Ever joined a codebase and spent hours just trying to figure out what talks to what?
Or asked a teammate how something works, only to get a 20-minute Slack voice note that left you more confused than before?
Yeah — documentation matters. And not just the README.md kind.
That’s where a technical writer comes in.
More Than Just "Making Things Pretty"
Most engineering teams don’t realise they need a technical writer until it’s too late — onboarding is painful, tribal knowledge is leaking, and no one really knows how the system works anymore.
The truth?
A good technical writer doesn’t just “write docs.” They reduce friction, amplify developer velocity, and preserve your team’s collective brain.
In this post, I want to share why every engineering team — even small ones — can benefit from having a technical writer. Not to make things look polished, but to make your systems easier to understand, maintain, and grow.
1- They Reduce the Mental Load on Developers
Developers already carry a heavy cognitive load — thinking about tradeoffs, dependencies, naming, scalability, and edge cases.
Without clear documentation, they also have to hold the entire system in their heads, or interrupt teammates to ask how something works.
A technical writer gives your team an external brain — creating reliable, up-to-date documentation that developers can trust instead of relying on memory or Slack threads.
2- They Make Onboarding Way Less Painful
Every new hire asks the same questions:
What does this service do?
Where’s the API spec?
Why did we build it this way?
A technical writer turns those repeated questions into structured, reusable answers.
That means new developers ramp up faster, get blocked less often, and feel more confident sooner — without draining the time of your most senior engineers.
3- They Help Your Team Communicate With Itself
Code is for machines. Docs are for humans.
Your team writes code for today, but people read documentation for years.
A good technical writer turns tangled Slack threads, undocumented design decisions, and tribal knowledge into clean, searchable documentation that the whole team can use — like architecture overviews, integration guides, or decision logs.
4- They Bridge the Gap Between Engineers and Non-Engineers
Product managers, support staff, QA testers, even clients — they all interact with your system in some way. But they don’t read code.
Technical writers create shared language between technical and non-technical people. That alignment helps projects run smoother, feedback loops shorten, and handoffs happen without confusion.
5- They Make Technical Work Last
Code doesn’t last forever. People leave. Rewrites happen. Teams evolve.
What stays behind is the reasoning — the why behind the build. Unless it’s undocumented.
A technical writer makes sure your systems are not just built well, but remembered well. That means fewer regressions, faster reworks, and better long-term decisions.
"But We’re a Small Team…"
I hear this all the time — and I get it. You’re shipping fast, wearing multiple hats, and trying to stay lean.
But that’s exactly when documentation matters most.
Small teams don’t have time for miscommunication. They need to move quickly with clarity, not confusion. And they can’t afford to keep answering the same questions every week.
Even a part-time or embedded technical writer can make a huge difference.
Documentation Is Infrastructure
Whether you’re scaling a startup or managing a mature system, clear documentation isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s infrastructure.
A good technical writer doesn’t slow your team down. They speed it up.
They preserve your hard-earned knowledge.
They make your systems understandable, usable, and maintainable — by everyone who needs to touch them.
This is something I see all the time in my work — I’ve helped engineering teams go from “Where do we even start?” to having clear, usable documentation that supports smoother handoffs, fewer questions, and more confident devs.
If you're thinking about how to make your systems more scalable — consider starting with how you explain them.
✍️ Over to You
Do you work with a technical writer?
Are you the de facto writer on your team?
Or is documentation something that keeps getting pushed down the priority list?
Let me know — I’d love to hear how your team handles it.
Also if you or your team needs a technical writer, please contact me.
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