Technical Writer

Launching software is hard. At Booster Stage, we’re on a mission to help businesses launch extraordinary software products. We believe market validation, agile methodology, and iterative development are keys to launching successful web-based products.

We have an immediate opening for a Technical Copywriter to help us create product documentation for our clients and to write articles for our blog.

This is a flexible contract/hourly position. You can set your own hours and work as many or as few hours as you wish. We do have a production schedule, so when you pick a project to work on you'll be expected to hit the deadline, but which projects you choose to work on is up to you.

Writing Blog Posts

Our readers appreciate our well-thought-out and authoritative articles concerning startup issues. Unfortunately we don't publish as frequently as we'd like. We have an overflowing basket of partially-written blog posts. You can help us with that! Many of these posts could be fleshed out into good articles for our blog.

• Write blog articles based on half-baked ideas that our CEO cooks up.
• Scour Quora (and elsewhere) for ideas for new blog articles relating to startup issues.
• Write well-researched and informative articles about startup issues and product design.

Technical Copywriting

Our customers appreciate how easy our apps are to use, but we still like to provide basic documentation.

• Create step-by-step instructions for how to use every feature in the app.
• Illustrate the documentation with high-quality, annotated screenshots when appropriate.
• Review the product roadmap to understand what features need to be documented.
• Ask questions of the Lead Developer whenever anything is not clear.

Bug Documentation

We like to find bugs before our customers do. Occasionally a bug slips past our automatic test suite. As you go through the app producing documentation, you may run into these bugs. Better you than the end user! In these cases you'll create a GitHub issue including steps to reproduce, expected outcome, and screenshots.

• Create detailed bug reports in Github whenever something is broken.
• Document the error that occurred, the steps that led to the error, and the expected outcome.

Required Skills

• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Ability to create high-quality screenshots and product illustrations.
• Strong ability to research a specific topic and give supporting citations.

Nice to have Skills

• Ability to create supporting graphics using Photoshop, Sketch, Pixelmator, or your favorite tool.
• Working experience with startups.
• Ability to help organize and stick to a production schedule.

What we'd like to see in your portfolio:

• Easy-to-read how-to articles.
• In-depth but engaging articles about technical subjects.

How we work

This job is 100% remote. Though you’re welcome to come in to work in our Elgin, TX office (near Austin), you’ll have ultimate flexibility over your own working schedule and environment.

This is not a 9-5 job (though it could be if those are your favorite hours). We rarely work over 40 hours per week, baring those rare moments of crunch time when we’re trying to hit a deadline or the server room is on fire.

We promote a distraction-free work environment. Our work style is modeled after 37signals’ successful approach to productive remote work. We even use Basecamp as our primary communication tool.

We write. Because we don’t have the opportunity to chat over the water cooler, we write A LOT to keep each other in the loop. Basecamp is our water cooler, and we use the message board, Campfire, and check-ins extensively to keep each other up to date on what we're working on.

We sometimes work together. Through the magic of the Internet, we sometimes will video conference via Zoom, or we might pair program for a while to work out a difficult problem. If you happen to live near Austin, Texas, then we might even get to work together in person sometimes.

We learn on the job. We love learning and are never content with what we already know. As a company, we devote time and resources to learning and expanding our knowledge library. Openness to learning new things is essential. You’ll be expected and encouraged to build your skills and add to your personal toolbox. We encourage self-directed learning, but we may also want you to pursue some particular thread of knowledge for a particular project.

About Booster Stage

We build great products for the web.

Most of our work involves creating brand-new web apps for businesses who are launching a new product. We often work with startups, and we have also worked for big organizations who act like startups.

We’re a tiny family-owned business. Literally a mom and pop shop. Ryan and Bethany, the owners, have been building stuff for the web since 2004, and we’ve gotten really good at building new products for startups. Over the years we've created numerous websites and products for the web.

We blog on the Booster Stage website, and we sometimes tweet what we're reading at @Booster_Stage. And when we're feeling grown up we also hang out on LinkedIn.

How to Apply

Ready to apply? Send your resume and cover letter to [email protected]. Please include the job title in the subject line and let us know why you're interested in this job.