🧡 The Secret to Scaling Without Chaos? Documentation.

Hello and happy Thursday!

If you had told me a year ago that building an intentional culture of documentation was going to be one of the most important aspects of our businesses growth and success, I would have looked at you like you were nuts. Yet, that is exactly where I find myself today. Saved by the bell…er, Notion database.

I’ll be honest. The scaling phase of small business is not for the weak. While I’m SO proud of the growth our Training for the Modern Manager program has achieved over the last 16+ months, it’s come with its own set of unique challenges and opportunities.

Thank goodness - and I mean THANK GOODNESS - for the support and guidance of the brilliant Podge Thomas. I cannot imagine where I’d be today if she hadn’t stepped in to build out the robust documentation system we now have in place. It’s been crucial to everything from onboarding new team members to supporting clients to keeping processes running smoothly when a team member is out.

Podge and I first connect when she joined me on the Want To Work There podcast to talk about all things documentation - obviously. I left that episode impressed by her deep knowledge, clear personal values, and genuinely giving spirit - and I can now vouch that she absolutely embodies all those things and so much more.

So today, I want to do a deep dive into the documentation best practices we’ve been building out here at Want To Work (with Podge’s brilliant guidance and support) so that you can see if really is possible to intentionally build documentation norms into your team or organization, no matter the size!

To knowing where the heck that file is,

Jill

If you take one thing away from this newsletter, let it be this: you and your team need a source of truth. In this context, I’m referring to a centralized, reliable, and up-to-date location where key information is documented and maintained - so that everyone on a team or across an organization is working from the same set of facts.

While it’s absolutely incredible when this exists (and is well maintained) at an organizational level, it’s a concept with just as much power at the team or project level. There are SO MANY reasons to create a single source of truth, but here are the three that have proven most powerful for my team and I:

1. Knowing which document is most recent (crucial when it comes to curriculum version management!).

2. Empowering new team members to learn well established processes quickly and easily.

3. Not having to meet live nearly as often - async for the win!

It will take some effort to give your organization a solid foundation of documentation, but we promise it’s time well spent. Here are a few use cases:

You can be truly OOO. Let’s say someone goes on vacation (hey - maybe it’s you!) and they don’t have to worry about the team being able to handle that one thing that only they know how to do - because the process is written down step-by-step. The team is confident and productive and your vacation is relaxing.

Help for the poor lost newbie. A new employee is confused and overwhelmed and having trouble learning your company’s way of doing things. They are hesitant to ask too many questions because they want you to trust them and have confidence in their ability. If you can point them in the direction of some documentation, they can learn at their own pace and it saves you the time of needing to train them.

I forgot, and you will too! Last year I documented the process of how to create a new blog post for the WTWT website, and handed off that responsibility to someone else. I needed to expedite the publication of an article recently and found myself staring at the screen not having the slightest idea how to begin. Luckily, my own very detailed instructions saved the day!

OK, so you’re sold on creating a single source of truth, whether for your entire organization, a specific team, or a current project. Don’t you need like a whole IT department and some fancy software for that? Sure - that’s how some companies roll. But the truth is, anywhere you can capture information in a centrally located way works just fine.

I’ve created plenty of SOT google spreadsheets in my day and they’ve all served their purpose valiantly! That said, if you want to get a little fancier and use something like Notion, Airtable, or Tettra, here are five considerations to keep in mind when choosing the tool or format that will work best for you:

1. Accessibility: Will everyone who needs this information be able to find it quickly and easily?

2. Updatability: How easy is it to update and maintain this source of truth regularly?

3. Visibility & Transparency: Can the right people see the information without needing to ask?

4. Consistency Across the Team: Does this tool or format complement where people are already working (Slack, Teams, Google Drive, Notion, etc.)

5. Scalability: Will this still work as your team or projects grow?

Guided by Podge’s expertise and our team’s needs, we chose to build nearly every workflow for the Want to Work There team on Notion. Podge has used it to help 30+ growing companies get organized, streamline processes, and ultimately make everyone’s lives easier. It’s also the first place I built my Training for the Modern Manager curriculum, as the tool lends itself beautifully to sharing templated versions of existing content.

Notion is like a hybrid of docs, a company wiki, project management tools, and databases, all in one platform. Many teams now use it as their internal hub or intranet. In an Entrepreneur Magazine interview, cofounder Ivan Zhao shared that they’re designing Notion for college students, knowing those habits will follow them into the workplace.

That said, it comes with a learning curve and may not be right for everyone. Below, we’ll share how we use it for our SOP database so you can see it in action, but go with whichever tool works best for your team!

The short answer: everything!

We created a checklist with 20+ common processes to help you get started, though you’ll likely have others that are unique to your team. A simple way to begin is by paying attention to every time someone asks “how do you do that?” at your company. This could include things like requesting access to a tech platform, organizing shared files, or running a performance review.

Each of those moments is an opportunity to create a clear, documented process that saves time for everyone.

It can be overwhelming to think about all of the things that could/should/need to be documented. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Your new documentation habit starts today! Getting start could be as simple as creating a Google Sheet (or Notion database), listing all the processes that need to get documented, and dropping in notes as you run these processes yourself.

How We’re Doing It. One of the first things Podge implemented when I brought her in to support our documentation effort was to create an SOP database in Notion. Together, we worked to find information that had been stored away in everything from random emails to intentionally created SOP google docs. For the first time, we have one central place that anyone on the team can visit first when they are trying to learn something new. If it’s not there, we ask that they capture the need and then revisit the SOP once they find the information they’re looking for - whether it’s been unearthed somewhere else or was taught to them through hands-on training. This ensures that the next time a team member goes looking, the process already exists.

It might take a year to get through the list of things you need to write down and that’s okay! Treat it like a project and do an audit and create a roadmap. Block the time on your calendar - even if it’s only ten minutes per week. This newsletter has inspired me personally to block out an hour every other Wednesday morning moving forward!

Start with the information most relevant or pressing or needed at your company right now. Starting somewhere will help you identify where you should be focusing. If you’re at a loss, use our list of documentation categories. Pick one and dive in!

Create a naming convention, an system of organization, and some basic guidelines so others can contribute. One way we’ve gone about this is ensuring our different documentation systems always have a glossary. It’s proven incredibly helpful for both new and seasoned team members alike - because who can really remember all those terms?!

Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Be intentional and take your time to ensure your documentation is clear, concise, and complete. While this one may feel self explanatory, it’s important enough to mention. A half-baked piece of documentation can actually cause more issues than it solves. I promise the extra time it takes to get it right will be saved many times over in the future.

If you’re serious about helping your company become more organized, you’ll need to change the way you work. No more keeping things “up here” (as you tap your head). Documentation will need to become part of your regular way of doing things so you don’t end up with another backlog. Once you are caught up with documenting all the things in your list, create a cadence for reviewing your documentation to ensure it says up to date as processes evolve over time.

Podge likes to think of it as intentional culture building. You’re fostering a culture that values information equity and harnessing the power of technology as an act of liberation. Having a system that creates a standard for everyone prevents frustration and frees up an incredible amount of time to be spent on critical thinking and progress. And just think, what if “documentation” was a company value instead of the vague terms all companies seem to use? That might sound like a dream, but I'm telling you... it can become a reality with some simple actions.

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