Redefining Technical Documentation at Empathy.co: A Three-Year Journey of Disruption
Three years ago, when I embarked on a journey to reshape the technical documentation for Empathy Platform, little did I know that it would be a transformative experience. As a technical writer, I have always been passionate about crafting clear and concise user manuals. Still, I often questioned if it was possible to breathe new life into the age-old craft of technical writing. The winds of change at Empathy.co definitely brought a fresh perspective: disruption became a practical concept in my working life, rather than just more of a buzzword, redefining my work in ways I never could have imagined.
Today, I want to take you down memory lane and give you a glimpse into what has happened over the past three years, showcasing how disruption has driven the evolution of product technical documentation at Empathy.co.
Year One: The Seed of Disruption
In the first year, the idea of disruption entered fiercely, making my team question traditional documentation practices. The seed of disruption was sown when we realized that interactive documentation was more than just a concept — it was a game-changer.
We said goodbye to static, lifeless, highly technical guides and welcomed a new era of technical documentation. With a dedicated product developer portal tailored from scratch, documentation wasn’t just about reading anymore — it was about experiencing and enjoying. Users gained the power to explore products, test code, and discover information through engaging interfaces and pages full of color and interactiveness. It was like turning the documentation into a game where users actively took part in learning.
Year Two: Breaking Team Silos
The second year was about breaking team silos and addressing professional bias. The team was used to working centrally, collaborating with different company areas and product teams from time to time. But it was time to turn the tables and embrace a doc-as-code approach to close the gap between the documentation process and product development. It was time to complete the cycle and extend diversity beyond the team frontiers. Indeed, it was about fostering an environment where all voices were heard and valued, regardless of their skills, experience, role, background, age, or seniority.
The goal was to create documentation that was completely comprehensive for anyone based on the knowledge, work, and feedback of product experts. Technical writers moved to development teams, and then magic happened. Product development and product documentation started to sync despite the documentation debt. Technical writers found that feeling part of the product life cycle and working hand by hand with product managers, engineers, and designers was an opportunity to fuel creativity. Breaking silos made a profound impact on the documentation process, bringing diversity and enriching the team with fresh ideas and experiences.
Year Three: In [Disruption] Action
As we entered the third year of our journey, we realized that modern documentation and disruption were no longer just concepts; they had become our way of life. Having a mature project and a well-established team, the journey of evolution and disruption was already an integral part of our work. The result? A totally renewed documentation portal full of content features, offering a unique way of finding content through the relationships happening behind the scenes, and new discovery journeys. Redefining content architecture, redesigning the documentation portal, and revolutionizing content search and discovery now represent a clear example of evolution and disruption in action.
Charting the path forward
During these past years, my team faced challenges, but with each challenge came an opportunity to innovate and refine our approach. Today, I can proudly say that we have redefined how we create, collaborate, and communicate documentation at Empathy.co, where findability, understanding, and user experience intersect at the crossroads of disruption.
We’ve embraced change in docs, and disruption certainly is at the core of our work. But the journey is far from over…
