my work
This page goes over all my recent work experience, and my various skills. I'm not currently on the job market, but I've had multiple requests to republish my narrative-style portfolio for other tech writers to experiment with the format. If you prefer a more standarized format, go to my LinkedIn profile.
skills and experience
general technical writing experience
I've been writing professionally since 2012. I've worked in waterfall, agile, and “they-say-they-are-agile-but-they-aren't" organizations. I have extensive docs-as-code experience and specialize in developer-focused documentation.
deliverable types
- UI text
- Help video scripts
- Contextual help
- PDF guides
- API docs
- SDK docs
- Blog posts
- Training modules (Trailhead)
- End user help docs
- Internal documentation
- Style guides
- Postman collections
- Print manuals
- Doc tooling CLIs
tools & technologies
- Markdown, HTML, CSS
- CLI, git, Perforce
- AI tools / AI augmentation
- DITA / XML authoring
- Fern Definition, OpenAPI
- Static site generators (MkDocs)
- Vale linting
intangibles / strengths
- Bridging silos between UX, engineering, product, support & marketing
- Thriving in remote, async environments
- Managing open-source doc content & contributors
- Leading massive migrations & tool improvement projects
- Mentoring junior writers
work history
I like to present my work history in a narrative style to provide more context for how I've acquired and applied my skills.
Payabli | February 2023 - Present
Overview
Coming soon, I'm doing some pretty cool stuff here.
Coming soon
Coming soon!
Highlights
- Coming soon
Publicly available portfolio pieces
Amplitude | December 2021 - February 2023
Overview
I started as Amplitude's first developer doc writer in December 2021. Their developer docs had been created and maintained ad‑hoc, and were scattered across three different websites that used two different toolsets.
Developer center project
I was hired to fix a documentation quagmire and create a scalable developer doc program. After talking to my stakeholders about what kind of doc tools they wanted, I went with a docs‑as‑code workflow built with GitHub, Material for MkDocs, and AWS Amplify. I stood up a new doc site from nothing, and got the whole engineering organization contributing to docs within my first 6 months at the company.
Highlights
- I unified three different developer doc sites into one docset and workflow.
- I created a docs‑as‑code workflow with input from my contributors in the engineering organization.
- I created Vale styles for Amplitude, and was able to scale my editing output using the linter.
- I set up and manage our CI/CD pipeline and AWS instance for the developer docs.
- I had no resources for this project, so I learned enough AWS, CSS, and JavaScript to implement the solution we have in place.
Publicly available portfolio pieces
- Example documentation – Domain Proxy: I rewrote this from legacy documentation.
- Example documentation – Dynamic Configuration: I wrote this using pieces of documentation that existed scattered across other SDKs.
- Video overview: The old Amplitude developer doc experience compared to the new one.
- Dev docs repo: The Amplitude developer docs repo. I built this.
- Example Vale rule: An example of a Vale rule I wrote to catch an issue specific to our style guide. It flags uses of the word ‘once’ when they're not followed by ‘per’.
Postman
I created a fully‑documented public Postman Collection to help increase API adoption. Our customers were pleading for more useful examples, and Postman helped us cover this gap efficiently. First, I asked our support team and solution architects for any personal Postman collections they had for Amplitude. Then I cleaned them up, organized them, documented them, and saved dozens of example requests and responses.
After the migration
After launching the developer center at the end of June 2022, I shifted my focus to improving the quality of the documentation and creating methods for identifying documentation gaps. I implemented linting for links and markdown prose, and helped implement robust user behavior tracking.
Salesforce | July 2014 - December 2021
Overview
I spent seven and a half years at Salesforce as a technical writer for Pardot (now known as Marketing Cloud Engagement), a marketing automation product. I left at the staff level, where I managed Pardot's developer and admin content. At one point, I wrote for 7 product managers, and supported 27 scrum teams.
I was promoted three times during my tenure at Salesforce.
Staff Technical Writer (August 2018 - December 2021)
When I arrived at staff level, my team finally had enough headcount that I could shift away from a reactive approach to documentation. I was able move toward creating more developer and admin enablement content. I wrote help video scripts (Salesforce has a video production team), Trailhead modules, blog posts, and a Postman collection.
As Pardot shifted to an API‑first model, I completely revamped our developer documentation. I took it from a poorly maintained afterthought to a developer focused resource. I completed my third and final doc migration for Salesforce, this time moving Pardot's legacy developer documentation from MkDocs to Salesforce's next generation developer center.
Publicly available portfolio pieces
- Meet the new Pardot developer docs – a blog post outlining the developer doc overhaul.
- Pardot API v5 Postman Collection – the collection I created.
- Develop Integrations with Pardot APIs – a Trailhead training module.
- Pardot API Quicklook – another Trailhead module.
Highlights from this role
- Created a wide range of deliverables: blog posts, developer docs, Postman collections, help topics, Trailhead content, videos, in-app help, PDF guides.
- Taught DITA skills and tools (Perforce and Oxygen) to new writers.
- Managed the developerdoc overhaul and migration to
salesforce.developer.com.
Senior Technical Writer (February 2017 – July 2018)
Pardot was acquired by Salesforce, and I was moved onto the Salesforce docs team. In this role, I was tasked with moving all of Pardot's documentation onto the Salesforce doc stack. I learned DITA and re‑authored all of Pardot's help content into the new format.
Later, I used my migration and acquisition onboarding experience to mentor and train new writers on our tools, conventions, and processes. I also ran several workshops for acquisition writers to help them manage their fears about joining the Salesforce doc team (I mostly had to talk them down from the panic of trying to learn Perforce as a writer).
Highlights from this role
- Mentored and onboarded new writers (new hires and acquisitions).
- Migrated all help content for Pardot to DITA.
- Created a variety of deliverables for new features.
- Planned and coordinated several cross‑functional initiatives to improve efficiency.
Documentation Wizard & Level 2 Documentation Wizard (July 2014 – February 2017)
I was hired as Pardot's first technical writer. They hired me to fix their documentation mess — they had hundreds of pieces of content with no ownership and sloppy tooling. They were using a WordPress blog to deliver help content, had no way to track documentation gaps or get customer feedback. I was so enthusiastic about the role that Salesforce hired me six months before I graduated from college.
My primary focus was finding and migrating to a suitable platform for our 600 help articles. I built a new theme for a knowledge‑base CMS embedded in our support‑desk software, then managed a migration from WordPress to the new platform. In 2015, I convinced an engineer to spend her Hackathon helping me write an integration that allowed me to use GitHub as a documentation repo and ship to the site from the command line which significantly improved our efficiency (and gave us revision history!).
Highlights from this role
- Created style standards for Pardot's public‑facing knowledge base.
- Edited help articles for consistency, clarity, and accuracy.
- Researched and wrote documentation for new features.
- Managed docs translation program (Japanese only).
- Managed documentation publishing tools and processes.
- Managed CMS setup and content migration.
- Maintained 600+ help articles.
- Helped craft and update UI text.
- Assisted with API documentation.
- Collected actionable customer feedback and analytics and used it to improve content.