Our first guest for Season 2 is Melbourne-based UX writer Patrick Stafford. Patrick is an ex-journalist-turned-UX writer, content strategist and podcaster. With almost a decade of experience with online news outlets like Smart Company, Rolling Stone and Vice, he’s been a UX writer for MYOB for over 4 years and has a freelance writing business called Stafford Content.
He also runs UX Writers Collective, which is a UX and CX writing course and produces/hosts the podcast Writers of Silicon Valley.
Here's what we covered in this episode:
- How Patrick broke into UX writing via journalism (and the many different backgrounds of UX writers!)
- What it takes to become a GREAT UX writer
- How to impress UX hiring managers
- An indication of UX writer salaries (based on a recent survey the UX Writers' Collective ran)
- The differences between UX writing in-house vs freelance
- What it's like interviewing some of the biggest UX writers in the world in Patrick's podcast: Writers of Silicon Valley
Our recommendations:
- Endorsal: https://endorsal.io/ (really great and easy way to collect testimonials and embed them in a cool/interesting way on your site with no IT help)
- UX writer jobs newsletter by Gordon Macrae: http://www.uxwriterjobs.com/
- Radical Candor by Kim Scott: https://www.amazon.com.au/RADICAL-CANDOR-KIM-SCOTT/dp/1250103509/ref=asc_df_1250103509/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=341744909748&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3762038390647270709&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9072357&hvtargid=pla-432939647199&psc=1
Aaaaand here's where you can find Patrick and his projects:
- UX writers collective: https://uxwriterscollective.com/
- Patrick’s website/s: http://www.staffordcontent.com/
http://pdstafford.com/
- Writers of Silicon Valley podcast: https://www.writersofsiliconvalley.com/
- Twitter: @pdstafford