Documentation, along with being Async First and Remote First, are the three pieces of the “remote company” triforce. Without one, the others fall apart.
Our end goal with documentation is:
With documentation, it’s easy to get stuck in the trap of trying to make everything perfect. But, a page with some bullet points is better than no page at all. Heck, a blank page that’s just a title is better than no page at all. The next person who uses the page can add to it and update it. You can also add to it later.
It’s important to remember that everything is changing, and that everything is an iteration. Default to action on creating and writing documentation, then make improvements as you’re able.
As you use documentation, improve documentation. Situations change, processes change, and people come up with new solutions to things. Once in place, documentation shouldn’t be a huge novel-sized project you do. Instead, it’s a little here and a little there over a long period of time. But, it should be consistent.
As you meet, discuss, and make decisions, it’s important to think about what information needs to be pulled out. Not everything needs to (if it’s just “the work” of a project, for example), but there are times where something affects how we do our work. In those cases, it’s important to remember to default to documenting it first.
Pull and document information from Slack, when someone answers a question.
At the end of a meeting, make a checklist of what needs to be documented.
Etc.
Link documentation together as you’re able. Although thorough documentation is good in the sense that colleagues can get things done without relying on someone else, it can take a while to absorb everything that’s there. When you can, and when it makes sense, link to other relevant pages of documentation to help distribute access to more knowledge.
Documentation should live within the right context. Think: what will the reader be trying to do? Where will they go and look for this? What is the function / result of this document I’m writing and working on?