In this episode, I talk with Heather Zoppetti, a senior technical writer who came to the field through software development and a decade spent running a hand-knitting pattern business. We talk about how technical communication shows up far beyond software documentation, how to recognize and reframe the transferable skills hiding in a nonlinear career, and why being willing to try something matters more than doing it perfectly.

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Heather and I discuss her winding path into technical writing, which started with a career in software development, took a decade-long detour into running a hand-knitting pattern and yarn business, and eventually circled back to tech. When she returned to job hunting and realized she no longer recognized the skills developers were expected to have, she stumbled on a technical writing posting and recognized the work immediately: writing knitting patterns is technical communication. She applied using her knitting patterns as her writing portfolio, and we talk about why her tech writing instincts came more from designing knitwear than from her years as a developer.

A central thread of our conversation is the idea that technical communication is far broader than software documentation. Heather pushed me to think beyond written text to formats like videos, live workshops, interactive lessons, and animated GIFs, and to recognize that different audiences and learning styles call for different approaches. We dig into her experiments with internal documentation at Vanguard, including running user research cohorts to learn the why behind how people use content, and why metrics alone can't tell you whether someone was genuinely absorbed or just stepped away from their desk. We also explore what happens when a docs team builds its own site using the design system it documents, and how "drinking your own champagne" surfaces bugs and builds trust with users.

We spend much of the second half on transferable skills and how to reframe a nonlinear career for a tech writing role. Heather and I both believe more people have technical communication experience than they realize, whether it's a pet medication schedule, a tax prep sheet, a restaurant menu, or a cheat sheet you wrote so your family stops calling you for help. We talk about treating your resume and cover letter as their own forms of technical communication, mapping your experience to the language in a job description, and why good documentation ultimately leaves your reader feeling confident they can do the thing. Heather closes with a reminder that stuck with me: you don't have to go all in to try something, and the only real way to find out if something is for you is to give it a go.

Heather Zoppetti, from Philadelphia, has a rich background in computer science and technical writing. Her current professional journey has her spending her days programming, creating tooling for engineers, and writing documentation. When she’s not typing away at code or text, Heather’s knitting, painting, or performing some other needle witchcraft like cross-stitch. She loves coffee, cats, and the Oxford comma.

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