As the lone technical writer at your company, first determine the docs that you are tasked with writing. Sometimes, the job specification and description duties do not align with what you are tasked to write at your company. Early on, be sure to obtain (more than likely create) a list of all documentation that you are creating/reviewing/publishing.
- Identify documentation:
- By audience (external vs internal)
- By department (Support, Implementations, Marketing, Developers, etc)
- Documentation Examples:
- Release notes
- Changelogs
- Product Documentation
- User Manuals
- How-tos
- Quick-start Guides
- White papers
- Slide decks
- Determine who your SMEs and stakeholders are for your docs.
- Deadlines and timelines
Work backwards from due dates. Most external documentation deadlines are tied to customer/client contracts (service-level agreements). For example, release notes are contractually required to be sent to clients one week before a release.
Set deadlines for documentation draft material from SMEs, review sessions, and final reviews. Effective collaboration and communication, especially when SMEs are in different offices or remote, is essential for meeting deadlines.
- Avoiding burnout and suckerville
- Learn to say NO! (with tact, of course). Set realistic expectations for a lone writer workload.