Maggie VanNorman graduated from the MSTC program at North Carolina State University in 2004. Afterwards, she continued her research at the University of Minnesota, completing her PhD in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication in January of 2011.
Currently, Maggie owns her own instructional design consulting company and works directly with clients on project-based work. During the pandemic, she has primarily focused on creating e-learning for clients that will be administered asynchronously through an LMS or other platform. In the past, Maggie also has developed certification tests and worked in organizational development, program management in healthcare, and curriculum development. Throughout Maggie’s career, she has been able to develop skills in writing, editing, and usability in a variety of roles.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity by Brooke Belcher, the 2021-22 Treasurer.
What was your favorite class in the MSTC program?
My favorite courses were Caroline Miller’s rhetoric courses. Those are the ones that have stuck with me the most and became most relevant to the work that I did in my second graduate degree. I also still think about the course where we first learned about the accommodation of scientific papers to public audiences. I take very complex technical systems and I translate that for public audiences, so that’s one that I think about a lot.
What does a day in the life look like for you at your current job?
I am at the point in my career where I can work with clients I like to work with – I don’t need to go find new clients because my clients return to me. I usually work from home, and the first thing I do in the morning is work on admin and project management stuff. So that may mean checking on the status of invoices or sending out emails. From there, I would jump into whatever project is currently most pressing. So this morning, I have two review meetings, and one is for a singular e-learning course that’s part of a larger program. I’m doing some light editing and applying brand standards to that for them. Then I put it into a learning pathway for their learners, and so then that’s what I’ll be doing the rest of the day. I try to only work part-time, about 25 to 30 hours a week, but lately, my clients have been so busy that I’ve been working much closer to 40 hours a week.
What are some specific responsibilities or tasks that you handle regularly in your current work for clients?
Because I work for myself, I’m responsible for all the proposals, statements of work, and invoices. Also, I make sure I stick to the timeline. And then, if i’m doing an e-learning, it involves working with the subject matter experts and making sure that we will have all the source content that they’re creating. I start with the course objectives and pay attention to the timing of the course (how long they want it to be) and what the audience already knows, starting with that audience analysis. Then, I would turn that into a high level outline for them, and then I work with my tools to create the learning itself. I write, edit, do some of the layout work, and I also do graphic design. Then I proofread, do the quality assurance a bit, and upload the files to their LMS.
What are all the kinds of technology that you are using?
The learning software I use is Articulate Storyline. It’s a super easy to use, rapid e-learning development tool. Then, I subscribe to something called Play.ht. They have thousands of AI voices, and you can just enter your text and it voices them. They not only have all those voices within it, they have like 20 choices of the voices and they’re extraordinarily realistic. And you sometimes have to tweak them a little bit, like if it’s like a piece of proprietary software name or something, but that’s been a huge game changer since working with live talent for audio is pretty slow. I use PowerPoint too for one of my clients. I take very technical drawings and try to simplify them, and I just go into PowerPoint and make little images that are comprised of 100 rectangles, triangles, lines, and dashes and make it look like that technical piece that’s on the fuel train or whatever it is. I also still use a lot of PhotoShop for some stuff and I use Excel a lot in my project management. Also, one thing that has been really helpful for me is Harvest, which is a time tracking tool that automates invoices for me as well.
What is the most rewarding part about being a technical communicator in your specific space?
Our subject matter experts are brilliant in their field, and I work with nationally and globally recognized experts in a variety of fields, and they have so much great information. So when I’m working with them, I try to advocate for what the learner needs to know and to ensure that the learning objectives are met. I think the best thing is when that subject matter expert really gets on board with that vision and gets excited about the course. It also might be the best part when the learners actually like it. For instance, I just finished a big batch of German translations and heard back from one of the people who took it in Germany, and he said, “Oh wow, we never get all German training.” So I just thought that was really great to be able to provide that to him.
What’s the biggest challenge you face?
Sometimes the project goes on longer than I’m interested in it. I really enjoy learning alongside my clients about different things, but if a project stretches really long I feel like I don’t know how much more I can keep going with the same thing. Sometimes, it’s been sitting at review for two months and the client is just too busy to get to it and I want to wrap it up and move on.
How have you seen the role of technical communicators or instructional designers change and evolve over time as you’ve been in the field?
When I first started, there were still a lot of people who saw the role of the instructional designer as being more of a curriculum approach–deciding on the flow of information, narrative, and which graphics would be best. Then, they would throw it over the fence to a graphic designer who would go into the tool and work it all up. Now, you can just go in and use the tools yourself to to create the course. I think more people are doing that since there’s such a low barrier to entry and the tools are relatively straightforward to learn. I also used to do a lot more instructor-led training, but now I think people are interested more in the asynchronous stuff. Also, a big trend that I see now are shorter micro-learnings, or a pathway or curriculum structure that still might have three to four hours of learning in it, but it’s divided up into three to seven minute chunks. So it works more with people’s busy schedules, where they can kind of dip in and dip out of the modular content.
How has your role changed as a result of the pandemic?
My biggest client is a global agriculture place, and I would make training for them and they would travel and deliver it in-person.They’re still doing some of that, but they’re realizing that it’s a really expensive way to deliver training. Whereas, if you create e-learning and students can do some of that learning upfront, the time you spend with people can be more impactful.
I’m also seeing more people be open to moving content online and that’s really great for learners because then they can also refer back to it. When people have that library of learning to go back to, it helps them all the time, so I think people are starting to realize the value of stabilizing that content.
What skills, knowledge, or abilities do you value most in technical communicators you work with or have hired?
I think the people who rise to the top in this field have a ton of attention to detail, are consistently reliable, and can meet deadlines. They’re also very thoughtful in their approach and they’re able to adjust their voice to what the client is looking for. It’s also a big thing to take constructive feedback and make the project better. Also, when you have clients, you can advocate for best practices, but if you just put your foot down about what you think is right, you’re not going to have that job and they’re going to get somebody else to do it. Finally, you have to be able to influence people well and advocate what the best thing for the learners is.
What kind of networking advice in regards to technical communication do you have for students?
Anybody who’s graduated from the program would be a great resource, and people are happy to talk to you. They went through the same program and they know you’re a hard-working, intelligent person, so don’t be afraid to reach out to that network on LinkedIn, even if you don’t feel like it’s your network. I can’t think of anybody who wouldn’t be totally honored to help a graduate of the program. Also, I would say that professional organizations and conferences are good to try to meet people and to understand the context of what was happening in the world of technical communication.
What would you say is your biggest piece of advice to students entering the technical communication or instructional design field for the first time?
The biggest piece of advice I would give is be really open in your job searches to different job titles and areas. Dig into what each job title means and be open to a job that you might think doesn’t sound like what you want to do. In lots of jobs, what you end up doing can shift a lot as people recognize your skills and your talents and they create opportunities. Look for those opportunities and create your own opportunities once you’re in those positions, and make it what you want it to be.
Was there anything else you wanted to add that we didn’t get the chance to cover?
I think instructional design is a great profession, and I’ve absolutely loved it. It can be really flexible and you work with great people. If you’re the sort of person who likes to create things, instructional design is great, or if you’re somebody who’s more about higher-level strategic implementation, then you might be better off as a learning architect or something like that– but for people who enjoy building things, instructional design is a really fun job to have.
How did you go about starting your own kind of contracting business doing this?
It’s a big leap of faith. I had a corporate job, and what I did first was that I networked with a bunch of the local learning and development consulting firms. I just reached out to each one of them, and then I was offered a six-month contract to work on. That’s what gave me enough stability to quit my job, which I did really like, but I just was looking for something different. So, I did that for six months, and then six months turned into a year with that client and then I had the option of forming my own LLC. Then, I updated my LinkedIn and I started to get calls from recruiters. At first, I went in through a recruiter and got placed somewhere, but then I started to make so many contacts that I would just get calls directly from the client. Now, I still get contacted a lot from recruiters and I just say I don’t work with recruiters anymore. I contract directly with the clients. Now it’s just been due to a combination of hard work and luck that I’ve been able to maintain some of the same clients for five years now. I had to start out working under somebody else and build up my own reputation and brand, but then after working on a couple of bigger projects your network keeps growing. People are always looking for good people, and if you’re a hard worker who creates good work, you’re always going to have work.