Document as part of your process

Don’t spend countless hours documenting stuff after doing work in ways that no one will read or use.

Make it part of your process.

If you’ve sketched several ideas, take a photo. If you’ve thought deeply about an approach. Write a line or two.

If you can explain a solution in person, record yourself. And get the audio or a transcript added to a ticket or folder.

Another way to make it part of your process is to use it as an editorial and quality checking process.

Recently I was making a map of the prototype were testing soon. It’s an integration with an online consultation tool.

It was a bunch of screenshots, arrows and digital sticky notes.

But rather than a laborious process of documenting work that’s already delivered value. It’s a chance to review.

As you document you can ask yourself questions like:

• Why this way?
• What things are we confident about? And what are we not?

Even better. Get the whole team together and do it together.

Documenting your work means it can be visible. It’s not the end of the story. You’ll have to work to make it sharable. Findable and digestible. But it’ll make your work better. And you better able to answer questions when things get made.

Work to make your work visible. Make it part of your process.