Introduction

About Me

About me

As a successful Strategic Content Leader and Documentation Manager, I rely on my strong technical writing and knowledge management skills as well as my zest for motivating and guiding teams to success.
My exceptional 18 year track record of delivering quality documentation projects includes help articles, online help, user manuals, developer documentation, API documentation, UX copy, DITA XML content, DAP content, patents, RFPs (RFX), e-learning, and training material. As a servant-leader, remarkable things happen when teams feel trusted, empowered, and engaged.

View my LinkedIn Profile

Career History

October 2022 — Current

Checkout.com

Senior Manager, Technical & UX Writing — Documentation is a critical part of the success of Checkout.com and I am honored to be part of this journey. Co-ordinating across Product, Commercial, Customer Success, Design and Engineering, the focus is on building the gold standard of technical documentation. We want to build documentation that delights, engages and empowers businesses to change the world.

June 2021 — September 2022

Hootsuite

Senior Manager, User Education — My role is a simple one, empower the Hootsuite User Education team to maximize our customers' social maturity and effectiveness. We aim to make each user the hero of their journey by ensuring customers have the knowledge required to successfully adopt and leverage our technologies.

April 2020 — June 2021

Avalara

User Experience (UX) Manager — The primary objective of my role was to represent the customer, constantly advocating for easier experiences and customer-centric features and functionality as we forged the user experience of Avalara’s VAT compliance products.

March 2020 — April 2020

Avalara

User Experience (UX) Writer — My initial objective was to survey the current documentation landscape, establish the regional writing standards and guidelines, define the strategy and procedures, then rapidly start repurposing existing content while also generating new help content.

December 2018 — February 2020

Visa Inc.

Programme Manager - Temporary Assignment: Focused on driving a modernisation programme to replace the entire publishing technology stack with a full DITA XML publishing environment. Led 13 diverse workstreams within the programme, including the deployment of vendor products such as SDL Tridion Docs, Antidot Fluid Topics, Acrolinx, NGINX, and OxygenXML.

October 2015 — February 2020

Visa Inc.

Senior Technical Writer — Managed a range of technical documentation deliverables aimed at Visa Business Solutions customers, including online help, user guides, e-learning, and API reference guides. User education content was localized, WCAG compliant, and compliant with all local regulations and governance aspects. User personas included SMBs through to large government and enterprise customers.

June 2012 — September 2015

Fundamo, a Visa subsidiary

Knowledge and Learning Manager — Defined a knowledge and learning strategy used to penetrate multiple emerging banking markets.

April 2011 — May 2012

Fundamo, a Visa subsidiary

Technical Writer — Analysed current and new product offerings to ensure all functionality and business cases were adequately covered by documentation.

June 2010 — April 2011

VOSS-Solutions

Technical Writing Team Leader — Grew the technical authoring team while focusing on embedding consistent processes into the full technical writing life cycle.

April 2009 — May 2010

VOSS-Solutions

Technical Writer — As the first technical writer at the company, I had the unique opportunity to formulate the documentation strategy while consolidating a wide array of existing content of varied quality.

October 2008 — March 2009

Psitek

Technical Writer — Being the first technical writer hired at the company, I owned the design and development of technical documentation material for various hardware and software products and services.

July 2007 — September 2008

Postilion (Now ACI)

Technical Writer — One of the most important lessons I learnt in this role was the ability to disseminate extremely technical information into more accessible literature.

June 2006 — June 2007

Laragh Courseware

Instructional Writer — This highly rewarding position equipped me with a wide range of experience, primarily with the planning and development of e-learning content.

Skills and Personality

With extensive experience planning and delivering technical user education content, I have perfected the art of grouping audiences into personas and then adjusting writing styles and reading levels as appropriate. My end-goal is to not just, “check the documentation box” but to deliver world-class documentation that is relevant, value-adding, but most-importantly beneficial to end-users.

As a certified Scrum Master, I am passionate about using agile methodologies to enable the success of the team. My colleagues describe me as patient, diplomatic, loyal, and hard-working. I like to set high standards for myself in the workplace and enjoy working with others who share my passion for delivering quality content.

Skills

  • Technical Writing
  • People Leadership
  • Program Management
  • Agile
  • Knowledge Management
  • User Experience

Personality

  • 90%
    Relationship Building
  • 100%
    Loyal and Hardworking
  • 85%
    Analytical
  • 80%
    Strategic Thinking
  • 75%
    Observant
  • 70%
    Patient

My Bookshelf

My Bookshelf

"A firm favorite for those times when we need reminding to embrace the issues and discuss them in an open and honest dialogue. This book does a great job of outlining a process that leads to greater success when holding critical conversations."

"My go-to resource for insight into employee onboarding and general organizational knowledge development. When breaking down silos of Institutional knowledge, this is my sledge hammer."

"Always nervous of a title like this, what a refreshing surprise this book was. This book does a great job of marrying the feelings of customers with the practicality of delivering value. Always a great thought provoker when I need some inspiration. "

"This book formed the cornerstone of my transition from pure technical writing to a more holistic user experience management role. Insightful, inspiring, it certainly made me rethink a number of my approaches to UI and documentation design."

"This workhorse of a book lays out a great foundational plan for achieving quality technical communication deliverables."

"Great introduction to knowledge organisational creation processes and how Japanese companies have leveraged the ability to create new knowledge and used it to produce successful products and technologies."

"A great demonstration of the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will show you how to collect timely, relevant data to track progress - to measure what matters. It will help any organization or team aim high, move fast, and excel."

"Introduces the critical art of rethinking: learning to question your opinions and open other people’s minds, which can position you to achieve excellence at work and wisdom in life"

"Whether you’re leading a movement or a start-up, if you’re trying to change an organizational culture or the world, Dare to Lead will challenge everything you think you know about brave leadership and give you honest, straightforward, actionable tools for choosing courage over comfort."

"UX content strategist Torrey Podmajersky provides strategies for converting, engaging, supporting, and re-attracting users. You'll use frameworks and patterns for content, methods to measure the content's effectiveness, and processes to create the collaboration necessary for success. You'll also structure your voice throughout so that the brand is easily recognizable to its audience."

"Examines data management trends, including technological developments, regulatory requirements, and privacy concerns. Go deep into the Scaled Architecture and learn how the pieces fit together Explore data governance and data security, master data management, self-service data marketplaces, and the importance of metadata."

"This book provides essential concepts, methods, and techniques for digital design that have withstood the test of time. UX designers, product managers, developers, and anyone involved in digital design will learn how to create semantic structures that will help people engage with your message."

Crucial Conversations Patterson Et al.
Teach What You Know Steve Trautman
Start with Why Simon Sinek
Inspired Marty Cagan
Developing Quality Technical Information Gretchen Hargis Et al.
The Knowledge-Creating Company Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi
Measure What Matters John Doerr
Think Again Adam Grant
Dare to Lead Brené Brown
Strategic Writing for UX Torrey Podmajersky
Data Management at Scale Piethein Strengholt
Information Architecture Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, Jorge Arango

Contact

Contact

Address
London, United Kingdom
Phone
+44 7828 245274
Mail
contactme@garethforshaw.com
Web
www.garethforshaw.com

Send Me a Message

Please reach out to me with any questions or if you have any feedback. I look forward to hearing from you.