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Migrations and Information Architecture

Summary​

A lot of documentation problems are really structure problems.

Content might exist, but it is hard to find, inconsistently organized, uneven in quality, or shaped by history instead of user need. Migration and information architecture work helps fix that by making content easier to navigate, easier to maintain, and easier to trust.

This kind of work has been a recurring part of my career, especially in environments where documentation spans many products, teams, workflows, and content types.

The problem​

Content environments become difficult over time for predictable reasons:

  • information grows unevenly
  • naming drifts
  • page types blur together
  • acquisitions bring in different standards
  • ownership gets fuzzy
  • discoverability gets worse
  • maintenance becomes harder than it should be

At that point, the problem is not just writing new pages. The problem is that the system itself is making the documentation harder to use.

What this kind of work requires​

Migration and IA work usually requires some mix of:

  • content inventory and review
  • identifying duplication and drift
  • deciding what to keep, merge, rewrite, archive, or restructure
  • creating or reinforcing page models
  • improving hierarchy and navigation
  • aligning content with actual user needs instead of inherited structure
  • making the result easier to maintain over time

How this has shown up in my work​

This kind of thinking has been part of my work across multiple roles.

Examples include:

  • onboarding acquired products into existing documentation practices
  • improving documentation structure across large product sets
  • helping support or shape documentation systems built around consistency and scale
  • treating content cleanup as a structural problem, not just an editing problem
  • rebuilding this portfolio as a docs-style site rather than a loose collection of pages
  • building TeraCreators Help around repeatable help categories instead of raw source chronology

What I pay attention to​

When I work on migration and information architecture, I usually pay attention to questions like:

  • What is the user actually trying to find?
  • What patterns already exist, even if they are inconsistent?
  • What content types need clearer boundaries?
  • What should be standardized?
  • What is outdated or low-value?
  • What structure will still hold up as more content gets added?

Why this matters​

Good information architecture reduces friction for both readers and maintainers.

It helps readers find the right thing faster. It helps writers and teams work in a system that is more predictable, more scalable, and easier to improve.

That is why I think migration and IA work matter so much. They shape whether documentation becomes easier over time or keeps getting harder.

What this shows about my work​

This is a strong example of the way I think:

  • I look for the real structural problem
  • I care about maintainability, not just immediate cleanup
  • I like turning messy content environments into clearer systems
  • I treat documentation as both a writing problem and an architecture problem