Meet Wrikers: Christopher Nosko, Senior UX Writer
Before coming to Wrike, Christopher wrote for Avast Antivirus and many European startups. Check out his personal journey of going from political writer to Senior UX Writer, how Wrike supports the continued growth, and why he decided to join Wrike! 👇
Hey! 👋 I’m Christopher Nosko. I’m originally from Los Angeles, but I’m based in Prague, Czech Republic. I joined Wrike in March 2020 (the day all the COVID restrictions started kicking in).
What made you want to join Wrike?
One of the major things was that their design processes were much more collaborative than what I was used to. They talked about making UX copy a part of the product development process from start to finish, and collaborating side-by-side with the designers.
As for the product itself, I really like the idea of helping people do better work. To me, work-life balance is important, so I realized one of the best ways to make ideas like the 4-day work week or the 6-hour work-day become a reality is to help people and companies save time by working smarter and more efficiently.
… I realized one of the best ways to make ideas like the 4-day work week or the 6-hour work-day become a reality is to help people and companies save time by working smarter and more efficiently.
How did you become a UX writer?
While I was in college, someone I knew asked if I could help them write political articles for their digital agency. After doing that for about a year, I moved from the US to Prague, Czech Republic, and started going to startup tech events. Once people at those events found out I was a native English-speaking writer, they’d eagerly ask if I could help them with their marketing copywriting (stuff like blogs, tweets, and landing pages). I was much more interested in writing about tech than politics, so I decided to give it a try. (And, if you like GIFs and memes, you can check out a talk I gave at WebExpo about why it’s so important to have a native English-speaking copywriter work on your text.)
Since these companies typically only had budgets large enough for one writer, I would also work with their designers to make sure that the copy in their apps (like buttons, headers, and feature names) made sense. I really enjoyed that kind of work, so when I found out it was called “UX writing,” I decided to focus on that.
How does Wrike support your career goals?
Wrike is really supportive of learning more about design. Which makes sense since they know it’ll help us bring even better results when designing stuff.
Wrike is really supportive of learning more about design.
For example, since I never had any formal design education, I wanted to take a UX training program. When I talked to my managers about it, they were more than happy to sponsor my first 6 months. I believe this program will help me improve my design thinking skills and work more closely with the designers on my team, so I’m really thankful for Wrike’s support.
What is the hardest part of your job? What is the most rewarding one?
A month ago, I would have said being the only UX writer was really tough, but now I’m super excited about getting a “words buddy” next month when another UX writer joins us!
Speaking of a new person on the team, I’ve also really enjoyed completely reworking our onboarding processes with one of our designers, including restarting our buddy program! Now, when someone joins the Product Design team, they get an assigned “buddy” that meets with them a few times a week so they can show them the ropes, answer any questions, or remove roadblocks.
Another part of the job that I enjoy is testing parts of the product on real people that use the product. If someone who uses Wrike can read UX copy that I’ve written and completely understand what it means, it makes me super happy. If I see them crack a smile after reading some copy where I tried to add a bit of humor, even better.
One tough part about this job (and a lot of other jobs nowadays) has been working remotely the whole time. Like I said in the beginning, I started at Wrike the day that COVID restrictions were put in place, so I’ve never actually set foot in the office. Thankfully, since everyone on the team was already using Figma and Zoom, remotely collaborating with them wasn’t too hard. But, I’m also a very social person, which makes building personal relationships with people on my team a lot harder.
Thankfully, since everyone on the team was already using Figma and Zoom, remotely collaborating with them wasn’t too hard.
When I first started, I’d usually meet with a designer on Zoom for an hour, and we’d rush through the work we’d need to get done and finish with just a minute or two to spare (if we’re lucky). Then I’d jump on the next call with the next designer working on another part of the product and do it all over again. I really didn’t get the chance to talk to them or get to know them this way.
I figured out that I needed to make a lot more of an effort to connect with my team members than I normally would if I were working with them in an office. I noticed if I started making the meetings a little longer, like by 15 or 30 minutes, we’d have time to casually chat about other things, like movies or our favorite beers that we’re going to enjoy after work, without feeling super crunched for time. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Now that I’m fully vaccinated (HOORAY SCIENCE!) I’m really looking forward to feeling safer going to the office once it’s open again and seeing my coworkers in person.
How would you describe Wrike’s design team and culture?
Two words: explosive growth. Because we’re growing so quickly, we hired more people in the last few months than we hired the entire first year of me working there. We’ve recently hired roles like several product designers, UX researchers, design and research leads, and another UX writer! :D
And we’re not done growing! Check out all the exciting roles we’re hiring for.
How do you think the team will continue to grow and mature?
We’re focusing more on leadership roles and specializing, which tells me that we won’t stop growing anytime soon. From my side, I’m really hoping to continue to grow the UX writing team and starting even more ambitious initiatives.
What does a typical workday look like for you?
I start by opening Slack, Wrike, and Google Calendar to see what I’ve got on my plate for the day. Once I’ve worked a bit on smaller tasks or tied up any loose ends from the day before, it’s usually time for my team’s standup. After that, I’ll sit down with some designers on Zoom, and we’ll work on parts of the product (either improving what we have or creating new features).
Sometimes I’ll have some extra meetings, like with our Wrike Prague Culture Squad, where we plan events like remote beer tastings, pizza-making workshops, and more. Other times, I’ll meet other Wrikers that I haven’t met before over Zoom for coffee (thanks to our randomizing Slack CoffeeBot).
What’s something that people would be surprised to learn about you?
I like cooking — a LOT. I’m obsessed with perfecting my pan pizza recipe on an almost weekly basis, which you can check out on my Instagram story highlights (look for the one titled “Pizza 🍕”).
If you were going to give a new Wriker one piece of advice, what would it be?
If you’re on our Product Design team, don’t be afraid to ask your onboarding buddy a million questions about how things work. Wrike is a pretty robust product, and we ask other people how other parts of the platform work all the time.
