About MeHey! That’s me when I graduated from my master’s degree! Ever since then, my career has been an incredible, grateful experience…one I hope you’ll read below.
A little about my story…
Welcome! I’m Ethan Tran, a California native and SF-based specialist in writing, communication, and UX. My journey began with a childhood love for drawing and reading, as you can see on the right, I was a huge Fullmetal Alchemist fan and drew a lot of the anime. I’ve always been captivated by how people process meaning through art and words, which is why I took to drawing and reading quite a bit growing up. That curiosity is why I strive to make every medium I touch impactful. Today, I combine my passion with my undergraduate and graduate background to bridge that gap, translating complex feelings into intentional digital experiences :).
This portfolio means a lot to me. I took a lot of time thinking about how I could personally express myself professionally. As you can see, the photo on the left is me when I first started designing this site while taking UX web design courses in my old apartment in San Mateo. It was a great challenge to figure out how to represent my work and my personality all in one place. Seeing that photo reminds me of where this journey started and how much I've grown since those first few wireframes.
Talking about my portfolio means talking about my journey. If you’re still with me, let’s go! During my master’s program, I had the opportunity to work as a technical writer intern at a company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Working in Harvard Square with so many brilliant people was incredible. For the first time, I learned how to truly think about our users and how they perceive words, instructions, and tutorials. It was an eye-opening experience for someone who had been trying to break into the field since undergrad. To this day, I’m still close friends with my fellow intern. That summer drove me to succeed in the world of technical communication.
After Tamr, I interned and eventually became a full-time contractor at Zoox. I never imagined I’d work with autonomous taxis. Before this, I barely knew anything about cars, but suddenly I was writing complex procedures for troubleshooting, replacement, and installation.
It was difficult, confusing, and a little scary. I actually had to crawl under vehicles to document how to install parts. I never expected technical writing to lead me there, but the challenge taught me to be confident and think critically about the importance of a procedure. A car manual is pretty high stakes! I even learned to navigate "hard" technologies like CAD and 3D modeling to gather imagery. While I loved the challenge and the lifelong friends I made there, I realized I wanted to get back into pure software. That led me to my next step at Informatica (now Salesforce).
At Informatica, and now Salesforce, I truly found my passion for content design. My role evolved from researching internal content for security and compliance, writing SOPs for SOC-2 and FedRAMP, to designing high-visibility digital experiences. I learned to love the technical side of content, using Figma and code to build out websites, newsletters, and event pages.
One of my proudest moments was expanding into web design for Salesforce, where I’ve helped develop the Trailblazer Challenge and Trailhead Roadmap websites. These projects allowed me to blend my technical background with my love for UX and content.
Informatica was where I truly grew up professionally. Thanks to the mentorship of my manager, Ashlee Brinan, I transformed from a shy employee into a confident leader. I began leading the process and training sector of the documentation team, presenting deliverables to Directors and Global VPs that impacted the entire company. I learned to own my process and lead with responsibility.
It has been my favorite chapter so far. Now, I’m bringing that momentum to Salesforce to see just how far I can go. At the end of the day, I know what stays with me are the people who taught me and the growth I’ve established. I hope you enjoy looking through my work - feel free to check out my portfolio items and resume to see more!
