How To Become A Documentation Evangelist

A while back I wrote an article for Pingzine, basically presenting some of the findings in our Global Benchmark Survey. For whatever reason, they wanted me to change my job title, so we came up with the clever title of “documentation evangelist”. Can’t lie - it’s what I do. I get on this blog week after week and preach the gospel of documentation. But here’s the thing, every MSP needs a documentation evangelist. If you’re trying to go from a culture with relatively minimal documentation maturity, to a culture where you’re leveraging documentation for competitive advantage in every way possible, you need someone to be the spiritual head of that endeavor. You need a documentation evangelist.

As with most things in life, it takes work to become a documentation evangelist. But since your MSP needs one, and since you’re reading this, it’s probably you. So here’s how to become a documentation evangelist and drive the cultural shift that your MSP needs to take advantage of the power of documentation.

Lead by Example

The first thing is just to lead by example. There’s two parts to this. The example part is easy - you document a lot, and you do it well. You make documentation part of your process. Leading takes a bit more work, because it means communicating to others what you are doing and why you’re doing it. Ideally, you’ll be showing the benefits as well. But start by being the best documenter on your team.