Australia

Technical writing

Content Design

Postgraduate Diploma

Master's Degree

Bachelor's Degree

Swapnil Ogale

Technical Writer

Public Speaking

Communication

Problem-solving

Community management

Content strategy

Information architecture

Canva

GitHub

Confluence

a. Collaborate with, and support the AWS APJ (Asia Pacific & Japan) Solutions Engineering team, for creating and maintaining customer-facing technical documentation for customisable solutions. 
b. Review and write implementation guides, solution artifacts, and code documentation.
c. Review and update context sensitive help, UI strings, and README using the solution's open-source repositories.
d. Work with internal code management systems and build tools for publishing HTML documentation.
e. Work with the global tech writing team on maintaining documentation standards across AWS solutions.
f. Collaborate with global customer service and developer teams with reviewing and editing customer-facing blogs and prescriptive guidance content.
g. Build customer workshop lab material for published solutions.

Mentoring technical writers, content designers and everyone interested in documentation! Also, learning how to be a better mentor along the way.

Redocly is a leader in enterprise API reference and documentation portals. 

In this first of its kind hybrid role, I worked with the community of technical writers advocating for a docs-like-code approach and offering them the skills and know-how to make it happen, along with documenting our products.

a. Planned and created technical documentation across Redocly API products.
b. Collaborated with a remote team of developers, testers and technical writers for product & content development.
c. Built the content strategy and information architecture for Redocly documentation.
d. Researched community opportunities for promoting and supporting Redocly products.
e. Wrote community blog posts for the marketing website.

Tools: GitHub, Redocly (openapi-cli, Reference docs, Developer Portal), SnagIt, Markdown, Powershell, Google Docs, Atom Editor, VSCode

Administrator/Mentor - Google Season of Docs 2021
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a. Worked as a communication liaison between Google and Redocly on all matters related to Season of Docs 2021 program.
b.  Worked with technical writers and the open source community around promotion, setting expectations and deliverables for the program.
c. Mentored technical writers working on Redocly open-source projects.

Public speaking
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Sept 2021:  apidays LIVE! Australia
The secret sauce behind successful APIs
Video: https://youtu.be/m6eOIXhQp0k

June 2021:  tcworld/Evolution of TC2021
Documenting API developer portals

Apr 2021:  Write the Docs Portland
Putting the "tech" in technical writer
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ7DkPOw3Cc

As part of the AEMO Portals project impacting internal and external users, I:

a. Worked with business stakeholders to advocate for, and conceptualise online documentation across multiple user-facing energy and data portals.
b. Led documentation efforts on moving from PDFs to HTML based online documentation.
c. Planned, designed and created online documentation for AEMO internal and external portals across gas and electricity market applications.
d. Worked closely with developers, UX, product owner, and change managers as part of an Agile team to accurately describe Portal functionality, support Portal help development, and to provide feedback on product usability.

Project deliverables: Context-sensitive online help, API guides

Tools: Madcap Flare, SnagIT, MS Teams, GitLab, MS Office, Confluence, Sitecore CMS, GitHub

This contract was unfortunately terminated early due to the impact of Covid-19 on the market. 

In the 3 months that I worked with Seek, I:
a. Revised and created technical documentation to collaborate with and support SEEK Partners on how to interact with SEEK’s external API. 
b. Initiated the Developer Portal site content overhaul, including:   
•  Refresh of site taxonomy & content.
•  An overview of the SEEK products & services available for consumption via an API integration.
•  Documentation of the on-boarding experience for Partners and Hirers.
•  Technical implementation documentation.

Tools: Atom, GitHub, Trello, Postman, Miro, Office 365, Markdown, SnagIT, Slack, GraphQL

Worked on 2 Australia-wide distributed energy initiatives documenting technical specifications, API design, user guides, and reference documentation.

Distributed Energy Resources Register https://www.aemo.com.au/energy-systems/electricity/der-register

Virtual Power Plants: https://www.aemo.com.au/initiatives/major-programs/nem-distributed-energy-resources-der-program/pilots-and-trials/virtual-power-plant-vpp-demonstrations

Over the last 18 months, I worked on: 
a. Planning, designing and writing project and product documentation for gas and electricity market applications.
b. Collating and editing technical project information from IT, release management and business teams involved in system build, test, and deployment releases.
c. Assisting developers with documenting user interfaces and the gas/electricity data models to help users replicate data between their systems and AEMO’s systems.
d. Creating API documentation for AEMO's Developer Portal.

Project deliverables: Online Help, User Guides, Technical Specifications, API guides, Interface Guides, FAQs, QRGs, UI text, API Developer Portal

Tools: Madcap Flare, SnagIT, MS Teams, GitLab, MS Office, Camtasia, Confluence, Swagger, Sitecore CMS, Google Apigee

In a very short contract with Aconex, I worked on:

a. Setting up a documentation structure for an Information Security project.
b. Working with the Platform, Engineering and Security teams to plan and create documentation for FedRAMP certification.
c. Documenting processes, procedures and other content for FedRAMP security compliance.

Tools:
Confluence, JIRA, MS Office, draw.io

2022 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 (Annual conference)
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a. Led volunteer teams working on organising the conference.
b. Handled budgets, schedule, and planning for the conference.
c. Managed sponsorships and online conference platform/venue for the event.
d. Coordinated logistics, catering, and swag/marketing material.

2021 (Took a mental health break from organising the WTD Australia and India conference), but organised the WTD Australia and India super meetup
(https://www.meetup.com/Write-the-Docs-Australia/events/280829245/)

July 2016 - Current (Meetups)
-------------------------------------------------
Initiated Write the Docs in Australia: www.meetup.com/Write-the-Docs-Australia/
Organise and coordinate meetups (onsite and remote), and webinars across Australia.

a. Created Work Instructions, Quick Reference Guides, User Guides and Troubleshooting content for the Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC) operations teams.
b. Led a content transfer project from traditional paper-based docs to online documentation using Confluence, JIRA, Trello and mind mapping tools.
c. Worked with knowledge managers, process analysts, project managers, and internal users to make sense of the content we produce and consume. 

Achievements:

Our team of technical writers was instrumental in deploying Confluence as a means of accessing technical documentation across 150+ users, giving their content experience an instant boost.

Successfully worked with knowledge experts to instill a culture of good, accurate and complete documentation across the network operations teams.

Tools:
Confluence, JIRA, MS Office 2013 (Word, Visio, Excel, Project), SnagIT, Adobe PDF, SharePoint, Appian, Signavio

Upcoming talks
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May 2023: STC Summit, Atlanta
Hands-on workshop: How to build a functional online technical writing portfolio

Past engagements
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Oct 2022:  TechCommNZ, Christchurch
Let's talk about online portfolios

Sept 2021:  apidays LIVE! Australia
The secret sauce behind successful APIs

June 2021:  tcworld/Evolution of TC2021 (https://evolution-of-tc.com/)
Documenting API developer portals

Apr 2021:  Write the Docs Portland (https://www.writethedocs.org/conf/portland/2021/speakers/)
Putting the "tech" in technical writer

Oct 2020:  TechCommNZ (https://techcomm.nz/Event?Action=View&Event_id=295)
"Documenting API developer portals"

Oct 2019: TechCommNZ, Tauranga (https://conference.techcomm.nz/Programme.aspx)
"Making our content sustainable"

May 2019: STC Summit, Denver (https://summit.stc.org/schedule/)
"Release Notes Matter"

June 2018, MadWorld, San Diego (https://www.madcapsoftware.com/conference/madworld-2018/)
"What's the deal with Release Notes?"
"How we turned our customers into users (or believers)"

Nov 2017: ASTC, Sydney (www.astc.org.au)
"Documenting the tools we use"

Sept 2016: Write the Docs, Prague (writethedocs.org)
"When bad screenshots happen to good writers"

Feb 2014: tcworld, Bengaluru, India (http://conferences.tekom.de/tcworld-india-2014/)
"Working as a contract technical writer in Australia"

Meetups:

Write the Docs (Melbourne, Sydney)
WordPress (Melbourne)
April 2018, Code+Draw+Write workshop for kids

Projects:

a. Write guest posts for the KnowledgeOwl blog (https://www.knowledgeowl.com/home/blog).
b. Create Online Help for a project management software for architects and engineers.

Tools:
Madcap Flare, SnagIT, Slack, Trello, JIRA, Atom, GitHub, Hugo, ReadMe

Previously, I have:
a. Reviewed and restructured API documentation for a large fintech startup.
b. Created website content for Beyontel (http://www.beyontel.com.au/)
c. Created content - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for pocketbook
https://help.getpocketbook.com/hc/en-us
d. Created Online Help for a project management reporting/dashboard tool.
e. Provided design expertise on Flare templates using Top-navigation skins.

Swapnil Ogale🇦🇺

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