---
title: "Tech comm trends – why tech writers will be collaborating more with engineers"
date: 2018-10-09
description: "Note about this revision Why trends intrigue me The impact of UX and the need for documentation Evaluating trends based..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2018/10/09/tech-comm-trends-more-collaboration-with-engineers/
---
# Tech comm trends – why tech writers will be collaborating more with engineers
In this post, I’ve expanded the section on trends with more depth, analysis, and information. I’ve also incorporated the feedback I received from the survey on the [previous version](/2018/10/02/providing-value-as-generalists-in-specialist-contexts-part-2/) (thanks to all who participated and responded).

At the bottom of this post (in [Your reactions and input](#reactions-and-input)), I also have some survey questions to gather your level of agreement or disagreement. Your responses help me better align my observations. Thanks!

## Why trends intrigue me

Posts about trends usually receive a lot of views and comments, which suggests that trends are an important topic for tech comm professionals. Why are trends important to recognize and follow? In a rapidly changing field like technology, almost everything is in constant flux. Sometimes you wake up and so much seems to have changed.

Consider how some previously dominant companies simply vanished: Blackberry, Blockbuster, Borders Books, Toys ‘R’ Us, Kodak, Radio Shack, Tower Records, Circuit City, Encyclopedia Britannica, and others. Some scholars say the reason these companies went bankrupt is that they focused only on what helped make them successful and became blind to further innovation. They also focused too much on the market today rather than the one forming tomorrow (see [Companies That Went Bankrupt From Innovation Lag](https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/072115/companies-went-bankrupt-innovation-lag.asp)).

These are companies, of course, not job roles or functions. But I think the same might be same of technical writing professions. How do we stay marketable in this constantly changing field? We have to focus on trends if we want to take strategic steps to stay in business tomorrow. We don’t want to wake up one day, perhaps after being laid off and unable to find new work, and ask in a surprised, perplexed way, “What happened?” We want to avoid being caught off guard in becoming professionally unmarketable.

But discerning trends is not an easy task, especially if you want to support your assertions with data and more evidence than simply guessing based on the latest shiny technologies. I’ll do my best in the sections that follow to ground my assertions in data.

In a nutshell, my argument is that technology seems to be getting more specialized and complex. This trend toward specialization and complexity has ratcheted up the value of technical knowledge, making it more sought-after than writing skills. The increased level of complexity requires technical writers to collaborate more with engineers in the authoring of content. In a way, this collaboration is the specialization of the authoring process itself — dividing the content development more to engineering and the information usability more to language specialists. To drive up their value in organizations, technical writers should look for ways to collaborate more skillfully with engineers in creating content.

## The impact of UX and the need for documentation

We need a starting point for this discussion, so let’s begin by analyzing the impact of UX design on tech comm. In a recent episode of the Cherryleaf podcast, [40. The evolution of the technical communicator’s career](https://cherryleaf.podbean.com/e/the-evolution-of-technical-communication/), Ellis Pratt discusses an article called [Software technical writing is a dying career (but here’s what writers can do to stay in the software game)](https://softwaresaltmines.com/2015/06/16/software-technical-writing-dying/), by Jim Grey published in 2015.

Grey’s main argument is that “companies are leaning into good user-interface design and stepping away from online Help systems and printed/PDF documentation.” Grey explains that he had lunch with a business owner who explained this transition, saying:

> Technical writing is dying off…. It’s all about clean, engaging UX now. I have talked to more than a hundred startup and small software companies as I’ve built my business. Almost none of them have technical writers, and almost all of them have UX designers.

Grey argues that UX design has displaced the need for tech comm in software companies. Instead of hiring a tech writer to provide explanations for confusing interfaces, companies hire UX designers to get the design intuitive from the start.

![Grey says the trend, at least for end-user products, is to hire UX designers to create intuitive products that don't need documentation](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/generalist_specialist_design_not_docs.svg)

Keep in mind this was a simple blog post. [Grey has noted](/2018/10/02/providing-value-as-generalists-in-specialist-contexts-part-2/#comment-4128781619) that he “wasn’t trying to write a well-researched article for the ages,” and it’s not fair to make him the poster child of this argument. This idea has been bandied about by lots of people in a variety of contexts — I just chose this reference to make the idea more concrete. (Grey explained in a note to me, “I was just trying to make a point that old, traditional, explain-the-UI tech writing appeared to me to be going away, but that a technical communicator can stay employed by pivoting into some related fields.”)

Even it was only a simple blog post, Grey stood by his argument. Sensing his irrelevance as a technical writer, Grey jumped off the documentation ship and into software testing instead, where he says he brought along many useful skills he learned as a technical writer.

Let’s talk about the influence of UX on tech comm. Are companies prioritizing UX design over tech comm in companies? Undeniably, the practice of user experience design has matured into a full-fledged discipline rich with research-backed design principles, methodology, and professional expertise. UX designers are now much more common in engineering groups. Companies recognize that usable interfaces can make the difference between product success and failure. Companies like Apple have cemented the idea that users are willing to pay for well-designed products that don’t rely on a lot of documentation.

UX has championed this emphasis on the user experience. But does it mean companies are eliminating tech writers from their organizations?

Not necessarily. Some commenters in a [previous survey](https://www.questionpro.com/t/PESakZc1sh) noted that many UX designers see good copywriting as part of UX and will often champion the inclusion of technical writers in the design process. One respondent noted:

> Effective writing that makes processes simple to follow *is* one part of good UX, not separate. Unless UX design roles demand writing skills, I don’t expect technical writing roles to disappear. In the last five years, UX designers have probably been more effective at advocating for their discipline and inserting themselves within developer-led discussions than technical writers have.

In other words, rather than remove writers from the equation, UX designers become advocates of good writing, increasing the involvement of tech writers in UX (especially when designers lack writing skills themselves). For some tech writers, their primary role is, in fact, “UX copywriting.” For others, UX writing is just one aspect of their role among many other types of work.

The latter is true for me. I occasionally work with a design team in my current role. They create design mocks, and they ask me to review the text. I provide detailed feedback that covers every aspect of text in the UI, from button labels to microcopy, dialog box text, error messages, and more.

However, I don’t do a lot of UX copywriting (maybe once a month), since we have a small design team and they don’t crank out new user interfaces too often. But without the UX team, I’m not sure I would be regularly included in these UI writing efforts. In this case, UX has increased my role rather than taken it away.

On the other hand, without the UX design team, I’m sure the user interface that the engineers (without UX skills) might create would be so bad that I’d be called in with great urgency to provide more detailed explanations, even video tutorials walking users through the confusing process. So whether UX has a positive or negative influence on my need within teams is somewhat uncertain to me.

## Evaluating trends based on tech comm job data

Was Grey right or wrong? So far, I haven’t presented any data. It’s easy to trade anecdote for anecdote, but what does the data say about tech comm jobs? Are they diminishing? If so, why? Let’s dive into some data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

If you look at the latest [STC Salary Database](https://www.stc.org/salary-database/) (based on BLS data), you can see that tech writing jobs have actually grown by about 3,620 jobs in 4 years:

![Tech writing jobs have grown slightly since 2012, up by about 3,620 jobs.](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/techwriterjobsovertime.png)

Overall, in 2016, there were about 50,000 technical writing jobs in the United States. The report notes that technical writing is “the only occupation [among professional writing disciplines] which has seen employment growth in each year since 2011, with an average annual employment increase of 1.9%.”

Despite the growth, technical writing jobs aren’t necessarily keeping pace with software development jobs. The BLS says the [job growth for software developers](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm) from 2016 to 2026 is projected at 24%, but for [technical writers](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/technical-writers.htm), the job growth is projected at just 11%. (Both growth rates are higher than the national average, which is 7%.)

To put these numbers into perspective, suppose 10 technical writers support 1,000 engineers. In 2026, **11** technical writers will support **1,240** engineers. If the rate stays the same for the next decade, in 2036, **12** technical writers will support **1,538** engineers.

So yeah, while technical writing jobs might not be diminishing, they are shrinking proportionally. But as far as measuring the impact of UX or other causes affecting the job growth, the BLS has little to say except this:

> Employment growth will be driven by the continuing expansion of scientific and technical products. An increase in Web-based product support should also increase demand for technical writers. Job opportunities, especially for applicants with technical skills, are expected to be good.

This last point — “especially for applicants with technical skills” — is something I’ll return to later since there has been a continual requirement for subject-matter familiarity in job advertisements.

## An “evolution” of roles, but evolving towards what?

What does Pratt make of Grey’s blog post? In the podcast, Pratt looks generally at job trends and decides that no, technical writing jobs haven’t gone away. Pratt’s company, Cherryleaf, is primarily a recruiting agency for technical writers, so the mere fact that he’s still in business suggests that companies are still seeking technical writers.