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AI Summary
- The Knowledgebase Ninja Podcast episode features Gowri Ramkumar and Ramesh Aiyyangar, Head of Documentation at Reltio, discussing high-quality documentation, communication in technical writing, and customer engagement.
- Ramesh has over twenty-five years in technical writing and has worked with Persistent Systems, Mercedes-Benz India, HCL Technologies, and the Institute for Technical Communicators of India. He was President of the STC India Chapter in 2013 and briefly in 2018.
- He identifies completeness, conciseness, structure, and language as fundamentals of high-quality documents, requiring thorough understanding of the target audience. Documentation is a never-ending improvement process.
- Technical communication helps assess customers’ needs and problems and supports innovative solutions. Proactive documentation and communication among product managers, engineers, and content writers help create accurate, effective documents.
- Writers should collect data; understand the product, technical requirements, audience, and content objectives. Ramesh advises being passionate and loving what you do.
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In this week’s episode of the Knowledgebase Ninja Podcast, Gowri Ramkumar is joined by Ramesh Aiyyangar, Head of Documentation at Reltio. They discuss key fundamentals of creating high-quality documents, the importance of communication in technical writing, and how customer engagement can derive the innovative solution
Key Facts
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- Ramesh’s LinkedIn
- Ramesh holds a postgraduate degree in Journalism & Communications from the University of Pune, and a Master of Business Administration – HR from BMCC, Pune
- Ramesh has been associated with the technical writing industry for over twenty-five yearsThe
- Society of Technical Communicators India chapter was formed in 1999. Ramesh was President of STC India Chapter in 2013 and briefly in 2018.
- Ramesh is a former Group Manager at HCL Technologies
- Ramesh is a former Business Head -Technical Communication for Persistent Systems
- Ramesh is a former Public relations officer for Mercedes-Benz India
Key Takeaways
- Throughout his Technical Communication journey, Ramesh has worked with numerous renowned organizations such as Persistent Systems, Mercedes-Benz India, HCL Technologies, Institute for Technical Communicators of India
- After this, Ramesh joined HCL Technologies as Group Manager and loved his experience there
- Ramesh shares that most of his technical writing expertise comes from experience, and he advises the youth of India to learn from experiences
- Ramesh believes that Technical Communication wasn’t very popular when he started working on it, but now it has become a need for every company to improve communication with its customers
- Ramesh believes that technical communication helps to assess the customers’ needs and problems, which further helps the organization work on innovative solutions
- Ramesh thinks that documentation always needs improvement. “Documentation is a never-ending improvement process, where you ought to make every second document better than the first one”
- Ramesh believes completeness, conciseness, structure, and language as the fundamentals of creating high-quality documents
- Ramesh shares that to refine key fundamentals of technical documentation, content developers need to understand targeted audiences thoroughly
- Ramesh says that several companies do not have the means to interact with customers directly. He adds that proactive documentation in the product life cycle can help companies to communicate directly with customers and understand their needs
- Ramesh believes that all the stakeholders, including product managers, engineers and content writers, should be in sync to ensure high-quality documentation. He adds that “communication amongst the teams help the content development teams to create accurate and effective documents
- Ramesh shares that technical writing is not just about listing the facts, stuffing the ideas in words and sentences; rather its about understanding A to Z customers’ requirements and creating engaging and meaningful content
- To produce high-quality documentation, writers must;
- First, collect the data
- Understand the product
- Understand the technical requirements of the document
- Understand the audience
- Understand the objectives of the content
Ramesh’s biggest influence
Ramesh shares that there is no single person, as he learns from everyone and everything. However, he shares that he has learned the most from his experiences.
Key resource
What documentation-related advice would Ramesh give to his 20-year-old self?
“Be passionate, and love what you do”.
Ramesh shares that one should be passionate. If you love what you do, you get to learn more.
