New Job on Daryl J. White

Product or Persona, a Survival Guide

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Joining a new company as a solo technical writer is always a whirlwind. But joining a company in the middle of a product pivot? That’s a masterclass in architectural agility.

Photo by Thirumalai Rajan P on Pexels.

Often, you arrive at a new job to find a product focused library. It’s a robust, detailed, and technically accurate collection of manuals that describe every knob and lever of the software. But if the company is pivoting its target audience, those “Inside-Out” docs suddenly feel like they’re speaking the wrong language.

Interviewing in the age of AI

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Photo by Alex Knight on Pexels.

I recently went through a round of interviews with several software companies in the cloud-native and developer tools space. While the tech stacks varied, one topic was ubiquitous: Generative AI.

In 2026, simply saying, “I use AI to write faster,” isn’t enough. In fact, saying that might actually hurt your chances with companies that value security and original technical thought.

Setting up for a successful first week

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How I’m engineering a successful first week in my new docs role.

My desk, newly cleaned and ready for new things.

The gap between signing a job offer and your official start date is a unique kind of limbo. The “open source” part of my brain wanted to start coding (or in my case, PRing docs) immediately. My previous post, though, was about the strategic necessity of a total mental disconnect.