A Quest for Questions about product documentation strategy

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There’s no magic bullet. Just a lot of questions.

“I’m the only technical writer…”

“I manage a product documentation team and our company is transitioning…”

“Our documentation resources are scattered all over the place and we want to launch a public doc site…”

If I had a nickel for every time a writer, documentation manager, or a product owner asked something like that, it might be worth robbing me. Bad metaphors aside, many individuals and teams struggle to define their documentation strategy. Not because they can’t write, structure their docs, or they lack product knowledge.

There’s an urge to do something. Many just start writing. Some rush out and commit to a new writing and content management tool as a savior.

- We know the answer!
- Sure, great. What was the question again?

Now we’re getting somewhere. It doesn’t matter which of the three scenarios from the beginning of this article describes you best. Or whether there’s another one. To form your documentation strategy, start by asking the most annoying questions about

• your product

• release cycle

• your team

• your audience

• access to documentation

• localization

• compliance

• your documentation authoring tool

• etc.

Ask one question. Then answer honestly. Repeat. Go on, be that down-to-earth nerd when you’re formulating your questions. One by one, you will see a clear picture emerging. Not through overthinking, hypothesizing, or pontificating. Once you have answers, you’ll emerge as a stoic pragmatist ready to deploy a documentation strategy tailor-made for your company. The collateral benefit is that you will find it impossible not to see documentation as a part of the product.

When me and my team worked on our documentation guide, a framework for developing a viable documentation strategy, we took a closer look into what drives a typical documentation life cycle of planning, authoring, reviewing, engaging, and maintenance. We did not aim for a click-a-thon after which your product documentation would level up onto the equilibrium of Confluence perfection. There’s no such a thing. Instead, we wrote a guide about how to have a discussion about what you want your docs to be, how you want your team to work, and so on.

The good thing is that as you’re in this Atlassian Community, you probably have Confluence, Jira and other apps from the Teamwork collection, so you’re half way there.

If you’re still puzzled or wanna learn more, simply join me and Matt Reiner on February 11, 2026, in a live deep-dive about building a successful product documentation strategy in Confluence.