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
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There are two main documentation types: process/policy docs created by managers or design ops, and project records created by individual contributors.
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Playbooks organize information by work stages matching the organization's mental model, including detailed plays with instructions and templates.
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Common pitfalls in playbooks include non-actionable info, poor navigation, cognitive overload, and outdated content.
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Teams want documentation specific to their organization's processes, not generic explanations.
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Navigation should align with users' mental models and include searchable content and cross-linking for discoverability.
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Cognitive overload is reduced by using visual hierarchy, headers, lists, and removing unnecessary 'fluff'.
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Regularly reviewing and updating documentation preserves trust and usability.
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Applying a design thinking process—empathize, prioritize, prototype, test, circulate—improves documentation value and adoption.
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Deliver small, complete documentation sections incrementally rather than waiting for a perfect complete playbook.
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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."
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