From Pathfinder to Process: an introduction to startup documentation

It’s exciting to be a pathfinder at a startup. You get to explore the unknown and be the first to solve problems. Startup pathfinders are on a quest to answer questions like, “how do we get our first customer?” and “how do we hire our first engineer?”. But don’t celebrate too soon. When you find a path, there’s one more step you must take before looking for the next destination: retrace your steps and document how you got there.

Early startup employees might be tempted to skip this step, eager to chase the high of overcoming obstacles and fearing the consequences of slowing down. But think about it: if you just spent weeks or months trying everything to sign a customer, feeling frustrated at every turn, then investing a bit of time in centralizing what you learned will empower others on your team to try out your tactics and build on them over time. You are building a road to prevent others from getting lost.

Documentation is like a highway system: it formalizes a path to a destination. These systems are hardly ever perfect, but they enable early stage startups to be consistent and efficient, which I explored in my article Building Clocks: the mindset for operational autonomy. Here we’ll build on that metaphor to discuss best practices for writing documentation, templates for useful processes, and tricks…