edition series, we share interviews with the jurors which were recorded during the online Awards Gala events in November, 2023. What could be the similarities between Choose Your Own Adventure games and developer portals? Is it possible to reach that level of interactivity to interlocking journeys? In 2023, the DevPortal Awards jury members discussed a few possibilities that could be more than sci-fi. We are happy to share the interviews with you. In this episode, you hear insights from Kruno Golubić (Technical Writer at Memgraph), Marco Spinello (Senior Technical Writer at sanity.io), Richard Smedley (Principal Technical Writer at Couchbase), and Ryan Clifford (Platform Group Product Manager at Spendesk). Further resources:  Best Developer Portals 2023  DevPortal Awards 2023 Jury Interview

The API The Docs Podcast brings you a Special Edition series with insights from the 2023 DevPortal Awards.   Each year, the DevPortal Awards seeks the most outstanding solutions with the help of experienced jurors, who are volunteers with extensive knowledge of API programs, developer portals, and API documentation. In the Special Edition series, we share interviews with the jurors which were recorded during the online Awards Gala events in November, 2023. If everything would be possible, what could be the future of developer portals? What aspects do experts welcome, and what elements would be better to leave behind? In 2023, the DevPortal Awards jury members shared their insights with us. We are honored to bring the interviews to you. In this episode, you can learn from DevPortal Awards jurors Chris Bush (Lead Developer Educator at MongoDB), Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti (Principal Technical Writer at Splunk), and Koichi Shiroma (Senior Product Development).  Further resources:  Best Developer Portals 2023  DevPortal Awards 2023 Jury Interview

Connected to both customers and internal teams, customer success is a powerful source of valuable information throughout the entire feedback loop. In this episode, Charlie Edwards (Customer Success Manager at CAE Technologies Limited) explains how the feedback from customer success teams contributes to the comprehensive improvement of products. The API The Docs Podcast was brought to you by Pronovix. https://pronovix.com/

Adopting a beginner’s mindset allows you to explore familiar concepts through a lens of curiosity and openness. But how does that translate to documentation? In this episode, Adrienne Braganza Tacke (Sr. Developer Advocate & DevNet Community Programs Lead at Cisco) explains the unexpected benefits of writing with newcomers in mind and how it can take documentation to the next level.

How does a biological anthropologist become a professional docs auditor? Portia Burton, founder of DocumentWrite, narrates her meandering journey from biological anthropology to ESL China, through blockchain technology community engineering, all the way to content audit services. We talk about what to look for in an audit, and what is often critical for a successful content inventory [spoiler: speed]. Where to dive in to make the most of the existing content for the future?

Technical writing and developer relations are relatively new areas, and they have both grown out of a need for these specific skill sets. However, for newcomers in the IT landscape, it might take a while to understand what they actually mean and how they support the work of developers. Kruno Golubic (technical writer at Memgraph) and Katarina Šupe (DevRel at Memgraph) explain the benefits of a successful mentorship initiative, the different definitions of developer experience, and the challenges of technical writing that set it apart from other disciplines.

From rapid changes to learning on the fly, startups face unique challenges that require creative solutions. Alex Akimov (Head of API Platform at Monite) and Helen Kosova (API Technical Writer at Monite) discuss how Monite’s API council supports the adoption of an API-first approach at the company.

Anthony Pichardo, product manager at Visa Developer Platform, discusses the value of user-centered design and building non-zero sum environments. Topics include regular user research, minimizing learning curves, managing a community forum, improving discoverability, simplifying API implementation, and the importance of thought leadership and community support.

We explore how developer documentation hubs enable a unified information architecture, at least outwards: our guests Christoph Weber (Pronovix) and Kristof Van Tomme (Pronovix) talk about the nuanced, socio-technical nature of large scale documentation processes, the need for a central API docs team, and the future use of private LLMs.