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
- Technical communication
- Content strategy
- Information architecture
- Product documentation
- UX Writing
- Content design and development
- Open source documentation
- Implementation guides
- Online help
- User guides
- Release notes
- Technical specifications
- Developer docs
- Wikis
- API documentation
- Error messages
- Product content
- Developer Portals
- 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.
Product marketing blogs
Wrote monthly blog posts capturing product enhancements, new features and documentation updates, along with other company news.
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.
Technical specifications and API documentation
Managed technical content for Australian distributed energy initiatives. Documented technical specifications, API design docs, user guides, and reference information.
Online Help
Scoped, planned, and created Online Help (100+ topics), What's New, Release Notes for a project management software for architects and engineers.
Developer Portals
Set up a doc workflow process and toolchain, wrote API documentation, and designed mockups of partner and developer sites for external Partners.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Geonetwork
Participated in Google Season of Docs 2019, and contributed to the GeoNetwork open source project.
Kubeflow
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
Article - Redocly for technical writers
Podcast - Embrace Discomfort and Challenge the Status Quo for Advocacy and Visibility
Talk - The secret sauce behind successful APIs
Podcast - Tech Writer Advocacy and Managing Write the Docs Australia
Talk - Putting the tech in technical writer
Talk - Making content sustainable
Talk - What's the deal with Release notes?
Talk - When bad screenshots happen to good writers
Article - The Art of the Review
Article - How API docs became my silver lining
Podcast - Write the Docs Podcast
Article - Justifying the use of Single Sourcing
Experience
Technical Writer
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.
Mentor
Mentor aspiring and transitioning technical writers through the ADPList platform.
Technical Writer Advocate
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.
Senior Technical Writer (Contract)
Planned, designed and created online documentation for AEMO internal and external portals across gas and electricity market applications.
Senior Technical Writer (Contract)
Set up content design for onboarding and developer platforms. Created API documentation for recruitment partners and developers.
Senior Technical Writer (Contract)
Developed and managed product and technical documentation including API content for developer portal and B2B users.
Technical Writer (Contract)
Documented processes, procedures and other content for FedRAMP security project.
Lead Technical Writer (Contract)
Led a technical writing team documenting business processes for network operations and performance teams.
Technical Writer
Created product content (Help, Release Notes, Feature Guides) for a student housing software
Technical Writer (Contract)
Worked with data warehouse development team to plan and deliver developer guides and reference material.
Team Lead Technical Writer (Contract)
Led and mentored 2 technical writers working on a Smart Metering project.
Technical Writer (Contract)
Planned and created process documentation for a student management system implementation.
National Procedures Officer (Contract)
Scoped, designed and created a National Procedures Manual.
Documentation Specialist (Contract)
User content, Process documentation, Policy writing, Information Architecture projects for Australia Post, Alex Fraser Group, ANZ, Toyota Australia, DownerEDI Works, Elders Australia, BUPA.
Technical Writer
Created online help (HTML and Web) for share registry desktop and web applications.
Technical Writer
Developed context-sensitive online help for a radiology information system.