Want to Get Stuff Done? Write It Down.
My latest column in INC. magazine is up, about how important it is to document processes and protocols and insights. You'd think as a writer this would've been second nature to me, but it's actually something I learned from working with engineers at Iodine and GoodRx.
Write it down. Document your processes and protocols. Put them on paper. Like many of my favorite startup best practices, documentation has a long history among software developers, who are often asked to create documents that ride along with their software--the ReadMe doc being the quintessential example.
But documentation goes beyond software; it's good discipline, both for startups right out of the gate and for those soaring on a high-growth rocket. For the newbies, it's a way to inscribe your company's structures and strictures, to substantiate the firm you want to create. When it's only two people in a garage, documentation on core principles and strategies serves as testimony that this new thing is going to outgrow this garage someday. For those on the rocket, good documentation fuels your company with fluid communication and prevents it from being dragged down by cloistered knowledge.
