Recommendations based on TW/Product Designer interaction research
This issue describes the results of the review of the relationships between the Technical Writers and the Product Designers at GitLab, and recommendations for how to continue to improve and better describe their relationships.
Results
From a review of the workflows, the Technical Writers and the Product Designers are being encouraged to work with one another at the appropriate times. These workflows could benefit from some additional information, however, to provide more information on how they can work together more effectively in those workflows.
As for the current relationships between the Technical Writers and the Product Designers, it seems that they're generally healthy, and that conversations are happening within issues to get TW involvement with the design process. While there are different sets of frequencies for these discussions, they seem to be primarily due to how some groups have more design work than others. Also, there's no centralized expectation or process about how often the TWs and Designers should meet, and there's no expectations on what conversations should include, which means it's difficult to ensure we're consistently having discussions that provide the best outcomes.
Recommendations
- Have the Technical Writers set up a weekly or every-other-week check-in with their assigned groups’ Product Designers (frequency based on general volume of regular interactions).
- Conversations can include sync discussions of work, along with clarifying process methods to better coordinate work with the Designers based on their processes and preferences.
- Designers can provide updates regarding upcoming design work, and projected forecasting for when it’ll reach the PMs/developers.
- Many Designers already have regular sync discussions set up with group PMs/EMs; Technical Writers could also participate in those meetings to reduce the number of scheduled meetings.
- Better define and document the literal items Technical Writers can provide assistance to the Product Designers about (this can be included in the Partnering with Technical Writers section of the Product Designer Workflow), both for creation and review:
- UI text
- Messages (errors/warnings/status, in the application and in logging)
- Notification emails
- Work with Farnoosh to update the Product Development Flow with additional information about how the Technical Writer is involved with the Product Designer during their common steps.
-
Validation phase 3: Design
- In the Proposed solution(s) identified and documented outcome, for the Converge activity, an additional item could be to “- Coordinate with Technical Writer for UX wording suggestions.”
- Validation phase 4: Solution Validation
- No updates required.
-
Build phase 1: Plan
- In the Prioritized Milestone outcome, an additional item for that step could be to “- Identify if the item requires documentation, and if so, add the documentation label and inform the appropriate Technical Writer about the issue.”
- Build phase 2: Develop & Test
- No updates required.
- Build phase 4: Improve
- No updates required.
-
Validation phase 3: Design
Related to https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/technical-writing/-/issues/544