Meet Hope Wyss

Hi. I write your PDXWIT newsletter and happy hour invitations. I'm a software technical writer by trade. I moved to Portland about a year and a half ago, and became involved with PDXWIT as a way to meet new people and network with women in the IT industry.

Much to my surprise, there are very few tech writers in our group, and I'm usually the only tech writer at any of the Agile meetups I attend. Tech writers bring so much more to the dev team than simply writing documentation. Because we have to see products from the macro level, we're a very good resource for calling out inconsistencies across product lines. And, because we have to write everything from the end user's perspective, we're a consistent voice for the end user to the dev team and a constant reminder of who the target audience is. My goal is to get more tech writers involved with PDXWIT and to promote the value of our skill set.

After searching for a year and a half, I finally landed a permanent job in The Pearl. We just bought a house (literally, this week!) on the Northeast side. And, we'll be moving our daughter from Oklahoma to Portland next month. In my spare time (lol), I make quilts and weave baskets. What do I like about Portland -- public transportation, all the parks, friendly people, bike lanes, food, microbrews. I will say it has taken us much longer to get settled in Portland than any other place we've lived, but it's definitely worth it.