Ask HN: How does your 10-25 person startup capture internal knowledge? Specifically, what processes, tools, and culture have you implemented to ensure systems-level documentation is in place. Are there are other areas that you document (eg. decision rationale, conversations, meeting notes)? |
For example we had a rather complicated cache system, which was fully documented, multiple times, with full test coverage. But people still got it wrong.
I think human support is a necessary feature and multiplier. It's sort of like a game where someone needs to be the healer.
Also when you have all the tools, someone needs to be able to train them, and someon needs to know the right tools for the right situation.
I recommend about 1 support person per 10 people. Usually technical managers can also take on this role, but it's better to have someone specialize in it and not be stuck managing.
Based on what I previously learnt at Big Internet Company, I created a slack channel to log all meeting decisions so that we could quickly refer back to it. Only works for stuff up to about a month old but is good enough for sprint retrospectives, planning and OKRs. (and then a few months later I realised we were still using the free version... but anyway).
More rigid stuff like coding style guides, design patterns, API docs, design specs were saved in a SaaS that's basically a Basecamp-clone.
Previously I would have tasks, bugs and feature requests, TODOs and FIXMEs, etc. written up as a repo issue (GitHub/Bitbucket) till I realised no one bothered reading them. So I moved them to the Basecamp-clone backlog instead so at least the project manager might glance at them.