BigCommerce Employee Spotlight: Uwana Ikaiddi

Welcome to the BigCommerce Employee Spotlight. Each month, we’ll chat with an employee who works on the BigCommerce product. These are the folks behind the scenes who are crafting the BigCommerce developer experience, from SDKs and APIs to themes and documentation. Discover what they’re building, their tools of the trade, and learn about the technologies they’re passionate about.

Hi Uwana, Tell me about your path to BigCommerce.

Like many technical communicators, I discovered my eventual career entirely by accident. While working on my Bachelor’s degrees in Biology and English, I worked as a Lead Research Assistant at my university hospital’s anesthesiology department. I conducted clinical research on patients by night and wrote up summary explanations or our findings by day. This combination of my two areas of study was a wonderful way for me to learn consistently and cement that new information by writing it and explaining it to others.

Afterward, I wanted to find a career path that allowed me to combine my degrees and work experience. Technical communication was a perfect balance. Originally, I planned on focusing on medical writing. However, while completing my Master’s in Technical Communications, I accepted an opportunity to work at a local software development company. The combination of my on-the-job training and formal education through my Master’s program led to me enhancing my programming skills independently.

I moved into a smaller, more agile startup software company where I learned more about developing software, working with various departments, and managing multiple documentation initiatives simultaneously.

I attempted to move back into the healthcare sphere working at a blood bank using my newly-found technical skills to streamline processes, track changes, and increase efficiency overall. However, I missed the fast-paced world of software. So, I accepted a new job at Indeed in Austin, TX. There I gained more exposure to various forms of documentation including API documentation, SDKs, internal documentation, project planning, and conference preparation.

While I learned a lot, I wanted to focus more on external documentation, predominantly API documentation. It offered a direct link between the documentation and the audience’s experience with the product. After seeing BigCommerce’s dedication to its customers and focus on the developer experience, I couldn’t wait to join the team!

What do you work on? Tell me about a day in the life of a Developer Documentation Specialist.

Here at BigCommerce, my title is Developer Documentation Specialist. This is another way of saying that I write technical documentation guiding developers on how to use our various products and tools. I work on the Self Service team which includes our Knowledge Base team and Community team. The main focus of the team is enhancing the developer experience by providing as much pertinent information as possible to make sure we’re helping developers learn about our products as quickly as possible, work through challenges they may face, help them complete specific tasks quickly, and provide reference information.

On a day-to-day basis, I interact closely with our Product and Engineering department. Creating documentation requires a lot of collaboration between documentation specialists and engineering. Consulting with SMEs is the basis of creating great documentation.

On a typical day I could be:

• Developing documentation for a new API endpoint, SDK, or client
• Updating our current external-facing documentation based on recent improvements
• Consulting with product managers about how to document and communicate upcoming features
• Talking with engineers about any projects in development as a way to prepare the appropriate documentation
• Reviewing audience feedback to find more ideas on how to better cater to our audience

Describe BigCommerce in three words.

Teamwork. Ever since I started at BigCommerce, I’ve constantly felt like I’ve had a support system of people willing to help. Not only does that lead to awesome collaborative ideas, it also makes the work environment that much more comfortable. Knowing that you can reach out to anyone for help gives me peace-of-mind so I can bring my best to work every day.

Empathy. BigCommerce is one of the more unique companies I’ve worked for where some of our employees are also BigCommerce customers. Many of my fellow coworkers own and manage stores using BigCommerce. This gives us so much perspective into what it’s like to use our product. Therefore, we want to make sure the experience is as smooth and enjoyable as possible. Being able to empathize with our customers only helps us improve faster.

Passion. This is my favorite aspect of BigCommerce. There’s something surreal about working in a company surrounded by people who are so passionate about what they do. Honestly, it makes sense since our company does well when our customers do well. Having such a stake in the success of your customers is more than enough to light a fire in your belly when it comes to your job.

What projects are you most passionate about contributing to BigCommerce?

As my title suggests, I constantly work on documentation to help our developer audience. When it comes to creating optimal resources for engineers at every skill level, conceptual documentation is the cornerstone. When it comes to learning to use new tools to solve problems, reference material itself is not enough. That’s why I’m passionate about constantly improving our conceptual documentation. Our tutorials and guides provide more context for the resources we offer our developers and make sure they have a strong start when testing these tools.

I’ve also enjoyed ensuring that we improve the look, feel, and organization of our documentation based on feedback from our audience. Having open and clear communication with our developers is another important aspect of not just great documentation, but the developer experience as a whole. As a documentation specialist, I cannot assume that I know what’s best for our audience. Listening to our audience and providing guidance on common challenges is one of the best ways to ensure that documentation is providing value.

Why is documentation a crucial part of the developer experience at BigCommerce?

As Ilona Koren-Deutsch, Technical Documentation Manager at Twitch, said at the 2019 Write the Docs conference, “when APIs are your product, the documentation is the user interface.” Documentation is imperative for developers to get a good idea of what to expect of your products, tools, and resources. It’s more than a mere reference document; it’s a route into using APIs to solve your problems and address your challenges. Good documentation bolsters trust between BigCommerce and our developer customers. In fact, it’s a way to communicate with your audience and provide them with guidance when first getting started and reference material when as they continue to use your product. Providing documentation says “we want you to understand how our product is going to make your job easier, faster, more convenient.”

How do you approach learning something new?

When I first set out to learn something new, I focus on context. I start with an overview of the new topic and focus on the aspects I don’t fully understand. With this newfound context, I start interacting with the new technology, putting concepts into practice and observing how it performs in the real world. All the while, I’m looking for similarities that the new thing has with other things I’ve interacted with before. A big plus for me is making connections by creating a chain of ideas connecting the beginning and end of how to use a specific technology. I keep in mind how I would explain this new concept to someone. That helps me break down all the steps and understand them in sequential order. I then recreate the steps from memory to see how much I’ve retained and then I go back to review whatever I don’t readily remember. Finally, I stretch my newfound knowledge a little further by completing a project using what I’ve just learned.

What’s the best career advice you’ve been given?

“Begin before you feel ready.”

This piece of advice came to me very early in my career and I remember it every day. I used to believe that readiness must preempt action. Originally, it made a lot of sense. If you were truly ready to act, you would feel it, right? It turns out, that’s not true. Taking action before you feel ready is the best way to grow your skills and learn from new experiences. When you wait to feel ready, what you’re really saying is that you want to be 100% sure things are going to work out smoothly. However, in a world where everything is becoming increasingly more complex and fast-paced, absolute assurance is a realistic requirement for action. Gather as much information as you can, make the best decision based on that, and go!

What advice would you give to other women in tech?

“If you’re comfortable, you’re not learning.”

As a technical writer, I’m in a constant state of learning. That also means that I’m constantly a beginner in multiple skills trying to improve my understanding. This is the most thrilling aspect of working in tech. It can also be the most terrifying. Many people can mistakenly equate ease with innate intelligence. Therefore, when confronted with a concept that doesn’t come easily, they assume that they aren’t smart enough to understand it. This is absolutely not true. The discomfort that accompanies learning something new is totally natural and part of the journey. Don’t let it dissuade you from expanding your skillset and trying new things.

We’d like to thank Uwana for sharing her time with us and giving us a look into her day-to-day at BigCommerce. Have a question for Uwana? Follow her on Twitter or reach out in the comments below.