Summary
Portfolio
Overview
Work History
Software
Extracurricular
Education
86

ERIN MCGARRY

Technical Writing | Content Strategy & Architecture | Knowledge Management
Acton,MA

Summary

A skilled technical writer and knowledge manager who's passionate about clear, concise, and consistent content. 20+ years of exceptional documentation creation pairs nicely with an innate desire to adhere to brand voice, style , and AI requirements. Curious and creative thinker. Excellent communication skills and a dash of detail obsession combine to ensure information is presented and stored in a knowledgeable way. Obsessed with and fueled by customer feedback. Lover of learning and solving problems.

Portfolio

Check out examples of my technical writing and knowledge management skills on my personal Notion page:

  • https://www.notion.so/Erin-McGarry-s-Portfolio-1bc7e1c9792880aaa545dc7cb71315db?pvs=4

Overview

20
20
years of professional experience
4
4

Years of post-secondary education

Work History

Senior Knowledge Manager, Global Operations

Oyster
01.2023 - Current
  • Technical Writing & Editing: Transformed 12 150+ page Google Docs of country employment legalese into 46+ consumable and understandable topics; rewrote 100+ Help Center articles to follow style guide and technical writing best practices; Increased customer rating of help content by 25%.
  • Knowledge Architect: Designed templates for authors of help center articles (how-to, Q&A, announcements, product updates, feature in-depth); Updated the style guide to create a consistent voice for all knowledge content authors across the company; Created authoring resources (trainings, written content, video demonstrations, and dedicated Slack channel) to facilitate learning and sharing of authoring knowledge.
  • Zendesk Guide (Help Center) Admin: Updatin the customer-facing Help Center based on usage data; Created and customized in-article feedback forms; Working to implement and manage translated content for country-specific employment guides.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration & Partnerships: Defined the content publishing workflow by defining content authors, owners, and auditing cadence; Designed automated update announcements to share content updates in real-time; Trained 3 new authors (so far) and is point-of-contact for all authors globally.
  • Developed polished visualizations to share results of data analyses.

Senior Knowledge Manager, Product

Oyster
03.2022 - 01.2023
  • Technical Writing & Editing: Technical writing adviser of country-specific content from People Services and Legal teams.
  • Knowledge Architect: Designed templates for the product team to submit knowledge/documentation requests; Built a style guide to create a consistent voice for product authors.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration & Partnerships: Streamlined authoring tools used across all teams; Implemented a tool for customer service to provide feedback on help center articles; Created multiple Asana boards to capture and organize knowledge requests across the organization.
  • Zendesk Guide (Help Center) Admin: Redesigned the customer-facing Help Center to be on-brand and better categorized; Coordinated vendor and in-house experts to further customize Help Center; Enabled analytics to gather usage data; Defined and set up permissions; Created and defined the publishing workflow; Created and customized Feedback form(s); Created dedicated documentation space for all ZDG information (change log, customization list).

Global Knowledge Management Lead

Vistaprint
02.2016 - 03.2022
  • Technical Writing & Editing: Lead author, reviewer and communicator of knowledge to agents and support staff (via knowledge base), as well as external customers (via Help Centers).
  • Knowledge Architect: Design & structure info so that it is easy to find, maintain and scale; keep knowledge up-to-date and relevant; discard knowledge that doesn't add value; ensure training content is housed in LMS instead of KB.
  • Information Management: Helped establish, manage and grow multiple content libraries including customer-facing help, employee knowledge base & customer support email templates.
  • Self-Organized Team: Maximized efficiency and collaboration by devising and implementing new "ways of working:" established process to review, prioritize and assign incoming global requests; Created weekly-rotating role to manage requests and facilitate team meetings; Customized Jira instance to meet unique needs using automations.
  • Communication: Promptly delivers clear and concise communications that are customized based on audience.
  • Multimedia: Initiated testing multimedia solutions for call deflection in ~10 locales and 3 languages.
  • Collaboration & Partnership: Solicits and acts on feedback and trends; constantly builds strong relationships across diverse global organization.
  • Global Localization and Translation Project Support: coordinates localization of materials for 24+ localized languages.
  • Drove Knowledge Adoption: Encourages knowledge feedback and addresses knowledge gaps through observation, feedback & analytics.
  • Promoted Agile Adoption: Thrives in fast-paced agile environment with tight deadlines, complexity and multiple priorities. Regularly elicits and acts on feedback and trends.
  • Continued Learning: Certified in Knowledge Center Support (KCS) Principles from HDI, version 5.3.

Global Knowledge Management Sr. Specialist

Vistaprint
08.2012 - 02.2016
  • Technical Writer: Documented and maintained processes and procedures for global customer support teams.
  • Standards, Style & Compliance: Established knowledge styles and standards as well as led style compliance through peer review programs.
  • Self-Service Strategy: Helped design and refine customer self-service page and content for 24+ localized sites.
  • Release Notes Author: Summarized customer impacting changes and tests independently, using Jira tickets and with tech and marketing stakeholders. Published notes globally to 1400+ people across the business (including CEO) every 3 weeks. Streamlined process from 5 days down to 14 hours.
  • Knowledge Consultant: Collaborated and influenced team members and stakeholders across multiple levels, functions and global regions. Partnered with the Learning Department's Instructional Design team to create documentation and communications.

Senior Education Development Specialist

Standards Compliance Team, PTC University
02.2011 - 08.2012
  • Process Improvement & Standardization: Standardized and improved the team's feedback process, ensuring more consistent and actionable insights. Created internal wiki documentation outlining education standards and processes, promoting clarity and accessibility across teams. Designed templates to streamline feedback collection and improve the review process, boosting efficiency and consistency.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration & Leadership: Represented the editing team on the Super User team, contributing to the development and refinement of processes and standards for the new internal content management system (Arbortext Content Manager).
  • Training & Mentorship: Trained and mentored new technical editors and courseware developers, ensuring a smooth onboarding process and consistent quality standards.
  • Recognition: Awarded PTC’s Excellence Award for outstanding hard work and dedication to maintaining quality and standards in acquired courseware.

Education Development Specialist

Parametric Technology Corporation
09.2005 - 05.2011
  • Technical Writing & Editing: Edited 106+ user guides and learning materials for clarity, consistency, and alignment with company standards, ensuring easy user comprehension.
  • Technical Proficiency & Initiative: Demonstrated initiative by independently mastering 5+ company-used programs and products, quickly becoming a go-to resource for colleagues.

Software

Technical Writing

Knowledge Design

Information Management

Zendesk Guide

Atlassian Jira, Trello, Confluence

HTML, XML, Wiki text

Adobe Photoshop, Snagit, Gimp

Microsoft Office Suite

Google Workspace (G Suite)

Notion

Asana

Loom

Extracurricular

  • 2-Time Champion of the CARE Chili Cookoff at Vistaprint
  • Founding member of the “Career Moms” Employee Resource Group (ERG) at Vistaprint
  • Member of the Committee to Improve Gardner Field (in West Acton) 2019-2021
  • Volunteer assistant librarian (at Acton’s C.T. Douglas Elementary School)
  • Enjoys gardening, reading, walking, puzzles
  • Red Sox and Bruins fan

Education

Bachelor of Arts - English

University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA

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ERIN MCGARRYTechnical Writing | Content Strategy & Architecture | Knowledge Management