Name: D(ocs)&D(evelopment): Finding the Perfect Party for Your Documentation Campaign - Heds Simons & Kim Nylander, Grafana Labs
Start: 2025-06-23T11:20:00-0600
End: 2025-06-23T12:00:00-0600

June 23 - 25, 2025
Denver, Colorado
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Note: The schedule is subject to change.

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Monday June 23, 2025 11:20am - 12:00pm MDT

Bluebird Ballroom 3D

It’s product release time. The code is stable. You’ve got everything EXCEPT the docs.

How do you create meaningful, prioritized content in a short time frame?

Your writer needs to collaborate with a Subject Matter Expert (SME) who understands the technical and user content. At Grafana, this synergy happens between Field Engineers (FE) and Technical Writers (TW). FEs are a three-in-one SME with the understanding of a developer, sales engineer, and technical support.

How does this collaboration benefit both writers and SMEs?
* TW has a single SME for user needs and cross-product technical expertise.
* FEs get accurate, up-to-date content that helps them and Grafana’s OSS community members get up to speed on products.
* OSS Community members get accurate, up-to-date docs.

In this session, you’ll learn how to:
* Identify the right SME
* Establish a collaborative workflow
* Prioritize work that best addresses the user’s needs

We’ll detail how this collaboration started through a shared love of RPGs, the traps we encountered and lessons learnt, and how a bi-weekly session between two colleagues became the foundation for a model now used across Grafana’s telemetry products.

Speakers

Hedley Simons

Senior Principal Field Engineer, Grafana Labs

Heds is a Senior Principal Field Engineer at Grafana Labs, where he builds and maintains internal and external environments, designs advanced workshops, provides input on product use-cases and acts as a SME.Heds comes from a software engineering background, and has written code for... Read More →

Kim Nylander

Principal Technical Writer, Grafana Labs

Professional writer who specializes in explaining complicated concepts in plain English at a level appropriate for the target audience. Over 15 years experience of writing SaaS product content, IT procedures, API documentation, tutorials, online help, FAQs, and specifications... Read More →

Monday June 23, 2025 11:20am - 12:00pm MDT
Bluebird Ballroom 3D

Technical Documentation

Audience Experience Level Any

Open Source Summit North America 2025

Hedley Simons

Kim Nylander

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