Twitter Chat: Chapter 1 Recap

Cover Photo by Chris J. Davis on Unsplash

We started a book club! Each week we host a Twitter chat on Thursdays to discuss a chapter of Docs for Developers.

On Thursday Nov. 18th, we had our first Twitter chat, hosted on the @DevEdBookClub Twitter account about Chapter 1.

This post is a recap of the chat and a place to continue the conversation.

Collecting User Data

How do you currently collect user experience data?

What works well with your approach?

What's still challenging?

Megan Sullivan and Amber Matz both mentioned feedback widgets embedded in the docs they worked on. These widgets ask if the page was helpful. They also offer an open text field to add more comments.

Sarah Rainsberger and I both mentioned receiving feedback from our communities directly.

Aisha Blake pointed out the relationship between DevRel/DevEx and customer support/success teams. She mentioned that these teams could benefit from working more closely together as they often answer similar questions for customers.

Do your docs have a widget? Do you find it helpful?

Does your company have a community where they can gather more feedback?

Receiving User Feedback

Getting feedback can be tough!

How do you avoid getting defensive when sorting through feedback on your product or documentation?

Any general tips for receiving user feedback?

We all agreed that negative feedback can be hard to accept. It can help to reframe how you think about the feedback and show empathy for the user who was frustrated enough to give it.

Amber Matz mentioned "owning your mistakes and working to fix the error" can help smooth over a user's frustration.

Estee Tey added it is normal to feel defensive but you should try to look at the feedback objectively.

How have you handled feedback?

Favorite Takeaways or Quotes

What takeaways from this chapter can you apply to your own documentation practice at work?

Any quotes or ideas that resonate with you?

I mentioned that reading this book has helped me quickly implement small wins in the documentation I help support. I also linked to DigitalOcean's technical writing guidelines that I often use when writing for a technical audience.

Ramón Huidobro reminded us that quality is more important than quantity when seeking direct interviews with your users. Sometimes we seek out too many opinions.