Effective Knowledge for Effective People

In an economy where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one sure source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. — Ikujiro Nonaka

Growing companies become aware of the importance of “knowing what they know”. Growth makes it harder for people to keep track of the knowledge in other parts of the company. People start to repeat work already done elsewhere in the company, or stumble upon problems without realizing that a solution already exists.

Company knowledge exists in many different places: web sites, shared folders, databases, knowledge bases, and even email threads. The most important knowledge is often inside the heads of people.

Is your company knowledge effective? Can your people easily find and use it?

Joaquim “px” Baptista

How can your company knowledge have maximum impact? Count me in! I will ask insightful questions that draw on my 27 years of experience in leading knowledge management efforts. Then, I will give practical and realistic advice. I will create processes, tools, and artifacts that make a difference right away, yet cater for future growth.

I make the complex simple, allowing your people to focus on what really matters. I take great pride in seeing companies and communities thrive by making better use of their own knowledge.

I grew up in Algés, near Lisbon. I worked as programmer and trainer before graduating as a computer science engineer at New University of Lisbon. I pursued scientific research, then I led the technical writing department at Altitude Software for 17 years and proceeded to lead technical writing at Farfetch for 7 years. I received advanced management training at Catholic University. I live at Póvoa de Santa Iria, near Lisbon, with my wife and two grown-up children.

Together we will gather, organize, and improve your company knowledge

Together we will guide your company through the path to effective knowledge. You will achieve the following benefits:

	Capture what your company knows! Your company cannot manage what it does not know. Learn where you stand to plan for the future.
	Make your knowledge easy to consume! Write clear thoughts in clear words. Inspire with illustrations and comics. Explain APIs with code samples.
	Design effective training and demos! Create hands-on lessons or tutorials with guaranteed learning objectives. Create inspiring demos.
	Optimize the flow of your company knowledge! Structure the company knowledge for consumption and maintenance. Have a place for everything.
	Craft your company software! Automate. Capture the requirements precisely. Design the customer experience. Streamline decisions for everyone.
	Manage with agility! Discover and deliver incrementally. Remove annoyances, manage risk.
	Protect the future with open formats! Embrace flexible tools and open formats that adapt to the growing needs of your company.

Testimonials

I had a chance to work with Joaquim on the Information Governance team, and was immediately impressed by his willingness to learn and embrace challenges. He is one of the most experienced professionals on technology documentation in the country, and he leverages it for a forward vision of the role of technical writing skills in a Software centric organization.

He understands the value of documentation as a contributing force for the strength of a software ecosystem. He acknowledges it as a collaborative effort, where multiple skills contribute, and the Technical Writer ultimately ensures process, quality and coherence from multiple skill sets. He is also great at building tools to enable it, as he learns quickly and understands technology and software engineering.

Through Joaquim's vision and ability to deliver, he built a documentation system that integrates the role of Technical Writing with the software lifecycle, focused on how to use our platform with API documentation.

Lastly, but certainly not least, his strong communication skills, collaborative mindset and openness make him a great colleague. Learned a lot with Joaquim!

— Nuno Costa, Technology Manager of Enterprise Governance, Farfetch

Combining a highly experienced professional career with a fresh, open and inquisitive young mind, Joaquim has the innate ability to analyze and dissect complex problems using rigorous approaches, always backed up by his high-quality standards.

I commend him for having such openness regarding software engineering evolution, a rare trait not many highly experienced professionals possess.

Strict but very friendly, funny but very professional, I regard Joaquim as an excellent addition to any software engineering company that takes their mission seriously.

— João Carmo, Senior Software Architect at Millennium BCP

Joaquim has worked under my direct supervision for 10+ years, while leading the Knowledge Management group within Altitude Software.

Joaquim introduced a lot of tools, automatization, standardization, and methodologies in the team processes, inspired by the industry and academia, but always with a tweak. Joaquim excels in sharing its findings and introducing iterative enhancement processes.

I would recommend Joaquim's work for any open minded organization willing to enhance any process around software production.

— Pedro Pimenta, Engineering Vice-President at OutSystems

Joaquim guaranteed consistency between the different topics, terminology, patterns, and formats through the vast product documentation, applying the best guidelines of technical writing and adding an interesting and productive research component to the team work.

Joaquim applied innovative and vanguard documentation techniques such as the use of comics in the training materials and the coordination and analysis of interviews to clients.

— Laura Barros, Technical Writer at Altitude Software

Joaquim is the best in technical documentation that I've met! Clear writing combined with always wanting to take a step back to look at the bigger picture makes him priceless.

Don't you ever change :-)

— Mark Tetrode, Managing Partner at Smartconnect

Count me in!

px@acm.org — LinkedIn — 91 784 2996