I can’t believe that I’ve just completed the longest stint that I’ve ever had at a company - and I’m still going!
After being the victim of multiple layoffs, it’s refreshing to be able to stay and grow in a single place for so long. And I’m not kidding when I say that I’m growing.
Couchbase has marked a significant shift in my career, as I’ve started the transition from Senior Technical Writer into Content Design Lead, shifting from a focus on just writing about how a product works into actually writing in the product.
It’s nothing new, writing UI copy - I’ve done it at every single position I’ve held before now. This is just the first time that it’s been formally considered as part of my job description, and has afforded me new training opportunities and so much learning and growth.
It started with the UX Writing Fundamentals course by UX Content Collective. My manager signed up multiple people on the team, including myself, after my unofficial promotion to Content Design Lead. I was eager to learn and had so much fun working on the final project, which you can view under my portfolio.
Really, it felt like a guaranteed way to formalize the work I’d been doing at every position up until now.
Then, just this past week, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the 2023 Button Conference. I felt so inspired and instantly felt less alone in the space of content design, after having the chance to connect with so many other professionals facing the same struggles and triumphs. I’m looking forward to taking the learning back and sharing it with the rest of my team: there’s so much we can do to foster a positive culture around feedback, hitting the point of “good enough” with our content, and expanding the content design practice at Couchbase.
At the same time, I’ve been fortunate to still have some interaction with technical writing. It’s actually been a fun experience to be able to write the UI copy and the documentation for a single feature, watching and participating in the end-to-end process and being so tightly integrated into a feature.
Is the process perfect yet? Absolutely not, but I’m sure that will come with time.
I’m looking forward to continuing to expand my UX skills, maturing the processes at Couchbase, mentoring others in content design, building a positive feedback culture, and exploring where else my career might take me during my time here.
Couchbase: let’s go!