I imagine most marketing ops pros I know would attest that one of the most frustrating aspects of starting a new role is the sheer lack of documentation on systems and processes.
But it should be no surprise why documentation is overlooked:
- When you’re a small marketing ops team, maybe just a team of one, it’s hard to imagine a need for anyone else caring about it.
- “Documentation” evokes imagery of long, complicated process documents. Not exactly fun material to create (or consume).
But documentation can be a lot easier when you think of it differently. Sometimes documentation is the more in-depth guides, ideally on a shared intranet site or wiki rather than locked away in some unfortunately named word document gathering dust on a shared drive. But it’s also as simple as quick tooltips within the apps you’re using.
Take salesforce reports for instance – I’d be willing to bet you’ve got reports in there that appear important, but no one understands. Even a simple bit of flavor text in the description is enough to remind someone (including the creator) what the report is, and why it exists. Adding that description shows this is an important element – and it takes almost no time to create. In fact, often the best documentation is the stuff that is created at the same time as the work it relates to. When you treat documentation like a separate project, it’ll likely never get done. But when you document as you build a new system or process, it becomes as much a tool for others as it is for yourself.