Jeremy Browning

Design Studio Manager, documentation and training

Tel: 07789 937 606

Location: London N11

Note: this HTML CV is out of date. I'll update it shortly but in the meantime please see my Word or PDF version.

I am a highly skilled, experienced, versatile and motivated technical author, trainer, and documentation specialist, with a passion for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and the correct usage of grammar and punctuation. For over fifteen years I have created and managed the distribution and storage of a wide variety of high quality documents across a range of subjects.

I am driven towards implementing and maintaining high standards of documentation and communication throughout my working environment. I try to understand the potential issues facing end users, and to bear these in mind when talking to Subject Matter Experts, extracting the relevant information from them, and then presenting it in an appropriate language and a logical structure.

I am also a confident and enthusiastic trainer, with experience of creating and presenting a variety of different courses for trainees with a range of knowledge levels and from different disciplines.

I have developed and delivered training courses for colleagues, partners, and clients including BT and the NHS, as well as major international banks and financial houses (Barclaycard, Lloyds, HRG, HSBC, etc.). I have also delivered sales presentations and demonstrations to clients and management.

I have a flexible ‘can do’ attitude, and am always willing to take on board new and challenging tasks within the broader spectrum of documentation and information gathering, presentation, and distribution.

Services and abilities

Electronic and printed documentation including user manuals, online Help, design wireframes and prototypes, software specifications, and marketing and presales literature and presentations
Training courses and courseware on complex, technical, or commonplace tasks
Editing, proof reading, reviewing, layout, presentation and storage of written materials
Documentation style guides and templates that define and standardise corporate look-and-feel
Project leadership – managing colleagues, assigning workloads, proofing and editing output, and delivering high quality materials to customers on schedule

Current employment: technical author and trainer

Intelligent Environments (IE); August 2008 – the present

My primary responsibilities since joining IE have been creating and maintaining internal and customer-facing documentation for our financial software products, and creating and delivering training to our customers on how to use and customise them. I also wrote a suite of policy and procedure documents to support PCI accreditation and certification.

However I like to extend my responsibilities and add value beyond my core role, and as a result I also perform the following additional roles:

Documentation quality control, checking and proofing written materials companywide including marketing literature and press releases. I also created and own the templates and style guides that enforce and ensure companywide consistency in layout and terminology.
SharePoint administrator, responsible for documentation storage, management and distribution.
Business Analyst and Information Architect, gathering requirements, creating wireframe mockups and prototypes, and producing fully annotated User Interface and functional specifications
Webmaster of http://www.ie.com - I built the corporate website from scratch and was solely responsible for maintaining and updating it, including SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Author of software demonstrations and sales collateral. I have created and customised working prototypes, Camtasia movies, PowerPoint presentations, handouts and factsheets
Customer support agent, taking support requests and providing solutions via telephone, email and onsite visits

Previous employment history

January 2007 – August 2008: contract technical author & editor. Clients included:

Orange UK – updating the design and usability sections of the Orange Group Device Requirements (OGDR) document. Also creating corporate Word templates and documentation style guides
ESRI UK – creating, updating & editing online Help, installation guides, release notes, configuration and user manuals, and marketing literature for the ArcMap and DragonMap GIS products
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) – editing and proofing corporate policy, procedure and compliance documents.
GE Energy – writing documentation and release notes for the GE Smallworld product

July 2004 – Nov 2006: senior technical author & trainer, GE Healthcare/IDX UK

Writing online Help for the London implementation of NPfIT (National Program for IT), a complex software solution for the NHS and BT. Also managing and proofing the work of the other authors and trainers
Managing the Help build and distribution, including scripting an automated build process
Proofing and quality control of corporate documentation, including copy editing of departmental and company-wide business plans and bid proposals
Creating ‘train-the-trainer’ and end user training materials, and delivering certificated training courses in the Carecast product to BT and the NHS
Creating and delivering internal training workshops on MS Word, RoboHelp, and Lotus Notes
Creating and maintaining documentation style guides and templates, in consultation with IDX/GE, BT, and CfH (Connecting for Health), in order to ensure project-wide consistency
Managing internal and external (BT, UCLH) deliveries, also materials from a third-party supplier
Managing documentation storage and source control, and establishing related departmental processes and procedures for ISO9001 audit and accreditation
Providing usability recommendations and input into user interface design

January 2003 – July 2004: contract technical author & editor. Clients included:

Nokia – writing the Nokia Series 90 style development guide for inclusion in the SDK.
Also designing custom Word templates to conform to Nokia SDK design and style, and liaising with interaction designers, software engineers, and team leaders at Nokia in Finland
Mobile Innovation – writing the user manual, reference guide and marketing literature for a script-based software testing tool, and API documentation for user interface platform controls and widgets.
Also writing compatibility, porting, and style guides for software applications intended for multiple Symbian OS developer platforms, reviewing and proof reading marketing material and UI specifications, and contributing to usability reviews and defect testing

July 2001 – November 2002: technical author, Categoric Software Ltd

Updating, overhauling and slimming down the user documentation for Xalerts 5.1. I condensed the topic count from over 1500 to less than 650 by careful editing and by focusing on user tasks
Writing installation and ’quick start’ guides and release notes in PDF and HTML formats
Planning and managing the documentation and its life cycle, monitoring the software development process, and liaising with engineers about proposed changes
Creating HTML documentation and CSS style sheets to accompany a Web-based application
Editing and proofing training documentation and requirements specifications
Reviewing and improving the design and usability of the Xalerts user interface

Jan 1997 – June 2001: technical author, Symbian Ltd (previously Psion Software Plc)

Writing documentation and specifications for products including the Psion Series 5 and Nokia 9210
Helping to resolve UI design issues such as the design, layout and wording of screens and dialogs
Planning and managing projects, monitoring change requests, bug reporting, and Beta testing
Designing and maintaining the Intranet website for the user documentation team
Designing bespoke templates for company documentation

Services and abilities

Electronic and printed documentation including user manuals, online Help, user interface and functional specifications, design wireframes and prototypes, process and procedural documents, compliancy documentation, and marketing and presales literature, demonstrations and presentations
Training courses and courseware on complex, technical, or commonplace tasks
Editing, proof reading, reviewing, layout, presentation and storage of written materials
Documentation style guides and templates that define and standardise corporate look-and-feel
Project leadership – managing colleagues, assigning workloads, proofing and editing output, and delivering high quality materials to customers on schedule

Training, education & short courses

Sitecore marketing suite and Web analytics (Sitecore, 2010)
Sitecore for developers (Sitecore, 2008)
Advanced RoboHelp (RoboHelp, 2006)
Presentation skills (IDX, 2006)
Macromedia Dreamweaver and Fireworks (Macromedia, 2004)
Adobe Framemaker (Transmedia Training, 2002)
Project planning, working effectively & time management (Symbian, 2001),
Performance leadership & the Capability Maturity Model (Symbian, 2000)
User Interface design (Psion, 1998)
Advanced Word for Windows and Adobe Pagemaker (Psion, 1997)

Software skills

I am a highly proficient and experienced ‘power user’ of Microsoft Word, which is my preferred tool for document creation, and I regularly use and create styles, templates, macros, fields, cross references and other ‘advanced’ features. Other software skills include RoboHelp, PowerPoint, Dreamweaver, Axure Pro, Camtasia, Visio, Sharepoint, Sitecore, Microsoft CRM, Madcap Flare, FAR, Paint Shop Pro, FrameMaker, HDK, Adobe Acrobat and PageMaker, HTML and CSS, Windows (3.1-7), and MS-DOS including batch files and scripting.

Interests, activities & languages

Although most of my leisure time is devoted to my family, I still have a keen interest in music and enjoy home recording (I play guitar & bass guitar, sing, and write songs). I sing tenor with Tottenham Community Choir, for whom I created and manage http://www.tottenhamcommunitychoir.com.

I have excellent computer skills, and am a member of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC). I speak French, and have a clean driving licence. I swim and cycle regularly.

Contact details & links

Telephone 07789 937 606

LinkedIn profile http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/656/b1a

Personal website http://jeremyb.co.uk/work includes my online portfolio and examples of my work

Facebook Jeremy Browning

Twitter W1tchseason

Please note: My Facebook and Twitter accounts are personal, and *not* work-related.
The writing style that I use in social media is in no way indicative of my professional writing style.