Work
Below is a sample of my published work spanning technical writing, information architecture and knowledge management, and AI and content engineering. In some cases the original venue is paywalled, and I've linked to an archived copy on my blog instead. My AI knowledge architecture and content engineering work is mostly proprietary, so that section points to my own writing about the practice, as well as this site as a working example (and to my resume for project specifics).
Technical Writing & Documentation
Published artifacts for SaaS and enterprise software, and various other technical use cases.
Opower Digital Self-Service - Energy Management
The complete guide to the Digital Self Service - Energy Management product experience, from bill comparisons to data trends to solar power usage.
Read the documentation
Opower Analytics Visualization
How subject areas, measures, and attributes come together to build visualizations and inform business decisions.
Read the documentation
Embeddable Widgets Integration
A developer guide to embedding energy management widgets in single-page and multi-utility portals.
Read the documentation
Oracle Utilities Data Intelligence
The full administration guide for a suite of analytics applications, covering setup, data connectors, and the procedures that keep the data current.
Read the documentation
Data Transfer Specifications
Documentation on transferring energy use data securely from utilities to Oracle in the right structure and format.
Read the documentation
Opower Business Customer Engagement Digital Self-Service
Documentation about an energy management software-as-a-service product for business owners who want to save energy.
Read the documentation
Evaluation of Software Tools for Interactive Storytelling
A comparative evaluation of authoring tools for branching, interactive video game writing.
View PDF
How to Generate Great-Looking Output Using Adobe RoboHelp
A recorded tutorial on how to format production-quality output from a RoboHelp project.
Watch the video
Best Practices for Writing Procedures
A genericized internal training deck on procedure-writing standards and structure.
View deck
High-Level Game Design Document
A design spec for an original game concept, redacted for public sharing.
View PDFInformation Architecture & Knowledge Management
Published thinking on organizing, scaling, and governing documentation systems.
Best Practices for Content Reuse
Guidelines for reusing content safely across a documentation set without losing context.
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Content Strategy in Action: Enabling Sales with Product Documentation
How documentation structure became a sales enablement asset.
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Order Out of Chaos: Patterns of Organization for Writing on the Job
Reusable organizational patterns for technical writing under real deadline pressure.
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Designing Wiki Templates for Today's Web
Practical guidance for designing wiki page templates that hold up as content scales.
Read the piece
Getting Organized: Practical Guidelines for Documentation Scalability
An InfoDevDC meetup presentation on organizing documentation to scale with a growing team.
View slidesAI & Content Engineering
Most of the AI knowledge architecture and content engineering work I do professionally is proprietary and can't be shared directly. What I can point to: this site itself—a docs-as-code pipeline that lints prose, checks links, and so on—documented in more detail in How I Built This; my writing on the practice, below; and specific project examples in my resume.
On Delegating Tech Writing to AI: What We Gain and What We Lose
What actually transfers well to AI-delegated technical writing, and where there are risks to address.
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Technical Writing Is Dead. Long Live Technical Writing!
Why the role is changing rather than disappearing as AI reshapes documentation work.
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Experiments with Generative AI: Simple Use Cases for Technical Writing
Early hands-on experiments applying generative AI to real technical writing tasks.
Read the pieceCareer & Craft Perspectives
Additional writing on hiring, evaluating writers, and the craft itself.
Why Aesthetics Matter in Technical Docs, with Richard Rabil (Oracle)
A conversation on how visual design and usability shape whether documentation actually gets read.
Listen to the episode
The Best Books on Technical Writing: An In-Depth Analysis
A survey and analysis of the field’s most useful books on the craft of technical writing.
Read the piece
There's No Such Thing as an Optimal Technical Writer to Developer Ratio
Why staffing ratios are a poor proxy for whether a documentation team is actually working.
Read the piece
On Aesthetics, Usability, and Technical Writing
Further research into how aesthetics and usability intersect with technical writing.
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Do Technical Writers Dream of Arbortext Editor?
A detailed analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of one of the most widely-used DITA XML authoring tools in the industry.
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How to Be an Amazing Tech Comm Job Applicant: Tips from a Tech Comm Hiring Manager
Hiring-manager advice for standing out as a technical writing job applicant.
Read the piece
Evaluating Writing Samples: Strategies for TechComm Hiring Managers
Practical strategies for evaluating writing samples when hiring technical writers.
Read the pieceAgents and Skills
See the content-engineering side of this work under How I Built This: the content pipeline, Doc Detective checks, skills, and AGENTS.md.