You forgot about this after your VC funding

So you are a software start-up and made it past your initial VC funding and now you are gearing up for the next phase. You’ve set aside funds for the ping-pong tables, free sodas, team building off-sites and the craft beer Fridays.

You had better also allocate some money for a technical writer. Even if it’s just for a contractor who comes in every now and then, you are going to need documentation. I’m not talking about the kind that your engineers write to communicate to each other how the new features work; I mean the kind that explains what your software actually does in a way regular humans can understand.

Why? Lots of reasons.

Hiring push

To begin with, you are probably hiring a bunch of new people who really don’t get what you do. Not only engineers and testers, but also people who will market, sell, design, draw up contracts and maybe even represent you in court. You need a clear, concise way of describing your technology approach and what separates you from the pack. You’re also going to need to ramp up people quickly and make sure they are all on the same page and not going on a picture of what they think your software does.

Training

Your training approach is basically mentoring and shadowing on a peer-to-peer basis. That’s ok for now, but sooner than you think, you are going to need to invest in real training. The kind that actually teaches people how you code, test, implement and support your software. Believe me, if it’s one thing I’ve learned in my twenty-plus years in software and training, without understandable documentation of your software and processes, the learning curve will be steep. Real steep.

Customers

At some point you are going to need to communicate to customers as well. They need to grasp what you do and why it’s better than what someone else does (there is always someone else who does what you do.) It’s great to bring along your lead engineer to a potential customer on-site, but you are going to need to leave them with something that is meaningful. You can have a marketer write the slick, but even the best marketing guru needs something to go on.

Attrition

Now let’s talk about attrition. Your company is by far the coolest on the block, but you are going to lose top talent. Whether they just burned out or were poached by someone they went to school with who is working on the next big thing, you are going to lose people you treasure. But you’ll be in a lot better shape if you documented everything that person knows before they walked out the door. Also, you need to consider protecting your stakeholders’ investments. These are people who believe in what you are doing enough to provide funding. You need to be a good steward of their trust by ensuring that intellectual property does not disappear.

Churn

I understand how you might still say that it’s too early. You have too much churn in the software to really create any lasting documentation. But, you will always have too much churn. It’s the nature of the business you are in. If you don’t create a snapshot soon, you rely upon tribal knowledge for your history.

Getting started

It’s not as hard as you think, but the longer you put it off, the more difficult it becomes. There are a ton of good freelance technical writers out there who you can use on a contract basis to get you started. Look for someone who has good interviewing skills, technical savvy and a good reputation of relating to engineers. Have them create a baseline for you and then come back in on a regular basis to perform updates. Don’t forget the NDA!

I know this seems premature and hard to justify spending money on anything that isn’t directly related to getting the software ready. But trust me, the cost is not that high and it will be money well spent.

What to learn more?

You can reach me at [email protected] or visit my website at www.cavulearning.com. If you are local, I'll buy you a cup of coffee and we can have a chat. If not, we can always Skype and share a virtual cup of coffee together!