As a technical content material author for Cisco ThousandEyes, I’ve to confess, my biggest concern is to get replaced by a generative AI algorithm. Within the spirit of “retaining my mates shut and my enemies nearer,” I made a decision to befriend my potential adversary. On this article, I’ll share how utilizing Cisco’s inside AI assistant has augmented my skill as a technical author to maintain up with the fast tempo of change in our business.
Speedy context switching
I work on a number of merchandise for ThousandEyes and, due to my earlier lives as a NOC Engineer (Community Operations Middle) and Backend Software program Developer, my technical experience means I’m typically referred to as upon when the group wants further 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 arrange one’s ideas (not essentially for a response). I exploit Cisco’s inside AI assistant as a rubber duck in context switching conditions. With a generative AI chat, I’m in a position to keep a dialog the place I can current concepts and ask it to summarize the important thing factors I have to refresh on. The conversational fashion strikes me shortly into the headspace obligatory for making troublesome context switches. Moderately than needing half a day to get again within the circulate, I can pivot to a brand new process inside half-hour.
Shorter SME interviews
One thing I get pleasure from about being a technical author is attending to study new stuff. As a lot as I really like studying, nevertheless, given our present pace (and quantity) of innovation, I typically really feel like I’m ingesting from a firehose. Cisco’s inside AI assistant supplies me with a quiet house the place I can safely ask dumb questions on unfamiliar applied sciences. This maximizes the worth I can deliver to SME (Topic Matter Professional) interviews.
When an SME has to stroll me by the fundamentals, interviews can take as a lot as an hour and should even span a number of periods. Even once I put together alone, I spend a variety of time gathering the data I would like and discerning what’s truly helpful. With the assistance of Cisco’s inside AI assistant, the data is introduced to me in a summarized kind that’s straightforward 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 alone. This considerably reduces the time I have to ramp up on a brand new know-how. Because of utilizing Cisco’s inside AI Assistant to ramp up on unfamiliar applied sciences, my SME interviews are extremely concentrated and environment friendly, usually lasting a mere 15-20 minutes.
Diminished repetitive duties
The Documentation Group at ThousandEyes makes use of a “docs-as-code” method. 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 inside AI assistant to create it with the values I present. Then, all I’ve to do is copy and paste. It’s additionally helpful once 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 inside AI assistant can present me with the summaries I would like immediately, sourced from our personal documentation, and all I’ve to do is overview them.
Prompt contextual data
The toughest factor to doc isn’t the technical stuff. It’s the stuff that connects the technical stuff to what the person 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 person needs to do after which determining one of the simplest ways to current the data to reduce the person’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 a giant precedence for my group. For instance, I perceive how difficult making sense of documentation will be within the midst of a high-severity outage, particularly while you’ve been woken up in the midst of the night time. After I’m figuring out how one can doc one thing, I do a variety 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 inside AI assistant why somebody would possibly use one thing makes a part of the writing course of a lot quicker (though it does take finesse to phrase my prompts successfully).
The beneficial record of use instances and descriptions I get from the AI not solely permits me to extra deeply empathize with our customers, but in addition helps me to craft my content material to make sure relevancy and ease of use.
Embracing GenAI
Embracing generative AI has remodeled my method 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 immediate contextual insights, Cisco’s inside AI assistant has not solely boosted my effectivity however continues to raise the standard of our user-focused documentation. Moderately than changing the human contact, Cisco’s inside AI assistant amplifies my skill to empathize with customers and ship clear, related content material that meets their wants, even in high-pressure situations. 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 business.
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