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What would you do to convince a large audience, who has little context, to use your solution to a problem? One way is to write a design document, which helps scale technical communication and build alignment among stakeholders. The wider the scope of the problem, the more important alignment is. A design document achieves this by addressing three key questions: “what is the goal?”, “how will we achieve it?” and “why are we doing it this way?”. This talk will cover identifying your audience, effectively writing answers to these questions, and involving the right people at the right time.
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In the video titled "Writing Design Docs for Wide Audiences," Michele Titolo, a software engineer at Square, shares valuable insights on how to effectively write design documents (design docs) that can communicate technical designs to a broad audience with varying levels of understanding. ### Key Points Discussed: - **Purpose of Design Docs:** - Design docs serve as communication and collaboration tools, helping to build alignment among stakeholders by detailing the plans for a project. - They are forward-looking documents created before project implementation to help ensure everyone involved understands the goals and how to achieve them. - **Benefits of Design Docs:** - They facilitate socialization of designs, reduce surprises by leveraging the expertise of others, and help clarify scope, which can prevent scope creep. - **Audience Consideration:** - Identifying the target audience early in the writing process is crucial. Audiences can be vertical (management), horizontal (other engineers), or both. - Titolo provides questions to help establish who will be impacted by the project, who will use it, and who the stakeholders are. - **Structure of Design Docs:** - Essential sections include reviewers, audience, background, goals and non-goals, and architecture/design. The clarity of these sections is vital for effective communication. - **Development of Prototypes:** - Prototyping before writing the design doc helps to clarify unknowns about the project, adding realism to the design. - **Collaborative Tools:** - Utilizing collaborative editing tools, such as Google Docs or Notion, is recommended to maintain a single source of truth and to streamline discussions and comments concerning the design doc. - **Writing Skills:** - Enhancing writing skills is essential for better design documentation. Recommended resources include "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White and Google’s technical writing courses. - **Cultural Integration:** - Integrating design docs into company culture is vital. It starts small, gets reviewers' buy-in, and encourages team discussions around design choices, ultimately improving project outcomes and team communications. ### Conclusions: Michele Titolo concludes that effective design docs are key to building alignment among teams, provide a significant way to increase a professional's visibility and expertise, and are essential tools for successful project execution. Writing these documents is a skill that improves with practice, contributing positively to both individual and organizational growth.
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