The Documentation Calculator
Bad documentation costs money. Use the the documentation risk calculator to see how much bad docs could be costing your company.
Why did you bother creating documentation risk calculator?
It’s time to put a number on the cost of bad documentation.
Technical writers and product managers all feel the pain of inadequate docs. The struggle to bring new team members up to speed is real, exacerbated by incomplete and out-of-date docs. Company information is scattered about the company. Your ‘Getting Started Guide’ is outdated, making it impossible to onboard those new enterprise clients.
That’s not even the bad part.
Your pain is invisible. It’s hard to quantify dysfunction that arises from shitty lackluster docs. We talk about the time wasted at bad meetings. Let’s have a conversation about the harm that stems from bad documentation.
How did you get these numbers?
The documentation risk calculator implements a formula devised by the International Data Corporation. The formula is meant to show the loss of revenue that comes from neglecting your internal documentation. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. The calculator’s purpose is to start a conversation on improving your knowledge base. There is a cost to not investing in your internal documentation.
Ok, What’s next?
You know that you have a problem, and you’re in a great position to try to go out and solve it. The first thing you can do is conduct a content audit. Figure out what’s in your documentation-
- what’s out-of-date?
- what needs to be rewritten
- what needs to be discarded
- what sparks joy
After you’ve finished your content audit, conduct internal interviews. Talk to colleagues and figure out what are there documentation pain points.
Need help getting started? Feel free to call us for a free consultation. We’ll be more than happy to help you transform your bad docs to bad-ass. 😈