API The Docs Podcast

"You can always tell when it's a novice writer or a writer and an artist who are in bad relation because there will be blocks of text everywhere explaining how the character is feeling […] There's a delicate balance to be struck and it's the same with code.” Welcome Rachel Lee Nabors, one of the creators behind the grand award-winning react.dev portal where all 600+ code examples are manipulable, and in each section’s "code challenges," learners are encouraged to fix broken examples by following clues left by the core team.

Drawing from her role as a wayfinder, Claire Waters (Senior Manager – Product Content Experience, Cloudflare) shares her team’s using the COIN methodology for embracing AI tools as a team, and how they engage in low-stakes AI challenges to foster familiarity and comfort with AI technologies.

You need docs and headspace when a well-oiled system inevitably throws a flat tire. With Dan Grabski we talked from car racing through tech execs mediating at Burning Man, forest fire incident management systems and early expectations setting all the way to API docs and back again.

Technical writers walk a tricky tightrope between delivering accurate technical information and making it comprehensible for a wide range of users with varying levels of technical experience. In this episode, Ryan Young (Technical writer at Stripe) shares his thoughts on bridging the gap between different content layers and writing for humans in a digital world.

How can one make their devportal accessible and useful at the same time? What can devportal owners do to support inclusive design? We were honored to ask Susanna Laurin (Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies, G3ict and IAAP Representative to the EU) about these questions in 2023’s DevPortal Awards framework. As she highlighted, developer portals were a new field for her, and she saw many angles to approach accessibility. We are happy to share Susanna’s remarks and suggestions with you.Further resources:

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: 

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: 

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: 

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.