Field Notes (Posts about communication)

Dan Slimmon: An Incident Command Training Handbook

Janet Riley — Thu, 26 May 2022 18:30:55 GMT

Dan Slimmon: An Incident Command Training Handbook

Summary

How to structure and lead an incident response. The five questions of a status update. How to manage information flow effectively.

Slimmon's writing style is direct and simple. It's a mid-length article with some detail, but you could follow it in a high-stress situation (like mid-incident) and benefit immediately.

Best case scenario is to have the whole team read it ahead of time to understand the structure. When it's showtime everyone can slide into their roles and know their responsibilities.

Excerpts

An Incident Commander’s job is to keep the incident moving toward resolution. 
But an Incident Commander’s job is not to fix the problem.

As Incident Commander, you shouldn’t touch a terminal or search for a graph 
or kick off a deploy unless you’re absolutely the only person available to do it. 
This may feel uncomfortable, especially if your background is in engineering. 
It will probably feel like you’re not doing enough to help. 
What you need to remember is this: whatever your usual job, when you’re the Incident Commander, your job is to be the Incident Commander.

Managing information flow is the single most important responsibility of the Incident Commander.

Takeaways

Sometimes the most effective thing you can do is coordinate the experts.

Docs for Developers: An Engineers Field Guide to Technical Writing

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Docs for Developers: An Engineer's Field Guide to Technical Writing

Publisher's Page

Author: Jared Bhatti, David Nunez, Jen Lambourne, Zachary Sarah Corleissen, Heidi Waterhouse

Summary

How to write maintainable docs that help your customers use your software.

Excerpt

"Docs for Developers demystifies the process of creating great developer documentation, following a team of software developers as they work to launch a new product. At each step along the way, you learn through examples, templates, and principles how to create, measure, and maintain documentation, which you can adapt to the needs of your own organization."

Takeaways

This struck me as the devops of documentation - turn these high level ideas into something we can live in. On my To Read pile.

Gitlab: Technical Writing Fundamentals

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

GitLab's Technical Writing Fundamentals course

Summary

Written to help contributors write and edit GitLab documentation. The first three parts are grammar and style guidance. Session 4 covers how to approach four topic types: concepts, tasks, references, and troubleshooting.

The page links to the recorded versions on YouTube.

Google: Tech Writing Resources for Developers

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Google's Tech Writing Resources for Developers

Summary

Google's Technical writing courses and resources for engineers and engineer-adjacent folks.

Excerpt

"This collection of courses and learning resources aims to improve your technical documentation. Learn how to plan and author technical documents."

Josh Branchaud: 6 Tips for Better Communication with a Client

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

6 Tips for Better Communication with a Client

Author: Josh Branchaud

Summary

Notes from a consulting company on more effective communication with clients.

Takeaways

Screenshots and moving gifs are great tools for asynchronous communication.

Matthew Bischoff: Stacking the Deck

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Stacking the Deck

Author: Matthew Bischoff

Summary

Design and present a slide deck to get your ideas adopted.

Michael Lopp: Out Loud

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Out Loud

Author: Michael Lopp

Summary

Tips on delivering a compelling presentation from Rands in Repose. Editorial choices, practicing out loud, consolidation, and timing.

Pixar in a Box

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Pixar in a Box: the art of storytelling

Author: Pixar

Summary: A Khan Academy course. Pixar walks us through building stories, with an emphasis on movies. Character development, plot, reinforcing the story with visual choices, pacing, and making a pitch.

This recommendation was in an article on more compelling technical presentations. Not really a fit for the format and time limits of a tech talk, but still interesting.

Series: Making Complex Topics Stick

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Author: Gregor Hohpe

Summary: A six part series on communicating technical ideas in an accessible way. By Gregor Hohpe, author of "The Architect Elevator"

Part 6: The Second Curse of Speaking

Tanya Snook: Storytelling

Janet Riley — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:00:00 GMT

Storytelling: Building Compelling Stories for Any Audience and presentation notes

Author: Tanya Snook

Excerpt: "This presentation explores storytelling at work. Not milk-and-cookies-time-around-the-campfire storytelling, but using storytelling methods to build and deliver messages in a compelling way. Using empathy to draw your audience in and help them to hear your message, and hopefully create a memorable experience in the process."