My Portfolio / Documentation / CSIA
Creating informational content for a new product
Aim: Create an introductory overview article for a new Citrix offering (2021): Citrix Secure Internet Access (CSIA).
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Problem
At the time I joined the company, Citrix Secure Internet Access (CSIA) was a new component of Citrix's networking and security solutions. It belonged to a larger, urgent project for delivering secure access service edge (SASE) technology and involved rebranding another product. As a new Senior Information Developer (herein, technical writer) I was tasked with finding and writing introductory information to support the primary technical writer (Manager, Information Experience) for this product area.​
Process
1. Information gathering
To inform content for the article, I spoke to Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and read up on key concepts to understand the product, including how it worked and benefits for the target audience.
First, I documented the following information to orient myself and identify next steps:
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Project summary, rationale, and goals.
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Key team members and their roles, including Product Managers and Information Developers.
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My role, which was to write a new article consisting of introductory information to be made publicly available at docs.citrix.com.
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Background and scope for the article. My aim was to create high-level guidance for initial questions, including what CSIA is, why you would use it, how it works, and next steps.
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Existing resources and materials, including internal Confluence pages such as development and rollout plans, blogs, marketing materials, product pages, customer presentations, and design files.
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I then set out to read up on basic supporting concepts, clarifying the specific terminology we should be using, and talking to SMEs about predicted challenges and content gaps.
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2. Writing and iterating
I shared an initial outline with the primary technical writer for this product through Google Docs. Following feedback, I created a draft that was ready for review that same week, and implemented additional changes following further feedback the proceeding week.
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After writing the initial content, I spoke to SMEs to gather feedback and seek clarification on:
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Mismatches between the UI and documentation.
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Unsupported features and pages.
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Given the rebranding, where we should point users to for support.
As part of the company's docs-as-code process, the article was written in Markdown files using VSCode and pushed to a staging branch in BitBucket. Final reviews were conducted as part of the Pull Request process in BitBucket.
Outcomes
At the point of general availability for CSIA, I published a new informational article summarising the what, why, and how for the product. Because I was familiar with the product following this introduction, I was able to take the documentation over when the primary technical writer for CSIA got COVID.
The article is now listed under a new URL, but the initial content is shown in the following screenshots.
Challenges and learnings
I thrive when it comes to pulling information together into a cohesive whole. I got to do this whilst learning about best practices and processes for technical writing as a new Senior Information Developer at the company. This was a great way to introduce me to my colleagues, the company's processes and tools, and the docs-as-code framework.