My mug shot
My name is Dave. I’m a technical writer.
You’ll find me writing just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and thinking about how we connect with our users.
You can reach me by email or see my profile on LinkedIn.
I see my job as helping people succeed at doing their job by using the product or service that I’m documenting. Maybe yours.
I’ve spent over 15 years delivering customer-facing and internal documentation in nine different B2B markets. My writing builds upon another 15+ years in technical sales, live customer training, and manufacturing process analysis.
What I bring to your project
I know how to work with developers and designers to understand a product and improve its UI.
I know how to work with product owners to understand target customers and market strategies.
I know how to work with support specialists to understand how users might struggle.
Tapping into my earlier experience in sales, training, and consulting helps me understand different perspectives and make the connections and introductions required to break through organizational silos.
The move from sales to writing is not as much of a stretch as it might appear.
Both pursuits focus on the person at the heart of the story. Salespeople call that person the customer. Technical writers call that same person the user. In both cases, the task is the same – determine what the customer/user needs and then describe how to successfully address the need with your product or service.
That’s the attitude and experience that I’ll bring to your project.
How I work
For the past 10 years or so, I’ve been writing in DITA, most recently using Oxygen XML Editor.
I did my early technical writing using FrameMaker, so structured authoring is nothing new to me.
More recently, I’ve started doing work in Markdown.
I also like to illustrate my work. A lot of my docs feature diagrams that I created with Inkscape, an open source graphics tool that resembles Illustrator. (I was often working within tight budgets, so freeware was the way to go.)
I rely on Adobe Acrobat Pro for reviews.
I like its commenting features and its simplicity. It makes it easy for reviewers to tell me what I need to know.
Another one of my favorites is Snagit.
I’ve often used its image editing features to clean up and adapt screenshots and other images to suit my needs.
I’ve spent a lot of time working with UX and front-end developers, so I’m familiar with Sketch and Invision.
I also count my sales, training, and consulting experience as skills.
They come in handy when I need to chase down some technical detail or reach out to a new team.
I’m not shy. I’m accustomed to introducing myself to a new audience every day, asking questions, and working towards success.
…or at least having a pleasant and useful conversation.
So what have I done lately?
Over the past few years I’ve been documenting software aimed at enterprise marketers. I began this work as part of Unica, a company that pioneered the enterprise marketing management software and was later acquired by IBM.
I’ve been fortunate to often work on new ideas and unusual products. That’s what I enjoy most.
I like the change of pace. Getting into new things. Skipping the ordinary.
Email marketing app
Documented the refresh of eMessage an email marketing app as it transformed into a hybrid application: combined on-premises and SaaS.
Ultimately, I revised the entire documentation set, including installation, system administration, and user guides and context sensitive online help – delivering 5 different versions in 7 languages. I converted FrameMaker docs to XML and embedded with the development team to shorten publication cycles to weeks, not months.
Customer data platform
I joined the team that developed Universal Behavior Exchange (UBX), a customer data platform that lets marketers connect independent marketing and analytic apps without depending on help from their IT department.
I generated a complete doc set from scratch, including user, admin, and API guides, from the beta release through the first couple of years of general availability. I really enjoyed helping to build something cool from the ground up.
Data analytics apps
I’ve documented various data analytics applications that monitor and predict customer behaviors and interactions with commercial websites and email messaging. These projects gave me a chance to work extensively with user experience developers and begin writing in the UX realm.
Helped launch two new applications and documented a major revision of an on-premises application in just over 90 days – reducing bulk by roughly 50%.
Previously…
I didn’t always operate in the marketing space. Before writing for marketers, I created illustrated user, administrator, and installation guides, online help, content guides and templates, and started working with UI terminology. Here’s the short list.
Symantec
Network security appliance.
Editor for a five-writer team, created a content guide, and documented a migration tool.
Tyco Security Products
Building security management systems.
User Guide, administration guide, and online help.
SunGard SCT
Enterprise resource management for higher education.
Installation, administration, and configuration guides. Internal style guide.
Iperia, Inc.
Voice over IP platform.
User and administration guides, online help, FrameMaker template.
Tellabs ISD
Network routing hardware (ATM switch/IP router).
Installation Guide.
Contact me
Please reach out if you would like to work with someone who is…
- Experienced with enterprise products
- Familiar with Agile development and DevOps software developments
- Comfortable working across functions and across continents
- Able to work around problems creatively
- Resilient
David Van Camp 