As a software technical writer, I recently finished reading the book "The Product is Docs" by Christopher Gales and the Splunk documentation team. The book offers practical advice on treating your documentation as a product. Initially, I was fully convinced that technical documentation is a product in and of itself. However, after careful consideration, I've changed my perspective.
While researching for a method article about measuring documentation quality for The Good Docs Project, I came across Bob Watson's insightful series on his blog "Docs By Design." Watson presents compelling arguments that documentation is a satellite to the main product or project. This resonated with me because documentation exists primarily to help users when they're stuck. Most people consult documentation to find answers to specific questions, not for leisurely reading. They engage with the docs because they need assistance, not for the sake of reading the documentation itself.
So, no, the product is not docs.
However, this realization doesn't diminish the importance of treating documentation as a product. In fact, I believe it's the best approach to building trust with your users or clients for the following reasons:
Commitment to User Experience: Treating docs as a product demonstrates your commitment to providing users with the best possible experience with your actual product.
Meeting User Expectations: Users and clients expect to find autonomous ways to solve issues and get unstuck when using your product. High-quality documentation meets this expectation.
In summary, while the product itself is not the documentation, treating your docs like a product is crucial. It showcases your dedication to helping users succeed with your product and fosters trust in your commitment to their experience.
So, there it is – my nuanced view on the matter. The product is not docs, but docs should be treated like a product.
Top comments (4)
Totally agree, because the docs lead to the product. In my experience there is only one other touch point of similar importance and that is a free demo, so the docs and the demo are the path to become a user.
The Good Docs Project is great, I am working on a feature to integrate various templates to my open source writer/cms Typemill and they have tons of great markdown-templates. That is what I was looking for!! :)
What a good observation about demos!
I am so happy to read that you find TGDP's templates helpful. This is a project I've been a part of for more than two years now, so it's close to my heart. If you have any questions, don´t hesitate to message me.
Hi Valeria, TGDP looks great! Maybe there is a way to message you or the TGDP-team for details?
I plan to create a tempate-plugin for Typemill. The goal is that users can select and load templates for different purposes (documentation, reports, and more) in their Typemill website and then directly start writing their documentations and reports. For this purpose I want to host some selected templates on my service-server and maybe (auto-)translate them into languages like german, french, spain.
Typemill itself is published under the MIT-license, but plugins are published under a commercial license. For my understanding, this complies with the BSD-clause of TGDP-templates. Additionally to the TGDP-references in the intro of each template I will reference to all sources on the plugin-page, so users can copy & paste all templates manually if they want to avoid using a payed plugin.
Typemill is mainly used by small (software) companies, so I hope the TGDP project could benefit from more references to the project. What do you think about it?
Hi Sebastian, your project sounds very interesting. I'm pleased to hear you're considering TGDP templates to integrate into your project and will be happy to learn more about it and see how we can assist you.
Can you please email me at valeriahhdez@gmail.com so we can start a conversation?