A monthly article series featuring technical writers exploring various aspects of our craft. Each month, a different host curates a topic and brings together diverse voices to share insights, experiences, and practical advice.
This month's topic brings together technical writers to share their insights on building and maintaining effective portfolios. From different career stages and contexts, each writer offers their perspective on what makes a great technical writing portfolio.
Hosted by Brandi Hopkins
Jill Shaheen is a documentation leader who's been building content systems, leading documentation teams, and figuring out where infrastructure breaks for nearly 20 years.
Your portfolio is pigeonholing you: When good work narrows your path →
Shelby White is a technical writer specializing in security and identity documentation, with a background in cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure troubleshooting.
Portfolio Refresh →
Brandi Hopkins is a senior documentation strategist who builds scalable content systems, with expertise in docs-as-code workflows, AI-assisted documentation, and developer experience.
Story and Structure: Building a modern technical writing portfolio →Per the docs started from a simple idea: technical writers sharing honest insights about our craft. We all met while working at AWS, where we learned that the best conversations about documentation happened in the margins—the async discussions, the quick DMs, the spontaneous conversations that emerged between meetings. Those informal exchanges, where we could be honest about challenges and share what actually worked, were often more valuable than any formal training.
After AWS, we kept the conversation going. The community we'd built—one rooted in honest feedback and shared problem-solving—became even more important. We found ourselves creating the support system we needed, and eventually realized others might benefit from these conversations too. So we decided to recreate it in a way that could reach beyond our circle. Per the docs brings together technical writers to explore topics that matter to our work, not with prescriptive answers, but with diverse perspectives and honest insights. Each month, a different host chooses a topic and curates a collection of voices, creating space for the kinds of conversations we wish we saw more often in our field.
We hope you'll join the conversation. Whether you're early in your career or decades in, whether you're questioning your approach or feeling confident in your path, there's room for your perspective here. Follow along monthly to see what topics we explore next, and connect with us if you'd like to contribute to a future edition.
Brandi Hopkins