Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Documentation Your Team Will Actually Use
Gold
Tuesday, October 3, 2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Share the love for this talk
Documentation Your Team Will Actually Use
Speakers: Gabrielle Verderber
Link:

Summary

Picture this: You spend weeks writing up your UX Playbook. Your Playbook covers every design and research method your team might use, when to use it, and how. It’s PERFECT. And... no one reads it. I’ve been there! I’ve led or contributed to 4 Playbooks, 2 toolkits and uncountable miscellaneous “how to” docs in my 8 years as a UX Designer and Operations Manager. In this talk, we’ll cover how to: avoid common pitfalls in documentation, discover what your team needs most, apply a design process to your documentation efforts and deliver incremental value through documentation your team will actually use.

Key Insights

  • There are two main documentation types: process/policy docs created by managers or design ops, and project records created by individual contributors.

  • Playbooks organize information by work stages matching the organization's mental model, including detailed plays with instructions and templates.

  • Common pitfalls in playbooks include non-actionable info, poor navigation, cognitive overload, and outdated content.

  • Teams want documentation specific to their organization's processes, not generic explanations.

  • Navigation should align with users' mental models and include searchable content and cross-linking for discoverability.

  • Cognitive overload is reduced by using visual hierarchy, headers, lists, and removing unnecessary 'fluff'.

  • Regularly reviewing and updating documentation preserves trust and usability.

  • Applying a design thinking process—empathize, prioritize, prototype, test, circulate—improves documentation value and adoption.

  • Deliver small, complete documentation sections incrementally rather than waiting for a perfect complete playbook.

  • Shared ownership and collaboration on documentation fosters greater adoption and accuracy; design ops should avoid sole ownership.

Notable Quotes

"When we say documentation, I think of there being two main types: process and policy docs, and project records."

"Our folks are not looking for information about what are wireframes. They want information specific to your organization."

"If folks can't find the information, it doesn't matter how well it is written."

"Avoid walls of text and create visual hierarchy to ensure scanability by using headers, sections, lists and images."

"Imagine a team member goes to your playbook and the first link they click lands on a 404 page—this erodes trust."

"You don't want to dictate the process, especially if you're new to an organization."

"Your prototype is going to be imperfect. That's okay. Deliver small but complete sections to provide value sooner."

"I love getting other people in there. Shared ownership means people reference it more often and promote it."

"You should set a usage goal and track adoption metrics to learn why users may not be engaging with the documentation."

"A playbook is not a one hit wonder. You'll need someone to keep it up to date and revisit regularly."

Ask the Rosenbot
Gregg Bernstein
Opportunistic Research with Gregg Bernstein (Videoconference)
2019 • Advancing Research Community
Scott Jensen
Short Take #2: UX/Product Lessons from Your Industry Peers
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Alan Williams
Designing essential financial services for those in need (Videoconference)
2022 • Civic Design Community
Richard Buchanan
Creativity and Principles in the Flourishing Enterprise
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Jorge Arango
Meeting of the Waters: Designing for Successful Inorganic Growth (Videoconference)
2021 • Enterprise Community
Reginé Gilbert
Asking the Right Questions: Life, Hope and Moving Forward During the Pandemic
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Product and Design at Bloomberg: A 15-year Evolution
2022 • Design in Product 2022
Gold
Civic Design in 2022 (Videoconference)
2022 • Civic Design Community
Jorge Arango
Design as an Antidote to VUCA (Videoconference)
2019 • Enterprise Community
Bob Baxley
Leading with Design Operations Past and Present (Videoconference)
2019 • DesignOps Community
Sam Proulx
Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Peter Merholz
The Mysterious Case of the Missing UX Career Path (Videoconference)
2022 • DesignOps Community
Pippa Lomas
Paving the Path for Neurodiversity in Design
2023 • DesignOps Summit 2023
Gold
Robert Fabricant
Industry junctures: Paths forwards for UXR and the critical decisions that get us there [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
2024 • Advancing Research Community
Mark Templeton
Creating a Legacy: the ultimate experience
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Greg Nudelman
Designing Conversational Interfaces (Videoconference)
2019 • Enterprise Community

More Videos

Alex Hurworth

"We are witnessing the most rapid loss of biodiversity in human history."

Alex Hurworth Bonnie John Fahd Arshad Antoine Marin

Designing a Contact Tracing App for Universal Access

October 23, 2020

Laine Riley Prokay

"These brand new practitioners can bring fresh perspectives and new ways of thinking to hopefully see current problems in a new light."

Laine Riley Prokay Lisa Gordon

Carving a Path for Early Career DesignOps Practitioners

September 9, 2022

Eniola Oluwole

"TripAdvisor is really nine major business units each thinking like sub companies instead of one end-to-end user experience."

Eniola Oluwole

Lessons From the DesignOps Journey of the World's Largest Travel Site

October 24, 2019

Nathan Shedroff

"If your budgets don’t connect to strategy goals, maybe those budget items shouldn’t exist."

Nathan Shedroff

Double Your Mileage: Use Your Research Strategically

March 31, 2020

Sam Proulx

"You can just pick up your phone and start testing accessibility instantly without procurement or licensing hurdles."

Sam Proulx

Mobile Accessibility: Why Moving Accessibility Beyond the Desktop is Critical in a Mobile-first World

November 17, 2022

Feleesha Sterling

"It’s important to socialize the research program internally so teams get excited and take initiative."

Feleesha Sterling

Building a Rapid Research Program (Videoconference)

May 18, 2023

Neil Barrie

"You get to those iconic signature actions when product excellence meets cultural tensions and what people need."

Neil Barrie

Widening the Aperture: The Case for Taking a Broader Lens to the Dialogue between Products and Culture

March 25, 2024

John Devanney

"Leadership roles have to evolve depending on whether you’re building awareness, influence, capacity, or measuring impact."

John Devanney

The Design Management Office

November 6, 2017

Katy Mogal

"The higher up you go, the more qualities like bravery matter compared to methodology."

Katy Mogal

But Do Your Insights Scale?

March 12, 2021