Open Source Documentation: Why Is It a Good Idea?
One of the most recent trends in software and tech documentation is to open it up to community collaboration and make it open source.
Why?
Let’s look at some of the challenges we face with technical documentation and the sheer amount of content that we need to put out there for our users in order to give them a good experience.
We have customers all over the globe — these customers want to be able to read docs in their own language.
We have different types of users — highly technical vs. non-technical vs. moderately technical. Some users don’t want to see concepts at the beginning of a document because they already know them. Other users want to learn about the concepts and technical jargon first because they don’t really know them yet or need a reminder.
We have users with different learning styles — visual learners vs. auditory learners vs. kinesthetic learners. Some want short 5 min videos to learn about a feature, some want a written tutorial, and some others want a demo with a sample application so they can learn by trying it out themselves.
Now, the main problem with catering to all these requirements is that it is not always scalable to provide docs in all the required languages and learning styles for ALL the different types of users with just a couple of technical writers.
And what happens if you ignore these user needs? More support tickets, complaints, and frustrated users who don’t understand how to use your software and might just give up and leave you for your competitor.
Not every company or every type of software would have this problem. It really depends on the complexity and the scope of users you are serving. But for those of us who do have this problem, we need a solution.
What’s the solution?
We can do one of four things:
- Hire more technical writers
- Outsource translation services or video editing services
- Accept that this is how it is and it’s just not possible to do it all
- Let your community help you
Hiring more and more technical writers or paying for outsourced services is possible but not always worth it for every company. You can always just accept defeat..but then, SHAME ON YOU.
So what if we open it up to our community?
An established software company would already have a global community of users, enthusiasts, customers, partners etc. What if we motivate them and provide incentives for them to write blogs, articles, translated content, and create videos about our software?
What if we even open up the official documentation of a solution or product and let our users contribute to it? Of course, we can put certain controls in place to verify the contributions before we add them in (more about the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ in my next blogpost) but just the act of contributing to something creates a bond with the user. Now the contributor feels like they put a little of themselves into your software and is more bonded to you than to your competitor.
More importantly, your users are now effectively helping you to help your other users; those who speak the same language, have the same thinking pattern or learning style, or have the same error or problem as they do.
In my next post I’ll explain more about how to start building your community-based documentation. Till then, share your comments and stay tuned! :)
📝 Read this story later in Journal.
👩💻 Wake up every Sunday morning to the week’s most noteworthy stories in Tech waiting in your inbox. Read the Noteworthy in Tech newsletter.
