Docs rescue

Got messy docs? Users can't find what they need? Sprawling pages of outdated, unclear info? Start with high-impact quick fixes, followed by gradual improvements on the rest.

• Identify the key pages to fix immediately.
• Make quick improvements to searchability, to mitigate problems with organisation.
• Figure out what you can delete, and what you need to update (eventually).
• Make sure the problems won't recur.

Deliverables

The following table outlines my main docs rescue offerings, and what they bring to your company.

You can choose whether I act exclusively as a consultant, advising and planning, or whether I also carry out the implementation steps.

There are two streams of work running in parallel:

• Identify the most impactful docs, and prioritise fixing them. This means your users benefit from the work - fast.
• Identify what your contributors need to succeed, and set that up. This helps avoid repeated problems, and makes it easier for your contributors to tackle the rest of the overhaul work.

	Deliverable	Benefits
Diagnosis	Analytics: identify needs and set up reports	Avoid gathering data for the sake of it. Know what you're gathering, design meaningful reports, and understand what to do in response to it.
	Review of your research	A review of your existing user and competitor research, from a docs point of view. Generates docs-specific insights from your existing data.
	Review current processes and tooling	Understand your docs contributors as users of your process and tooling. Are they set up for success?
Strategy	One-page strategy	Define your objectives, and who is writing and reviewing.
	Audience definition	Get clarity about who your audience is and what problems they're trying to solve when they visit your docs.
Tactics	Content plan	Based on the audience and objectives, define a documentation content plan and information architecture. This includes determining which docs are high priority, and which could be dropped.
	Content types and templates using Diátaxis	Each page in your docs has a defined content type and structure, designed to meet the user's needs. The templates make life easier for contributors. The Diátaxis model is simple but effective. The templates are customised to your product and audience.
	Style guide	Make sure you have a usable style guide: your contributors and users both benefit from clarity.
	Process and tooling	Decide on any changes, based on the contributor needs identified during diagnosis.
	Searchability	Search is extra-important in a messy docs site. Consider adding AI-powered search, as well as making sure traditional search is up to scratch.
Implementation	Actually write the docs!