The Not-Boring Tech Writer cover art

The Not-Boring Tech Writer

The Not-Boring Tech Writer

By: Kate Mueller
Listen for free

About this listen

 Some people hear the phrase "technical writing" and think it must be boring. We're here to show the full complexity and awesomeness of being a tech writer. This podcast is for anyone who writes technical documentation of any kind, including those who may not feel comfortable calling themselves tech writers. Whether you create product documentation, support documentation, READMEs, or any other technical content—and whether you deal with imposter syndrome, lack formal training, or find yourself somewhere in the gray area between technical communications and general writing—there's a place for you here. Each month, we publish two episodes: an interview with an amazing guest focusing on useful skills or tools that can help you improve your tech writing skills, and a behind-the-scenes solo episode with host Kate Mueller about what she’s working on, struggling with, or thinking about in her daily tech writing life. The Not-Boring Tech Writer is generously sponsored by KnowledgeOwl, knowledge base software built for people who care, by people who care.© 2016-2025 KnowledgeOwl Career Success Economics
Episodes
  • How to get hired as a tech writer with Sue Brandt

    How to get hired as a tech writer with Sue Brandt
    May 15 2025
    In this episode, I’m talking with Sue Brandt, a former Director of Documentation who’d hired around 60 people when we recorded the episode. We discuss practical strategies for technical writing job applications, what hiring managers are really looking for in resumes and interviews, and how to stand out in today’s competitive job market.Episode NotesSue and I discuss various aspects of the tech writing job application process, including resumes, cover letters, and interviews. Sue, who has hired around 60 people throughout her career, emphasizes that enthusiasm is often a key differentiator for candidates.Throughout the episode, Sue shares practical tips based on her experience managing tech writing teams of up to 30 people, including ways to stand out as an applicant, how to handle situations where you may not have the exact technical skills in a job description but can demonstrate transferable skills and a willingness to learn, resume and portfolio best practices, how to honestly address gaps in employment, and more. The episode concludes with a discussion of career transitions and the importance of being open to learning new things.About Sue BrandtSue was educated as a biologist, did postdoc research into marine microorganisms, and named 13 new species! She moved a little closer to the tech field when she worked with computer scientists on a bioinformatics project and found herself in the role of "translator" between computer scientists and biologists. Her tech writing career unofficially started when someone looked over her shoulder when she was job searching and said "You could do that.” Sue worked as a Technical Writer at a UK startup for 3 years, then moved to Denmark and worked at Microsoft for 13 years as a Programming Writer and then Developer Documentation Manager. She was always adamant that she didn't want to be a manager, but she was persuaded to try it and found out she loved it! She became Director of Documentation at Sitecore and managed 30 writers, editors, and developers working on 10 different products in 6 countries.—Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:Email: tnbtw@knowledgeowl.comthenotboringtechwriter.comLinkedInBlueskyJoin the discussion by replying Contact Kate Mueller: knowledgewithsass.comLinkedInBlueskyContact Sue Brandt:LinkedInContact KnowledgeOwl:KnowledgeOwl.comLinkedIn—TranscriptKate Mueller: [00:00:03] Welcome to the Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community.Kate Mueller: [00:00:18] Hello my lovely fellow not-boring tech writers. I'm Kate Mueller and today's guest, I have to say, also has a storied past. I love interviewing people who got into tech writing by accident after they did something else. And today's guest definitely qualifies as that. She was educated as a biologist and did post-doc research, and then slowly moved into bioinformatics before ending up in tech writing, and then also ended up being a people manager at some point in there. Lots of unexpected twists and turns, and you know how much I love a good, not boring, 'twisty and turny' story. I'm very excited to welcome to the pod today, Sue Brandt. Sue, welcome!Sue Brandt: [00:01:00] Hi! Thanks very much, it's great to be here. I'm looking forward to the talk.Kate Mueller: [00:01:04] So excited to have you. For our listeners, I just spoiled a little of it I think, but can you give us your tech writer villain origin story? How did you get into tech writing in the beginning?Sue Brandt: [00:01:16] I'm wondering, is there anyone who actually planned to be in tech writing from early on? It seems like everyone just falls into it by strange and wonderful means. I've heard all sorts of stories. My story is that I was looking for a new role. I was doing post-doc research and I enjoyed it, but it was really stressful to have to keep applying for new grants and not knowing if you still had a job in a few months. I had no idea what I wanted to do instead. I was looking at everything within about a 40 kilometer radius from my home. Someone was looking over my shoulder and pointed to something and said, you could do that.Kate Mueller: [00:01:50] The infamous tech writer "oh, you could do that". Lo and behold, you could do that and you did.Sue Brandt: [00:01:55] I was super lucky because the hiring manager was somebody who took a chance on me. I was writing about how you use software to program hardware, and I didn't know anything about software or hardware or tech writing, but somehow she twigged that I might be good at this and gave me a chance. So as I say, I was super lucky.Kate Mueller: [00:02:18] This makes me really love that we're trying to talk about how you get hired today, because it's funny how those little moments of somebody maybe taking a chance...
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • Kate sounds off on knowledge sharing and docs stewardship

    Kate sounds off on knowledge sharing and docs stewardship
    May 1 2025
    In this solo episode, Kate shares an update on her content update progress. She also reflects on Marcia Riefer Johnston’s interview (S3:E8) and on the idea of docs stewardship as opposed to docs ownership.I’ve continued my work to update the KnowledgeOwl Support Knowledge Base to align with major navigation and UI changes that were rolled out in December. I updated an additional 91 articles since my last episode, taking my total to 457. 🎉 I also reorganized another three Features subcategories, taking me to the milestone of having updated half those categories using content type-inspired information architecture. I also relocated 12 mice from my basement.Marcia’s episode prompted a lot of reflection for me. Her infectious, unbridled enthusiasm for this work—from learning new tools to new domains— reminded me of all the reasons I love the craft of technical writing, and how thankful I am that for the last year I’ve largely “only” been doing technical writing. I also appreciated Marcia’s exhortations to share what you know because you never know what great things will come from sharing your knowledge. Too often, we don’t share what we know because we don’t think we know “enough” (whatever that is). But sharing knowledge is a gift to others.Thanks to a conversation with a friend, I’ve started to come around to the idea of docs stewardship rather than docs ownership. “Stewardship” comes from the Old English words for house and guard. Stewards originally managed estates for medieval lords. I extend this into the world of documentation (doesn’t “Guardian of the Docs” sound like an awesome way to describe what we do? Maybe a swag idea, too, non?). Most modern definitions of stewardship include the idea of “careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care” (source), though they may also add sustainability, ethical use, or “a duty to protect and maintain assets which might be natural, financial, or informational” (source). Marcia’s observation that a lot of a tech writer’s job involves project and process management aligns with this approach, I believe. I explore some other ways I like this docs stewardship model and then draw a comparison between tech writers and gardeners.Resources discussed in this episode:KnowledgeOwl Support KB, Features categoryMerriam Webster’s definition of stewardshipmeaningdictionary.com’s explanation of StewardChris Drew’s 25 Stewardship ExamplesTNBTW Episode 8—Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:Email: tnbtw@knowledgeowl.comthenotboringtechwriter.comLinkedInBlueskyJoin the discussion by replying on Bluesky Contact Kate Mueller: knowledgewithsass.comLinkedInBlueskyContact KnowledgeOwl:KnowledgeOwl.comLinkedIn—TranscriptKate Mueller: [00:00:05] Welcome to the Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills, and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community.Kate Mueller: [00:00:21] Hello, lovely not-boring tech writers. I'm Kate Mueller, and this is one of our solo episodes where I share things I'm thinking about or working on. I'm recording this episode at the beginning of April, right after Trump announced many new tariffs and before the NCAA March Madness championship. First, my progress update. Since my last episode, I've updated 91 more articles, taking my grand total to 457. I've also reorganized another three feature subcategories. This was a big milestone, since it means I've now reorganized half of the feature subcategories using these content type perspectives. I still have a long way to go on my article updates, but the content hierarchy changes feel like they're adding a lot of clarity. Although I kind of regret combining all of this into one project in terms of velocity, it's also meant that I'm updating the content itself and the way it's organized all at the same time, so each feature subcategory feels fairly done by the time I've made those changes. Well, as much as any documentation is ever done. Also, if you wanted a mouse infestation update, I relocated a total of 12 mice. 12 as in a whole dozen. I was astonished, maybe a little mortified. Since then, I've implemented my preventive measures. Knock on wood, I haven't heard any scratching in the walls since.Kate Mueller: [00:01:55] I hope you enjoyed the episode with Marcia as much as I did. I've been reflecting on a lot of things since that interview. The first is that right now, for the first time in my career, I'm mostly only being a tech writer. I'm sure that sounds odd to some of you, but I entered the tech writing world sideways through support and product. Tech writing has been a part of my roles for a long time, but it's rarely been in my job title. I've usually done support or training or software testing or product management ...
    Show More Show Less
    16 mins
  • The craft of technical writing with Marcia Riefer Johnston

    The craft of technical writing with Marcia Riefer Johnston
    Apr 17 2025
    In this episode, I’m talking with Marcia Riefer Johnston, a technical writer who’s worked in our industry for 40 years. We talk about how the profession has evolved since she first started in it, the grammar patterns that have helped her tighten up her writing, and how “creative” writing and “technical” writing are just different expressions of the craft of writing.Marcia and I discuss how tech writing has evolved in the last 40 years as the tooling and field have evolved—from literally cutting and taping printed instructions together to using sophisticated content management systems and modular content. She shares the user feedback from her first set of technical instructions for using a remote control set-top box at Magnavox, highlighting how important user feedback is to help determine what needs to be documented.Throughout our conversation, we explore practical grammar techniques that have helped both Marcia and me strengthen our writing, such as restructuring sentences to center the reader rather than the tool. We also discuss how adding “by zombies” is a great way to suss out if you’re using passive voice (e.g. “This podcast is being listened to by zombies.”) and the strengths and weaknesses of the be verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, etc.).We also talk about the value of sharing what you know, and how putting that knowledge out into the world can reap unexpected benefits. And we talk about the fact that the division between “creative ”writing and “technical” writing feels like a false binary: all acts of language are creative, and technical writing shares a lot of overlap with forms like poetry.We close by discussing how technical writers manage feedback from reviewers and explore how a significant percentage of technical writing involves project management skills such as managing conversations and helping everyone align on what the documentation should do.For both of us, handling contradictory feedback from reviewers usually involves having a larger conversation about what the problems or issues were, rather than only focusing on solutions. We theorize that part of the value tech writers bring is our ability to identify less-than-desirable user experiences and to not just take suggested edits as gospel but to question and explore the need for those edits.About Marcia Riefer JohnstonMarcia’s loved tech writing from the time she first heard the words technical and writer together. These days she brings technical and writer together as a consultant for Baxter International. In 2013, she fulfilled a dream by writing her book Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them). Two years later, her pocket-sized collection came out: You Can Say That Again: 750 Redundant Phrases to Think Twice About. Occasionally she posts on her own blog at Writing.Rocks. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she makes things with scrumptious yarn, does New York Times crossword puzzles with her husband (especially the Thursday and Sunday puzzles), and lures in family and friends to play Wingspan and other games.Resources discussed in this episode:How to put the customer first in your sentences - Marcia’s blog post for KnowledgeOwlWriting.Rocks - Marcia’s websiteTo Be or Not To Be — First chapter of Marcia’s book, Word Up!Be and Me — Why writers want to watch for be-verbs. Bonus: the be-verb song.Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation by Kurt AmentRead Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry by Sun Microsystems, Inc.Garner’s Modern English Usage by Bryan GarnerThe LavaCon conference on Content Strategy and Content OperationsBuy the Books - Links to Marcia’s books (You Can Say That Again: 750 Redundant Phrases to Think Twice About and Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) and how to buy themResources for Writers - A more complete list of Marcia’s recommendations than we could discuss in the episode.—Contact The Not-Boring Tech Writer team:We love hearing your ideas for episode topics, guests, or general feedback:Email: tnbtw@knowledgeowl.comthenotboringtechwriter.comLinkedInBlueskyJoin the discussion by replying on Bluesky Contact Kate Mueller: knowledgewithsass.comLinkedInBlueskyContact Marcia Riefer Johnston: Writing.RocksLinkedinBlueskyContact KnowledgeOwl:KnowledgeOwl.comLinkedIn—TranscriptKate Mueller: [00:00:05] Welcome to the Not-Boring Tech Writer, a podcast sponsored by KnowledgeOwl. Together, we explore topics and hear from other writers to help inspire us, deepen our skills and foster our distinctly not-boring tech writing community. In today's episode, I talk with Marcia Riefer Johnston, a tech writer who's been in the field for the last 40 years. We talk about how things have changed, or not changed, over time, some of the simple grammar tips that Marcia's found most useful, and how to handle conflicting feedback from multiple ...
    Show More Show Less
    53 mins

What listeners say about The Not-Boring Tech Writer

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.com.au reviews

Amazon Reviews
No Reviews are Available
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.