Enabling Docs to Drive Growth

A trend I’ve observed over and over: Documentation isn’t a support function and it’s not a cost center. It’s a critical part of your product’s growth strategy… if you enable it.

Documentation is where a prospective customer goes to see if your product is fit-for-purpose.

It’s the place where people can see how the product works without handing you their personal info or talking to sales.

Documentation is where people see how well you handle the rough edges, not just the golden path you see in sales pitches or conference talks.

Documentation is more than a collection of reference content and troubleshooting guides. It’s part of your product’s user interface and it is the foundation that allows people to discover who you are and what you do.

If you look at your analytics, you’ll probably see that the majority of your docs visitors are doing it as part of the evaluation phase.

Customers read your docs to figure out how something works, but people evaluating your product are reading your docs to figure out of you solve their problem.

How are you enabling documentation to drive your growth?