Over the years, I have been blessed by working with terrific people.

Testers. Managers. Developers. Software architects. Customer support people at various levels. Fellow technical writers. Executives. Subject matter experts.

Quite a lot of these people could write a lot better than they thought they could. When they wrote, they thought about the user.

Some of them couldn’t write well but they were great at talking about what they wanted to write… if only I could get enough of their time to interview them. Below-average writers, but still way better-than-average communicators.

Some cared more about the user than their fellow team members, and some felt the opposite. I’ve no idea which to recommend for others. I know what works for me, and that’ll have to be enough.

Before I know it, it’ll be time for me to lay down my pen. Long before that happens, I want to take a moment to be thankful to all the team members who showed me good people can do their jobs well. I learned a lot of how to be a good technical writer by watching others be good testers, managers, developers, and so on.