Confessions of a Content Chameleon: From Manuals to Innovation Coaching

  • Presentation
  • Digital Transformation of Legacy Documentation
  • Mag. Petra Herbst

    Mag. Petra Herbst

    • viesure innovation center GmbH

Contents

Over the past 25 years, I’ve followed documentation through its many evolutions: from monolithic PDFs to living, breathing knowledge bases. I embedded myself in agile teams (yes, I learned to love daily standups and introduced a daily docu for all the tech writers across teams), worked across industries, led documentation teams, taught at universities, and spoke at conferences — spreading the gospel of good content and docs-as-code along the way.

These days, my business card says Digital Content Manager, but the reality is a little more colorful. I coach teams on communication, craft narratives for innovation projects, and help non-writers find their voice. I sit at the intersection of UX, documentation, internal comms, and strategic storytelling — basically, I translate chaos into clarity.

Takeaways

You will learn that it’s not just about writing good docs. It’s about helping people understand, connect, and move forward — one sentence at a time. 

And how important it is to stay flexible and reinvent yourself all the time like a chameleon!

Prior knowledge

no prior knowledge needed

Speaker

Mag. Petra Herbst

Mag. Petra Herbst

  • viesure innovation center GmbH
Biography

1996 – 2002     ITAT Graz University
2001 – 2009     Localization Coordinator and Technical Writer @Hyperwave Software
2009 – 2016     Head of Documenation @Unycom Software
2016 – 2019     Coordinator Technical Documentation @BearingPoint
2019 – 2020     Content Manager / Technical Writer @Travis CI
2020 – today    Digital Content Manager @viesure innovation center GmbH