Team Documentation Clean Up

When I say I love organizing everything, it’s not hyperbole. One of the biggest pain points I encountered after joining a new team was the chaos surrounding our documentation systems. Jira, SharePoint, and Confluence were cluttered and difficult to navigate, and relevant content was nearly impossible to find. I took the lead in creating a clear, structured approach to storing and accessing documentation, making it easier for the team to find what they needed and improving how we communicated our work to stakeholders and users. I grounded the redesign in three principles:

1. User-Focus: I designed the documentation with both internal teammates and external stakeholders in mind. Rather than expecting our product users to understand our internal team structure, I organized content in a way that made intuitive sense to our team’s user groups. This approach was so effective that other teams began mirroring the user-centric model in their own documentation, and our teams reorganized around the user-centric structure.

2. Consistency: I aligned our structure across Jira, Confluence, and SharePoint to ensure information lived in predictable places. This consistency reduced time spent searching and improved collaboration across tools.

3. Communication: I introduced changes gradually and transparently, involving the team throughout the change process. I tested adjustments, addressed potential issues proactively (such as broken links), and prioritized feedback. This careful, inclusive approach took more time, but ensured lasting adoption and made the documentation genuinely useful for everyone.