Roles · Technical Writer · Lead
10 core skills, 45 in total. Expectations per skill, and what changes at the next level.
This page lists what a Lead } is expected to know and do, skill by skill. Core skills are the ones a manager and peers assess in a review cycle; the rest count only in self-assessment. Main areas: API & Integration, Version Control & Collaboration, Documentation.
Grouped by area. The label on the right is the expected depth: Awareness, Working, Advanced or Expert.
Defines organizational REST API design and documentation standards. Coordinates API governance: design reviews, breaking change detection, deprecation policy. Ensures API design consistency through documented standards.
Defines organizational docs-as-code standard: workflows, branching strategy for docs, review processes, quality metrics. Coordinates team migration to docs-as-code approach. Creates contribution guidelines for developers.
Builds a content strategy system for API documentation at the product level: content types, audience mapping, content lifecycle. Coordinates work between writers and developers. Implements user feedback loops for continuous documentation improvement.
Defines architecture documentation standards for the organization: required artifacts, detail levels, review process. Coordinates architecture documentation across teams, ensuring a unified system landscape view.
Defines organizational standards for technical information visualization: notations, tools, color schemes, templates. Coordinates creation of unified system landscape diagrams combining knowledge from different teams. Trains on visualization techniques.
Defines docs-as-code strategy and standards for the organization. Selects the toolchain, defines docs platform architecture. Coordinates migration from legacy wiki (Confluence) to docs-as-code approach. Trains teams on tools.
Defines knowledge management strategy for the organization. Selects tools, standardizes processes, trains authors. Ensures knowledge is not lost during employee turnover through structured knowledge capture.
Defines runbook standards for the entire organization. Builds a culture of operational documentation. Coordinates runbook coverage: every production service has a complete set of runbooks. Conducts runbook reviews.
Defines content strategy for the organization's technical content. Coordinates authors from different teams. Implements editorial process: ideation, writing, review, publication, distribution. Measures content impact.
Defines user documentation standards for the organization. Coordinates localization into multiple languages. Establishes quality and effectiveness metrics. Builds feedback loops with product and support teams.
Not assessed by the team, but part of the self-assessment and the development plan.
0 skills get a higher expectation or become core when moving from Lead to Principal. The biggest jumps first.
} in the open competency matrix: 45 skills across 5 levels. The matrix is free for individuals and stays free.