Ian Evans resume

I am proficient or conversant in the following programming and query languages:

I have authored in a wide variety of formats, including:

In addition to my writing and programming experience, I focus on improving the structures and processes that lead to successful documentation, particularly about the collaboration between writers, engineers, and product managers. I think holistically about how docs teams work within an organization, and take a lot of pride in making it easier for other writers to focus on their strenths by improving internal tools and workflows. That also means collaborating with engineering teams to integrate docs into the overall development effort. For example, I’ve successfully worked with engineers to automatically generate docs from code, and set up a workflow that had writers participate in code reviews to ensure that the generated documentation was high quality from the moment the code was merged.

I view the role of documentation as the first user advocate of the development cycle. By that I mean that docs writers are often the first ones to actually use a feature or product in the way the end user is expected to use it. Documentation teams can provide crucial usability feedback to improve the quality of features and products internally. This doesn’t occur in a vacuum, however. It requires documentation to be an active collaborator in the development process, not just a downstream consumer.

Creating high quality, user-focused documentation is the end result of investing in documentation as part of the overall development process.