Swapnil Ogale

I have over 17 years of technical writing experience, including 10 years of working remotely, in:

  • Scoping and creating technical content,
  • Designing information architecture strategies,
  • Leading documentation projects, and
  • Managing technical writing teams.

I am currently the first Technical Writer in the APJ (Asia Pacific and Japan) Centre of Excellence team at Amazon Web Services Australia, responsible for enabling software engineers and solution architects create and deliver better technical content for our customers.

Over the last 10 years, I have worked with software and API development teams, creating technical specifications, API documentation, content for developer portals, and implementation guides for bespoke solutions. You can best describe me as “A technical writer who appreciates the depth of technology and isn’t afraid to dive deeper when needed.

I initiated the Write the Docs community in Australia, contributed to an open source project in the Google Season of Docs in 2019, managed Redocly’s open source documentation project and mentored technical writers as part of Google Season of Docs 2021. I also actively mentor aspiring and transitioning technical writers through the ADPList platform.

Published in 2024, I contributed to the 2nd edition of the Technical Writing process book, covering some parts of the Design chapters.

Since 2014, I have been adding to my public speaking skills by presenting at technical documentation conferences in India, US, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

Skills

Core skills
  • Technical communication
  • Content strategy
  • Information architecture
  • Product documentation
  • UX Writing
  • Content design and development
  • Open source documentation
Content
  • Implementation guides
  • Online help
  • User guides
  • Release notes
  • Technical specifications
  • Developer docs
  • Wikis
  • API documentation
  • Error messages
  • Product content
  • Developer Portals
Tools
  • Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)
  • oXyGen XML Editor
  • Redocly
  • Text editors
  • MS Office
  • Help Authoring (Madcap Flare, RoboHelp)
  • Wikis
  • Confluence
  • JIRA
  • Wordpress
  • Markdown
  • Swagger
  • Git
  • Analytics
  • Postman

Documentation Projects

Solution implementation guides

Working as a Technical Writer in the Solutions Engineering team to plan, manage, create and deliver the technical content for our solutions.

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Product marketing blogs

Wrote monthly blog posts capturing product enhancements, new features and documentation updates, along with other company news.

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Product documentation, Information architecture, Content strategy

Working as a Technical Writer Advocate, contributing to, and managing product docs. Leading information architecture and content strategy projects.

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Technical specifications and API documentation

Managed technical content for Australian distributed energy initiatives. Documented technical specifications, API design docs, user guides, and reference information.

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Online Help

Scoped, planned, and created Online Help (100+ topics), What's New, Release Notes for a project management software for architects and engineers.

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Developer Portals

Set up a doc workflow process and toolchain, wrote API documentation, and designed mockups of partner and developer sites for external Partners.

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Process documentation and work instructions

Led a team of technical writers instrumental in deploying technical documentation to over 5 operational teams, and across 150+ users.

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SDK documentation

Freelancing with a fintech startup, I reviewed and created documentation for SDK developers to integrate their iOS and Android devices with the SDK product.

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Open Source and Community contributions

Redocly - Google Season of Docs

Set up and manage Redocly's participation in Google Season of Docs 2021, and mentor technical writers working on our open source products.

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Write the Docs Australia

Initiated the Write the Docs community in Australia in 2016. Organise meetup events in Melbourne and chair the annual conference since 2017.

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Geonetwork

Participated in Google Season of Docs 2019, and contributed to the GeoNetwork open source project.

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Kubeflow

Participated in a documentation sprint organised by Kubeflow.

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Presentations and Publications

I’ve grown to love public speaking. This section is a collection of my presentations/talks and publications, about my experiences in Technical Writing. I’ve also been a part of a couple of documentation podcasts and love organising meetups.

Book - Technical Writing Process, 2nd Edition

Contributed to the 2nd edition of the Technical Writing process book, covering some parts of the Design chapters.

May 2024

Article - Redocly for technical writers

Wrote a blog post for technical writers exploring Redocly for their API documentation.

August 2022

Podcast - Embrace Discomfort and Challenge the Status Quo for Advocacy and Visibility

In this episode, I was interviewed by Zohra Mutabanna, where I shared my thoughts on the evolution of technical communication in Australia, especially since the pandemic.

June 2022

Talk - The secret sauce behind successful APIs

Successful API products have always been around before then, but we have all missed signs until 2020. What is the secret sauce behind successful APIs and their uptake?

October 2021

Podcast - Tech Writer Advocacy and Managing Write the Docs Australia

In this episode, I was interviewed by the host of the Not Boring Tech Writer podcast to talk about the Write the Docs Australia community and what tech writer advocacy involves.

June 2021

Talk - Putting the tech in technical writer

In my talk, I take share some of my frustrations (turned into learnings) on how technical writers can bring their tech game to the table when it comes to products, and make a huge impact by establishing documentation tools, processes and workflows.

April 2021

Talk - Making content sustainable

In this talk, I offer my recommendations on making our content sustainable, especially now when our content is growing at an unprecedented rate. As part of the conference theme, I compare content with the key principles of sustainability such as reducing waste, creating maximum impact, placing emphasis on longevity and relevance, and providing a sense of social responsibility or governance.

October 2019

Talk - What's the deal with Release notes?

This is a presentation I gave at STC Summit 2019 and Madworld 2018 about the importance of Release Notes in product development and how they can help shape your initial conversations with customers.

May 2019

Talk - When bad screenshots happen to good writers

This is a presentation I gave at Write the Docs Prague 2016 about my experiences of working with teams that do not understand the value of providing good screenshots for documentation.

September 2016

Article - The Art of the Review

Wrote a guest blog post for KnowledgeOwl on why the review is the most critical piece of the documentation process.

August 2020

Article - How API docs became my silver lining

Wrote a guest blog post for KnowledgeOwl about how I got started with API documentation.

May 2020

Podcast - Write the Docs Podcast

In this episode, I joined the Write the Docs podcast team to talk about the Write the Docs Australian conference and more.

November 2019

Article - Justifying the use of Single Sourcing

Wrote a guest blog post for Madcap Software, around justifying the use of single sourcing in documentation.

February 2017

Experience

Technical Writer

Amazon Web Services

Collaborate with, and support the AWS APJ (Asia Pacific & Japan) Solutions Engineering team, for creating and maintaining customer-facing technical documentation for customisable solutions. Review and write implementation guides, solution artifacts, and code documentation.

Apr 2022 - Current

Mentor

ADPList

Mentor aspiring and transitioning technical writers through the ADPList platform.

Mar 2022 - Current

Technical Writer Advocate

Redocly

Help the documentation community by advocating for a docs-like-code approach and offering them the skills and know-how to make it happen. Managing open-source documentation program as part of Google Season of Docs.

Nov 2020 - Apr 2022

Senior Technical Writer (Contract)

Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)

Planned, designed and created online documentation for AEMO internal and external portals across gas and electricity market applications.

June 2020 - Oct 2020

Senior Technical Writer (Contract)

SEEK

Set up content design for onboarding and developer platforms. Created API documentation for recruitment partners and developers.

Feb 2020 - May 2020

Senior Technical Writer (Contract)

Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)

Developed and managed product and technical documentation including API content for developer portal and B2B users.

Jul 2018 - Feb 2020

Technical Writer (Contract)

Aconex

Documented processes, procedures and other content for FedRAMP security project.

Mar 2018 - Jul 2018

Lead Technical Writer (Contract)

National Broadband Network (NBN)

Led a technical writing team documenting business processes for network operations and performance teams.

Aug 2015 - Mar 2018

Technical Writer

Starrez

Created product content (Help, Release Notes, Feature Guides) for a student housing software

Jan 2014 - Jul 2015

Technical Writer (Contract)

Melbourne Health

Worked with data warehouse development team to plan and deliver developer guides and reference material.

Apr 2013 - Jan 2014

Team Lead Technical Writer (Contract)

CitPower and Powercor

Led and mentored 2 technical writers working on a Smart Metering project.

Apr 2012 - Mar 2013

Technical Writer (Contract)

Victoria University

Planned and created process documentation for a student management system implementation.

Dec 2011 - Jan 2012

National Procedures Officer (Contract)

MEGT

Scoped, designed and created a National Procedures Manual.

May 2011 - Dec 2011

Documentation Specialist (Contract)

TP3

User content, Process documentation, Policy writing, Information Architecture projects for Australia Post, Alex Fraser Group, ANZ, Toyota Australia, DownerEDI Works, Elders Australia, BUPA.

Mar 2010 - Mar 2011

Technical Writer

Computershare

Created online help (HTML and Web) for share registry desktop and web applications.

Nov 2007 - Feb 2010

Technical Writer

Kestral

Developed context-sensitive online help for a radiology information system.

Sept 2006 - Oct 2007

Education

Swinburne University of Technology

Graduate Diploma
Social Sciences, Technical Communications
2005 - 2006

Victoria University of Technology

Masters of Business
Information Systems
2002 - 2003

IMCC

Post Graduation
Masters of Computer Applications - Part 1
2001 - 2002

Fergusson College

Bachelor of Science
Electronic Sciences
1998 - 2001
Nifty tech tag lists fromĀ Wouter Beeftink