Pillars That Hold: Structuring Documentation Around User Progress
summary
Claims a small set of structural changes produces measurable outcomes: redesigning IA, migrating to a new content management system migration, and centering docs on ten core knowledge pillars that define scope, entry/exit points, and a definition of done. Pillars are sequenced for progressive disclosure and linked for wayfinding. Stakeholder interviews and telemetry shape pillar boundaries. Launching the deployment pillar causes deployment-related support tickets to drop from the top category, showing the approach actually works.
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chapters (14)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:46Documentation challenge
- 5:18Linear workflows fail users
- 10:38Knowledge pillars for skills
- 15:55Progressive disclosure
- 19:48Wayfinding across pillars
- 22:37SME collaboration with pillars
- 25:24Impact and alignment
- 27:56Key takeaways
- 28:18Q&A
- 31:27Third-party docs dependencies
- 32:30Starting with pillars
- 33:32Silo concerns
- 34:14Closing
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