When you’re building a startup, there’s always something demanding your attention—whether it’s coding new features, marketing, or even raising funds. And hence, technical documentation often gets overlooked. But here’s the kicker: skipping documentation could cost you big in the long run.

Why Startups Need Documentation

When we talk about “technical documentation,” we mean five key types:

1. Architecture Documentation: Provides a high-level view of your system’s structure, making future changes easier.
2. API Documentation: Vital for developers, both internal and external, to understand how to interact with your system.
3. Code Documentation: Comments and readme files that make your code understandable for others (and your future self).
4. Process Documentation: Step-by-step guides that make your onboarding seamless and help teams operate more efficiently.
5. User Documentation: Tutorials and FAQs that reduce customer support tickets and boost product adoption.

The Real Value

1. Streamlined Onboarding: Clear docs allow new hires to get up to speed faster and work more independently.
2. Improved Customer Support: Comprehensive user guides reduce the number of support requests, letting your team focus on more complex issues.

Tools You Can Use

Start with Google Docs and Github, but consider investing in specialized tools like:

• Apiary, Postman or Swagger for API documentation and testing
• Confluence or Notion for collaboratively writing and organizing docs
• Github wikis or Docusaurus for creating docs as code in your repo
• Intercom, Helpscout or Zendesk for user-friendly customer help centers

Documentation is a Culture

Getting your team involved is key. Make documentation part of your company’s DNA:

• Lead by example
• Make it easy to contribute and update docs
• Tie documentation to project milestones

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