Manny Silva: Docs as Tests for Resilient Technical Documentation
Release Date: 06/09/2025
Manny Silva: Docs as Tests for Resilient Technical Documentation
Content Strategy Insights
Technical documentation of software products is critical work that needs to accurately inform end users, regardless of how quickly and substantially the software might be changing. Manny Silva has created Docs as Tests, a system that integrates a set of well-developed practices and a collection of engineering tooling, to help technical communicators streamline and constantly improve their software documentation work. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/manny-silva/
info_outline
Jeff Eaton: Content Observability in Complex Systems
Content Strategy Insights
Modern content systems are complex and abstract, presenting problems for managers who want to understand how their content is performing. At Autogram, Jeff Eaton and Karen McGrane have developed a content observability framework to address this complexity. Their framework evaluates the composition, quality, health, and effectiveness of content programs to help enterprises measure the return on their content investment. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/jeff-eaton-2/
info_outline
Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire: The Value Map Content Framework
Content Strategy Insights
Aligning and orchestrating product content for complex business use cases is much easier when you have a framework to structure and guide your efforts. Jeffrey A. "jam" McGuire and his business partner developed the "value map" framework to structure and organize product marketing information. This helps them to align internal stakeholders on strategy and messaging and to efficiently deliver the right content to both business and technical users of the product. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/jam/
info_outline
Greg Dunlap: Designing Content Authoring Experiences
Content Strategy Insights
Experience design for readers of online content gets a lot of attention. The authors who create the content and get it ready for publication aren't as well served. In his new book, Designing Content Authoring Experiences, Greg Dunlap addresses this situation, showing content-system creators how to design better interfaces, streamline workflows, and otherwise improve the lives of content authors and managers. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/greg-dunlap-2/
info_outline
Sarah Johnson: Moving Content Forward with Content-first Design
Content Strategy Insights
Sarah Johnson asks, "If a digital experience is a conversation with a user, how can you have that conversation if you don't know what the words are?" Sarah addresses the crucial role of content in her new book, "Content-first Design," tackling both the pragmatic aspects of a content-first approach to design as well as how to advocate for content practice. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/sarah-johnson/
info_outline
Leah Buley and Joe Natoli: The UX Team of One
Content Strategy Insights
Both UX and content professionals routinely find themselves on teams where they are the sole practitioner of their craft. Leah Buley and Joe Natoli recently revised "The UX Team of One" to share their pragmatic take on solo UX practice, deftly balancing the application of human-centered research insights with the need to show the business value of UX work. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/ux-team-of-one/
info_outline
Rob Punselie: Content Jobs to Be Done
Content Strategy Insights
A truly customer-focused content strategy is the cornerstone of good customer experiences. Over the past 25 years, Rob Punselie has developed and honed content discovery research methods based on time-tested usability knowledge and the Jobs to Be Done product-development framework. This approach has helped him consistently deliver to his clients effective and durable content and customer experience strategies. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/rob-punselie/
info_outline
Alan J. Porter: Storytelling for Enterprise Content Strategy
Content Strategy Insights
Storytelling is the oldest content practice. Alan Porter helps enterprises and content practitioners improve their story craft. Alan shows how better stories both convey the unique benefits of a business to their customers and improve cross-functional communication within organizations. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/alan-porter/
info_outline
Joe Gollner: A Multi-layered Definition of "Content"
Content Strategy Insights
As recently as 40 years ago, we didn't have much need for the word "content." But as soon as we started delivering the same information via multiple channels, we needed a way to identify the essential elements of content assemblies and to work with them independent of their various manifestations in information products. So the concept of "content" was born. Joe Gollner has worked with content from its earliest days and has crafted a multi-layered definition to account for its many aspects. https://ellessmedia.com/csi/joe-gollner/
info_outline
Stephanie Pereira: Designing Hyper-localized Content
Content Strategy Insights
Localizing digital product content is challenging on its own. When you add the need to communicate about sensitive financial topics to very specific audiences, the complexity of the work quickly grows. Stephanie Pereira is a content design manager working on the Google Payments product. She deftly balances a range of internal compliance and design concerns with the very specific hyper-localization needs of her audience. (We had an internet connection issue around 28:00 - apologies for the break in continuity.) https://ellessmedia.com/csi/stephanie-pereira/
info_outlineTechnical documentation of software products is critical work that needs to accurately inform end users, regardless of how quickly and substantially the software might be changing.
Manny Silva has created Docs as Tests, a system that integrates a set of well-developed practices and a collection of engineering tooling, to help technical communicators streamline and constantly improve their software documentation work.
https://ellessmedia.com/csi/manny-silva/