As a technical content material author for Cisco ThousandEyesI’ve to confess, my biggest concern is to get replaced by a generative AI algorithm. Within the spirit of “maintaining my associates shut and my enemies nearer,” I made a decision to befriend my potential adversary. On this article, I’ll share how utilizing CIRCUIT, 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.
Speedy context switching
I work on a number of merchandise for ThousandEyes and, because of my earlier lives as a NOC Engineer (Community Operations Heart) and Backend Software program Developer, my technical experience means I’m usually referred to as upon when the crew 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 in an effort to manage one’s ideas (not essentially for a response). I exploit CIRCUIT as a rubber duck in context switching conditions. With 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 model strikes me shortly into the headspace vital for making troublesome context switches. Reasonably than needing half a day to get again within the movement, I can pivot to a brand new activity 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, nonetheless, given our present pace (and quantity) of innovation, I usually really feel like I’m consuming from a firehose. CIRCUIT offers 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 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 alone, I spend a whole lot of time gathering the data I would like and discerning what’s really helpful. With the assistance of CIRCUIT, 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 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 expertise. Because of utilizing CIRCUIT to ramp up on unfamiliar applied sciences, my SME interviews are extremely concentrated and environment friendly, sometimes lasting a mere 15-20 minutes.
Lowered repetitive duties
The Documentation Staff 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 CIRCUIT to create it with the values I present. Then, all I’ve to do is copy and paste. It’s additionally helpful after I must summarize content material, reminiscent of offering a one-sentence description or writing a brief introductory paragraph to a technical article. CIRCUIT can present me with the summaries I would like immediately, sourced from our personal documentation.
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 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 data to reduce the consumer’s cognitive load.
Suggestions gathered by considered one of our product managers, prospects favored ThousandEyes’ documentation higher than our rivals’. Caring about our customers is an enormous precedence for my crew. For instance, I perceive how difficult making sense of documentation could be within the midst of a high-severity outage, particularly if you’ve been woken up in the midst of the evening. Once I’m figuring out easy methods to doc one thing, I do a whole lot of background analysis, together with perusing instructional supplies on the ThousandEyes weblog and user-contributed content material on websites like Reddit and StackOverflow. Asking CIRCUIT 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 checklist of use instances 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 genes
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 on the spot contextual insights, CIRCUIT has not solely boosted my effectivity however continues to raise the standard of our user-focused documentation. Reasonably than changing the human contact, CIRCUIT amplifies my means 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 trade.
Extra assets:
Discover extra Cisco Innovation blogs right here!
Share:
