Content Strategist / Information Architect / Technical Writer

BRUCE MERENBLOOM

**** ********* ******* ***** ***********@*****.*********:***********@*****.***

Raleigh, NC 27612-6454 linkedin.com/in/bmerenbloom/http://www.linkedin.com/in/bmerenbloom

919-***-**** (cell)

Content STRATEGIST / Information ARCHITECT / Technical WRITER / Training Developer

15+ years leading the development of both customer-facing and internal business documents.

Broad experience with software and hardware products in R&D, marketing, and support environments.

Bachelor’s degree with majors in computer science and journalism.

Favorite thing: Collaborating with the team to assemble information that sells and supports a product. This includes keen awareness of the “UX design” of both the product and the learning material.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Created information of many types, like manuals, knowledge base articles, white papers, online help, videos, policies, and procedures, and for many departments, like engineering, marketing, and support.

Pushed information in many media, like web pages, content management systems, and collaboration sites (such as SharePoint, Wiki, Confluence, and IBM Community tools).

Contributed to the success of products by creating documents that serve as preventive .technical support.

Optimized the utility of websites, wiki sites, and help systems (by understanding the material and the users).

Selected the best tools and managed numerous projects to on-time completion.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Lowe’s Home Improvement, Raleigh, NC Mar. 2024 – Jul. 2025

Sales Associate

I seek out customers, ask about their DIY projects, meet their immediate needs, add knowledge (and products) to the transaction, and thank them kindly. This requires broad skills.

CompTIA A+, Part 1 and Part 2 badges for IT support and management October, 2023

AT&T Technology Services, in cyberspace, or Dallas, TX Nov. 2020 – Apr. 2022

Business Analyst and Content Strategist / Technical Communicator (Contract)

“Knowledge Management” for the Enterprise Architecture department; created a technical library, promoted and supported next-generation enterprise-wide software integration tools by collecting dev specs and plans.

Served in a fast-paced internal technical communications group as the go-to guy (tool geek) for building and administering SharePoint Online and MS Teams sites.

Responsible for search engine optimization and overall success of the company-internal site.

Hillrom, Inc., Cary, NC Feb. 2019 – Aug. 2020

Customer Experience Designer & Technical Writer (Contract)

Delivered documents ranging from software installation instructions to training aids for medical caregivers (which required careful design and detailed testing of the “user experience”).

Practiced the art and science of “topic chunking” and “topic re-use” on a DITA-based online help system.

Conducted review sessions with the team to assure that end-user docs help sell and support the product.

Solved problems with bash scripts; used Linux, SourceTree, Jira, Confluence, DITA w/ Oxygen Author, Word.

Local Government Federal Credit Union, Raleigh, NC Nov. 2018 – Feb. 2019

Information Architect, Toolmaker, and Technical Writer (Contract)

In the IT department, documented network monitoring procedures and disaster recovery plans,

Created detailed network maps using Visio; also used Word and SharePoint.

MetLife, Cary, NC Aug. 2018 – Oct. 2018

Technical Writer (Contract)

Technical writing for development and operation of a big-data call-center application.

Created the plan for an Application Monitoring ‘runbook’ to be utilized by the DevOps team.

Allscripts, Raleigh, NC Aug. 2017 – Jun. 2018

Business Analyst, Technical Writer, and Tool Maker (Contract)

Bullet-proofed the language in customer agreement docs (known as Sales Service Orders) to smooth the deployment of healthcare solutions in the field.

Used advanced MS Word features and complex VBA macros to simplify the customization of Word docs.

Used SharePoint, MS Excel, and Visio, plus Skype and WebEx for meeting with far-flung coworkers.

Truven Health Analytics / IBM Watson Health, Durham, NC Nov. 2016 – May 2017

Writer and Information Architect (Contract)

Created the content of online help for Truven’s Population Health Analytics tool; divided the Help into chunks that served as the basis of training material.

Devised a departmental Wiki “to prove the integrity of development processes and satisfy any internal or external auditor” and co-owned the technical content with engineers; used IBM collaboration tools.

Contributed to the UX design of Tableau-based health information dashboards.

Power Generation Services, Inc., Raleigh, NC Aug. 2016 – Nov. 2016

Technical Writer (Contract)

Revamped (and created examples in) the Help for DesignBase 6.0, a power distribution software tool.

Used XML-based MadCap Flare and GIT repository.

NC Department of Health and Human Services, RTP, NC Jan. 2016 – Jul. 2016

Writer and Information Architect (Contract)

Reorganized engineering specs using JIRA and SharePoint, and more accurately mapped specs to reqs,

Collected requirements to inform the design of technical documents

Documented Agile and JIRA methodologies, and recommended tools including MS Excel with VBA scripts.

TPS, Inc., Raleigh, NC assigned to Xylem, Inc. (Sensus USA, Inc.) Oct. 2015 – Jan. 2016

Technical Writer / Business Analyst (Contract)

Developed policies, white papers, and user guides for the Technology Security Group (which works to mitigate cyber security threats to the smart-grid product). Used advanced MS Word and SharePoint.

Riverbed Technology, Cary, NC Jun. 2014 – Jul. 2015

Technical Writer (Contract)

Fast-paced technical writing with an end-user, QA, and technical support focus for Riverbed’s line of network and application performance monitoring tools, with on-time delivery.

Created worry-free product installation instructions for Windows and Linux, knowledge base articles, and a product troubleshooting guide that had been attempted more than once.

Used FrameMaker 12, Windows 7, Linux, Trello, a content management system, and MS Office tools.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Research Triangle Park, NC Mar. 2013 – Jun. 2014

Business Analyst, Technical Writer, and Information Architect (Contract)

Documented the schema and business rules for tables in the enterprise data warehouse; polished business procedures; created a massive Wiki site to document the life and times of the IT department.

Applied principles of information architecture and user-centered design to SharePoint sites.

Timely Text, Inc., Raleigh, NC assigned to RBCBank.com Oct. 2012 – Nov. 2012

Business Procedure Management writer (Contract)

Polished complex banking policies and procedures and managed them on a SharePoint site.

NetApp, Inc., Raleigh, NC Jan. 2012 – Apr. 2012

Information Engineer (Contract)

Devised a detailed technical plan on how and where to update 21 Data ONTAP manuals to reflect the addition of Storage Area Network (SAN) protocols to the product line.

Managed that content in DITA, using SDL TRISOFT content mgmt. system and XMetaL for XML editing.

EDUCATION: BA, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Majors: computer science (software) and journalism (news writing)

Something extra: graduate-level Human-Computer Interaction (also known as User Experience Design) at NC State, 2014, grade “A”

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