Webinar on The art of Feedback: Technical writing edition - May 21, 2024 | 02:30PM UTC - Register Now!
Podcast

Technical Writing Strategies with Jack Molisani of ProSpring Technical Staffing

Updated on Dec 11, 2024

3 Mins Read
Try Document360
View all

Jack Molisani Executive Director at ProSpring Technical Staffing joins us in this episode of Knowledgebase Ninjas to discuss his technical/content writing strategies.

Connect with Jack Molisani  and view ProSpring Technical Staffing’s Knowledgebase here:

Key Takeaways:

How did Jack get into documentation?

Jack started working as a Project Officer for the US Air Force Space division after graduating in computer engineering. When he left the Air Force, he got a job as a sales engineer until the recession during the mid 90’s hit and he, and many others were laid off. 

With no work as an engineer, Jack turned to technical writing because he was good at it. He wrote about APIs, the functions of the applications and operating systems. He held down a job as a technical writer until he decided to make his own technical writing company by the name of ProSpring Technical Staffing. Where he continues to work today as the Content Strategy President.

Jack’s documentation process

Jack owns two companies: ProSpring Technical and LavaCon, Jack says he deals with the knowledge management front as well as the data creation. He mentioned that at LavaCon, many of their initial conferences were free for public use. 

“A cobbler’s son has no shoes”, Jack says before explaining that they held content strategy conferences, but didn’t document any of their own strategies. Now, Jack is focused on going through their inventory to documenting it all.

Syncing: How a combination of documentation and marketing works? 

Jack agrees that marketing and documentation compliment each other and further gives two points. 

  • Before the evolution of marketing, many components of the company, including technical support and training used to live in their own silos, and generated their own content. Jack adds, however, that over the past 18 months there has been a shift in consumer behaviour, where they are more inclined to check the documentation to verify ease of use, quality, and other factors before purchasing
  • Documentation has migrated under the control of marketing. Jack cites an example of tech and marketing becoming more interlinked when a customer goes on a website for their needs and is met with coupons for a product. This integration is becoming more commonplace and the combination more prominent.

Who has inspired Jack in the world of documentation?

Alongside all the speakers of his technical conference, three people happen to top Jack’s inspiration list. 

Jack’s top documentation related resources

One piece of advice Jack would give his younger self about documentation

The advice Jack would give to his younger self would be to “summarise”. “You are writing for a short-attention span theatre,” he emphasises, on the word “short”. Jack continues by saying that microcontent is becoming more common now – what used to be said in a whole paragraph is being said in a few words or bullets. People just don’t have the time to go through all the information.

Subscribe To Knowledgebase Ninjas:

Quote:

Centralize all your documentation and make it easily searchable for everyone.

cta

Gowri Ramkumar

Meet Gowri Ramkumar, our Vice President of Sales at Document360.With a background in product testing, her innate curiosity about the business side of things fueled a remarkable transition into Sales at Document360. Beyond the boardroom, Gowri is a captivating storyteller with a penchant for the written word. Her writing prowess shines in precisely crafted pieces on Knowledge Base, customer onboarding, customer success, and user documentation. Adding another dimension to her career, she is the voice behind the popular podcast, "Knowledge Base Ninjas." Here, she immerses herself in the world of technical writing and fostering a vibrant community around the art of knowledge creation.

Read more

Original published on:

The art of Feedback: Technical writing edition

Related Articles