How I Led My First Documentation Migration Team

I wrote this article back in May, but have kept it unpublished. But there's something I learned that's worth sharing.

The things you fear most bring out the best in you. I'm not here to flatter you but to share my experience about leading a team to migrate the Technical Writing Mentorship Program (TWMP) documentation from Hugo to Docusaurus.

I had always hoped for this migration because the old documentation was in poor shape. When the opportunity finally arrived, I eagerly volunteered, unaware of what awaited me.

On April 22nd, I woke up to a long voice note, a Google Docs, and multiple links in the migration WhatsApp group sent by the Project lead, Prince. I opened the document and froze: I had been listed as the Content Migration Team Lead.

My first reaction was?

Why me?

But the baton had been passed, and I couldn't refuse. This was my chance to lead and grow. After reviewing the materials, I clarified expectations, assembled my team in a new WhatsApp group, and we kicked off.

But the timing was intense:

• I was auditing Veryfi's documentation (my second task for TWMp's Product Docs Cohort).

• Reviving the Fedora Gaming SIG channel (a story for another article!).

• Doing multiple open source contributions.

• Actively applying for Jobs.

Officially leading a team in this area for the first time was daunting, but I leaned on lessons from Outreachy, where communication and collaboration were crucial.

Here's how it unfolded:

The first week focused on migrating the blog section. It was exciting to use Docusaurus in depth for the first time. I delegated tasks, migrated three blogs, and submitted a pull request (PR). We encountered some technical challenges with Git, but we walked through them as a team.

What I learned from my week 1 experience was:

Leadership isn't just delegation; it is about problem solving with empathy.

Next, we tackled the academy courses, a far larger task. I delegated again but emphasized submission of PRs every two days as directed by the project lead.

I faced a challenge

I had underestimated how hard PR reviews would be. This was my first time getting hands-on reviewing PRs on GitHub.

The work was tedious, but I kept a positive attitude. We laughed through our mistakes and worked together as a team. The project lead, Prince Oyeanuna, and Wisdom Nwokocha praised our proactive communication, a stark contrast to my past struggles.

Key Lessons Learned from the Migration

• Leadership is equal to service: You are not just there to delegate but also to fix problems with your team.

• Communication is crucial: Every setback was solved by asking, "Hey, how do I fix this?"

• Git is more like a team sport: Branch rules and communication prevent disasters.

• Sometimes growth isn't linear. Embrace the chaos.

• Document Everything: Screenshots, PR links, and notes are lifelines during retrospection.

The Results

Phase 1 was a success: Here is what we achieved

• The content migration team migrated the blog and the academy course

• The homepage team redesigned the site's UI.

What's Next?

Phase 2 has commenced.

Follow my journey as we work on improving the documentation. Phase 1 was a journey of embracing fear, leading with empathy, and trusting collaboration. Failure wasn't a dead end but a detour to growth.

If you've read this far, thank you!

Stay tuned for my Phase 2 experience.

Read more about our migration process here.