Business
Laurah Mwirichia Laurah Mwirichia is a product-writing enthusiast. She loves her work and wants you to jump into this burgeoning field, too. Laurah applies her writing skills as a product writer at Square. She loves using words in her design practice there, and she enjoys her collaborations with her product and technical colleagues. She's gleaned a lot wisdom in her UX writing career and is eager to share it. Laurah and I talked about: her path to her current role as a product writer at Square a look at the ideal and real versions of her job description the difference between writing output and overall work productivity the importance of collaboration in the product work how she learned the meaning of the UX and product term "strings" their current use of spreadsheets to manage strings and their evaluation of products like Ditto and Strings to more elegantly manage them how organization is half of your job as a UX writer her product writing toolkit (which is informed by her history in the startup world, where she was constantly exposed to new SaaS apps): Figma, Notion, Trello, Monday.com, Google Drive, Canva, and a little GitHub how she evaluates new tools her desire to help other writers make the transition into UX and product writing and tech in general the scope of her role at Square - she supports six products, half of which are consumer-facing and the other half internal tools the benefits of making friends with developers, designers, and other allied professions outside of work, and of networking and reading in the profession the importance for anyone in the modern workplace to build and develop your personal brand her desire to see more writers come to the field Laurah's Bio Laurah Mwirichia is a product writer and user experience advocate who loves bringing together the ever-intersecting worlds of copy and design. After several years as a freelance and full-time writer in the NYC startup scene, she discovered her passion for UX writing and never looked back. Laurah is currently a UX writer at Square. Connect with Laurah on Social Media LinkedIn Medium Twitter Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/-gY6dqlvIMI Podcast Intro Transcript If you're a copywriter or other creative who is uncertain about whether to pursue a career as a UX writer, Laurah Mwirichia says, "Come on in." Product writing and UX writing are well-established roles now, and your writing and collaboration skills are in high demand. If you're not already technically savvy, Laurah shares some tips on how to develop good relationships with software developers and the other folks you'll work with on a digital product team. She also has some great tips on how to settle into your new UX writing role. Interview Transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 76 of the Content Strategy Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Laurah Mwirichia. Laurah is a product writer at Square. And I sure hope I pronounced your name correctly. Laurah: You did. Larry: But welcome, Laurah. Okay, good. Thank you. Welcome, and tell the folks a little bit more about your role at Square and how you came to be there. Laurah: Yeah. Hi everyone. I'm Laurah. I'm a product writer at Square, and my path to becoming a product writer was kind of very convoluted, as I'm sure many people's paths are to getting to where we all are today. I initially started as a social worker, and that was the first part of my career. And after doing that for several years, moved to New York City, worked in freelance writing, worked in content marketing, became a content lead. But most of the companies I worked with were startups, mostly financial tech startups, but also ended up working full-time at a nonfinancial tech startup. And that's kind of where I got a really good chance to dig deep into UX writing and what that meant to me.