The Tech Content Creator Series is a monthly interview series where I chat with industry leaders in various technical content creation roles (technical writers, documentation engineers, developer advocates, and what have you) about their careers. It's like chatting over a cup of coffee with a mentor. “…When I started in technical writing, I strictly followed best practices and prescriptive grammar rules because everyone else did. However, gaining experience in user experience design taught me the reasons behind these practices and their benefits to users. This not only deepened my understandi ..read more

Over the course of my career as a software engineer, technical writer, and now developer advocate, I’ve probably given over 30 talks (both online and in person). As a result, I know a thing or two about writing abstracts and have gained insights into what it takes to write abstracts with a higher chance of being accepted. In this article, I will address the top three questions I frequently receive about submitting talk abstracts to conferences: What topics should my talk abstract cover? What should be included in the abstract, and how should I structure it? How long should my talk abstract b ..read more

Right now, my 3-year goal is to go from being a Developer Advocate Individual Contributor (IC) to head or director of developer advocacy/relations/marketing/education. For context, I transitioned from technical writing to developer advocacy roughly a year and 4 months ago. Adhering to the wisdom of the proverb "make hay while the sun shines,” I decided that it was wise to start now to gather insights on what was required of me to achieve such a feat. What better way to gain this insight than by seeking advice from individuals already holding such positions? I reached out to I reached out to H ..read more

If you’ve been hearing about Hacktoberfest and would like to participate but do not know how to go about it, I got you. Hacktoberfest is an annual event that encourages open-source enthusiasts worldwide to come together to contribute, collaborate, and learn. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Hacktoberfest initiative. It’s a global initiative supported by companies like GitHub and DigitalOcean, and participants are rewarded with swag (e.g., T-shirts and stickers) for making a certain number of pull requests to open-source projects. Aside from the swags, the first 50,000 participants ..read more

Are you struggling to figure out what to write about? Don't worry, you're not alone. For most people who want to get serious with technical writing, figuring out what to write about is their biggest challenge. Whether you're writing to impress future employers, give back to the community, build a technical writing portfolio, or establish yourself as a thought leader or expert in your field, coming up with ideas can be a daunting task. In this article, I’ll present you with some questions you should ponder on, to help you generate a constant flow of article ideas. So, let's get started! Questio ..read more

Sustain Africa Summit is a one-day discourse usually staged as a precursor to the heavily renowned yearly Open Source Africa Festival (OSCAFEST), which has been hosted in Lagos since 2021. A group of open-source users, contributors, maintainers, and enthusiasts gather to discuss strategies to further the sustainability of open-source related resources and people. This year, I was invited to anchor and facilitate a conversation on the sustainability of open-source documentation. I guided participants to dialogue, learn, and share with one another about strategies that could be adopted to make ..read more

This article is a brushed-up transcript of a talk I gave on February 21, 2023, at PyCon Namibia. I decided to convert it into a blog post because I am a generous queen and so more people can benefit from it. You know who I'm jealous of? It's those who grew up knowing exactly what they wanted to be. You know, the ones who would confidently declare, "I'm going to be a doctor, a musician, a dancer, or a fashion designer, etc!", and then actually went on to do just that. Meanwhile, the rest of us just go with the flow, until we stumble upon something that clicks. If you’re like the rest of us and ..read more

Welcome to 2023! This is the first Technical Content Creation Series Episode of the year. The Tech Content Creator Series is a monthly interview series where I chat with folks in various technical content creation roles (technical writers, documentation engineers, developer advocates, and what have you) about their careers. My hope is for their stories will impact, inspire, and motivate you. This month, my guest was Damilola Oladele. As of the time of this interview, Damilola is currently an Outreachy intern at Wagtail where he functions in the capacity of a technical writer intern. In this e ..read more

Wow. DJ play me, "looks like we made it. Look how far we've come …" As I pen this down, I'm so emotional. I started this blog out of frustration (I'll explain soon) and a desire to help, but it's morphed into so much more. And, I couldn't be more grateful. Let me explain. It all started with a tweet. I posted this tweet about how I was writing for some popular tech publications and making some good side income. I like to be transparent and vocal about what brings me success so others can replicate it and find their own success. Little did I know that I was shooting myself in the leg. A few da ..read more

The Tech Content Creator Series is a monthly interview series where I chat with folks in various technical content creation roles (technical writers, documentation engineers, developer advocates, and what have you) about their careers. I hope their stories will impact, inspire, and motivate you. For this episode, My guest was Fortune Ikechi, a Developer Relations Engineer with Storyblok. At Storyblok, one of his primary responsibilities is to document APIs and ensure developers have all the information they need to effectively use Storyblok's API. This is why I reached out to him to chat abou ..read more