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 “holding my buddies 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 capability as a technical author to maintain up with the speedy 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 Heart) and Backend Software program Developer, my technical experience means I’m typically known as upon when the crew 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 the intention to set up one’s ideas (not essentially for a response). I take advantage of Cisco’s inside AI assistant as a rubber duck in context switching conditions. With a generative AI chat, I’m capable of preserve a dialog the place I can current concepts and ask it to summarize the important thing factors I must refresh on. The conversational fashion strikes me rapidly into the headspace obligatory for making troublesome context switches. Relatively than needing half a day to get again within the movement, I can pivot to a brand new job 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 like studying, nevertheless, given our present velocity (and quantity) of innovation, I typically really feel like I’m consuming from a firehose. Cisco’s inside AI assistant offers me with a quiet area 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 way of 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 lots of time gathering the data I would like and discerning what’s really helpful. With the assistance of Cisco’s inside AI assistant, the data is introduced to me in a summarized kind that’s simple to digest. I can rapidly assess it for accuracy and I can ask questions for clarification, in addition to reply with corrections to enhance my outcomes. It even reveals me what sources it used, so I can go deeper alone. This considerably reduces the time I must ramp up on a brand new know-how. On account 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.
Lowered 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 take advantage of 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 must summarize content material, reminiscent of 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 info
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 desires to do after which determining the easiest way to current the data to reduce the person’s cognitive load.
Suggestions gathered by certainly one of our product managers reported that clients favored ThousandEyes’ documentation higher than our opponents’. Caring about our customers is a giant precedence for my crew. For instance, I perceive how difficult making sense of documentation will be within the midst of a high-severity outage, particularly once you’ve been woken up in the midst of the evening. After I’m figuring out learn how to doc one thing, I do lots of background analysis, together with perusing academic supplies on the ThousandEyes weblog and user-contributed content material on websites like Reddit and StackOverflow. Asking Cisco’s inside AI assistant why somebody may 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 really useful listing 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 method to technical writing at Cisco ThousandEyes, turning what may have been a frightening adversary into a strong ally. By streamlining context switching, accelerating studying for SME interviews, automating repetitive duties, and offering instantaneous contextual insights, Cisco’s inside AI assistant has not solely boosted my effectivity however continues to raise the standard of our user-focused documentation. Relatively than changing the human contact, Cisco’s inside AI assistant amplifies my capability 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 selection—it’s a strategic one which empowers writers to remain forward in a quickly evolving business.
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