In this solo episode, I share my latest content updates progress and confess to finally jumping on the Claude Code bandwagon. I also reflect on my takeaways from Katie Cox’s interview (S3:E44) and some of the instructional design concepts she shared that most resonated with me.

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I finally finished my Minimum Viable Docs (MVD) list from the article editor layout release, four months later. I also finally gave in to using Claude Code when I needed to overhaul and update our OpenAPI spec file for our API documentation. My usage began innocently enough, trying to catch issues upgrading from version 2.x to 3.0 of the OpenAPI spec, but eventually included upgrading to version 3.1, updating Redoc, and overhauling a lot of the structure. Along the way, I still relied a lot on human expertise, in the form of API docs feedback from our developer Sue and OpenAPI technical expertise from Lorna Mitchell. I ultimately created a Claude skill that checks for valid YAML, validity against the OpenAPI spec file, validity against the Redoc linter CLI, and a few style guide choices.

I also reflect on my interview with Katie Cox, noting that there are a ton of ways that instructional design and technical writing overlap in terms of the skillset, the day-to-day work, and the focus on end-user needs. The primary difference, to me, lies between what a reader expects versus what a learner expects. I appreciated Katie’s focus on encouraging self-directed learning and not gating content behind clicks and required interactions. And I’m most looking forward to pairing learning objectives with a compelling narrative, one of the key tricks she uses in her work.

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