As a technical content material author for Cisco ThousandEyes, I’ve to confess, my best concern is to get replaced by a generative AI algorithm. Within the spirit of “protecting my pals shut and my enemies nearer,” I made a decision to befriend my potential adversary. On this article, I’ll share how utilizing Cisco’s inner AI assistant has augmented my means as a technical author to maintain up with the speedy tempo of change in our trade.
Fast context switching
I work on a number of merchandise for ThousandEyes and, due to my earlier lives as a NOC Engineer (Community Operations Heart) and Backend Software program Developer, my technical experience means I’m usually known as upon when the workforce wants additional protection. Whereas I’ve a broad and deep understanding of many applied sciences, the focus required to successfully write about them is on par with the focus I as soon as wanted as a developer to construct them.
In engineering, “rubber ducking” means to speak out an issue both at somebody or one thing with a purpose to set up one’s ideas (not essentially for a response). I exploit Cisco’s inner AI assistant as a rubber duck in context switching conditions. With a generative AI chat, I’m in a position to preserve a dialog the place I can current concepts and ask it to summarize the important thing factors I have to refresh on. The conversational type strikes me shortly into the headspace needed for making tough context switches. Slightly than needing half a day to get again within the move, I can pivot to a brand new process inside half-hour.
Shorter SME interviews
One thing I take pleasure in about being a technical author is attending to find out about new stuff. As a lot as I really like studying, nevertheless, given our present pace (and quantity) of innovation, I usually really feel like I’m consuming from a firehose. Cisco’s inner AI assistant gives me with a quiet house the place I can safely ask dumb questions on unfamiliar applied sciences. This maximizes the worth I can carry to SME (Topic Matter Knowledgeable) interviews.
When an SME has to stroll me by means of the fundamentals, interviews can take as a lot as an hour and should even span a number of periods. Even after I put together by myself, I spend lots of time gathering the knowledge I want and discerning what’s really helpful. With the assistance of Cisco’s inner AI assistant, the knowledge is introduced to me in a summarized type that’s simple to digest. I can shortly assess it for accuracy and I can ask questions for clarification, in addition to reply with corrections to enhance my outcomes. It even exhibits me what sources it used, so I can go deeper by myself. This considerably reduces the time I have to ramp up on a brand new know-how. Because of utilizing Cisco’s inner AI Assistant to ramp up on unfamiliar applied sciences, my SME interviews are extremely concentrated and environment friendly, sometimes lasting a mere 15-20 minutes.
Diminished repetitive duties
The Documentation Workforce at ThousandEyes makes use of a “docs-as-code” strategy. For us, this implies our documentation lives in Github and we format it utilizing markdown. Markdown tables are very tedious and error-prone. When I’ve to create a brand new markdown desk, I exploit Cisco’s inner AI assistant to create it with the values I present. Then, all I’ve to do is copy and paste. It’s additionally helpful after I have to summarize content material, similar to offering a one-sentence description or writing a brief introductory paragraph to a technical article. Cisco’s inner AI assistant can present me with the summaries I want immediately, sourced from our personal documentation, and all I’ve to do is assessment them.
Instantaneous contextual data
The toughest factor to doc isn’t the technical stuff. It’s the stuff that connects the technical stuff to what the consumer actually wants and needs. That is the a part of the writing course of that depends upon the author’s expertise and instinct. Technical writing isn’t simply making a bunch of screenshots and describing them. It’s determining what the consumer desires to do after which determining the easiest way to current the knowledge to attenuate the consumer’s cognitive load.
Suggestions gathered by considered one of our product managers reported that prospects preferred ThousandEyes’ documentation higher than our rivals’. Caring about our customers is an enormous precedence for my workforce. For instance, I perceive how difficult making sense of documentation may be within the midst of a high-severity outage, particularly once you’ve been woken up in the course of the night time. After I’m figuring out how one can doc one thing, I do lots of background analysis, together with perusing instructional supplies on the ThousandEyes weblog and user-contributed content material on websites like Reddit and StackOverflow. Asking Cisco’s inner AI assistant why somebody would possibly use one thing makes a part of the writing course of a lot sooner (though it does take finesse to phrase my prompts successfully).
The beneficial record of use circumstances and descriptions I get from the AI not solely permits me to extra deeply empathize with our customers, but additionally helps me to craft my content material to make sure relevancy and ease of use.
Embracing GenAI
Embracing generative AI has reworked my strategy to technical writing at Cisco ThousandEyes, turning what may have been a frightening adversary into a robust ally. By streamlining context switching, accelerating studying for SME interviews, automating repetitive duties, and offering prompt contextual insights, Cisco’s inner AI assistant has not solely boosted my effectivity however continues to raise the standard of our user-focused documentation. Slightly than changing the human contact, Cisco’s inner AI assistant amplifies my means to empathize with customers and ship clear, related content material that meets their wants, even in high-pressure eventualities. Because the tempo of innovation continues to speed up, integrating AI into technical writing isn’t just a sensible alternative—it’s a strategic one which empowers writers to remain forward in a quickly evolving trade.
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