Writing Docs That Other Engineers Will Actually Read
Writing Docs That Other Engineers Will Actually Read
Technical work in Nigeria can feel like you’re shouting into a storm. You ship a feature, then chase down a dozen people to understand how it works. The problem isn’t that engineers aren’t capable — it’s that our docs often miss what matters: clarity, relevance, and a sense of practical usefulness. If you’ve ever written a long document that nobody reads or, worse, nobody acts on, this piece is for you. Below is a pragmatic approach to crafting docs that Nigerian engineers will actually open, skim efficiently, and apply without a second thought.
Start with a concrete goal, not a vague promise
Before you type a single line, ask: what decision or action should a reader take after reading this doc? Do you want someone to deploy a feature, review a service during a failure, or implement a new API contract? In real-world Nigerian teams, we often write documents to coordinate across time zones, teams in Lagos, Abuja, or remote hubs. Make the goal explicit: "This runbook explains how to roll back the new payment gateway in production within 5 minutes if errors exceed 2% for 10 consecutive minutes." The moment you state the goal, you gate your content against noise.
Practical tip:
Write the goal as a single sentence at the top. If you can’t summarize it in one sentence, you likely need to split the doc.
Frontload the critical information
Engineers typically skim. They want the punchline and the next steps in the first screen. In Nigeria, teams often juggle urgent fires alongside ongoing work. Don’t waste the reader’s time with long context blocks before the action items. Start with a crisp summary, then provide context only as needed.
What to frontload:
The most important decision, risk, or change.
Any required prerequisites or access needs.
One paragraph about why this matters in our current environment (for example, a Nigeria-specific regulatory or telecom constraint if relevant).
Example opening:
Summary: We are deploying feature flag X to control traffic to the new wallet microservice. If the error rate exceeds 1.5% for 5 minutes, disable the flag and roll back to the previous version.
Prerequisites: Access to the feature flag system, a staging environment that mirrors prod, and alerting wired to the on-call channel.
Be outcome-driven, not feature-driven
Docs often become a laundry list of what the system does. That’s useful, but engineers want to know what changes for their day-to-day work. Frame sections around outcomes: what changes for deployment, monitoring, rollback, and incident response.
Concrete approach:
For each section, start with the outcome you want to enable. Then describe how to achieve it with concrete steps.
Include success criteria, so the reader knows when the outcome is achieved.
Example outcomes:
Outcome 1: The new wallet service is live with a 10% traffic window within 2 hours of rollout.
Outcome 2: In case of latency spike, the system triggers a graceful degradation path within 30 seconds.
Use real-world scenarios and concrete numbers
Nigerian teams run in environments with variable connectivity, intermittent queues, and sometimes limited visibility into third-party services. Use numbers and scenarios that readers can relate to:
Latency targets in milliseconds or seconds, not abstract seconds
Error rate thresholds that align with SRE on-call playbooks
Rollback times that feel realistic in a Nigerian ops cycle
Scenario-based sections help readers map the doc to their own tasks. Example:
Scenario A: Deploying a new API version during peak traffic in Lagos — what must be monitored, who must be paged, and how to verify data consistency.
Scenario B: A payment gateway failure during a weekend support window — rollback steps, customer communication, and post-mortem logging.
Write like you’re guiding a teammate, not lecturing an audience
Nigerian teams often work in close-knit cross-functional groups. Use a conversational tone that assumes good intent and practical knowledge. Avoid over-nerdy jargon or unfamiliar acronyms without quick definitions. Treat the reader as a busy teammate who wants to get the job done with minimal friction.
Tips for tone:
Use direct verbs: deploy, verify, rollback, validate, monitor.
Include tiny, actionable hooks in each section: what to click, what to run, what to check.
When you use a term, briefly explain it once if there’s a chance it isn’t universally known in your team.
Prioritize readability without sacrificing precision
Short paragraphs and bullet points beat long walls of text. Nigerian teams often collaborate asynchronously; skimmable docs are bite-sized and reusable.
Consistent structure helps. A typical doc structure could be: Goal, Prerequisites, Steps, Verification, Rollback, Troubleshooting, Post-mortem.
Use lists and clear headings to separate concerns. But don’t overdo headers — keep them sparing and relevant.
Make it actionable with a checklist mindset
Engineers love checklists because they reduce cognitive load and speed up the workflow. Turn critical procedures into checklists with explicit steps, expected outcomes, and completion signals.
Example checklist for rolling back a deployment:
Verify last successful release hash and tag
Confirm incident alerting is on and on-call person is engaged
Disable the faulty feature flag and redeploy if necessary
Validate service latency and error rate within target ranges
Notify stakeholders in the channel and update runbook status
Conduct a quick data integrity check and compare key metrics before and after rollback
Checklists translate well into runbooks and incident playbooks that Nigerian teams rely on during outages or critical deployments.
Include examples, not just templates
A template is great for standard tasks, but engineers want to see a working example. Provide small, concrete samples that map to your context. Here are a couple of real-world flavored examples:
Example 1: API versioning in a Nigerian fintech project
Goal: Roll out v2 of the customer profile API with backward compatibility for v1 clients
Steps: deploy v2 behind a feature flag, migrate database read replicas, run compatibility tests with both v1 and v2 clients
Verification: 95th percentile latency remains under 250 ms; error rate under 0.1%
Rollback: disable v2 flag, revert migrations, verify data integrity
Example 2: On-call incident response for a payment gateway slowdown during public holidays
Trigger: latency > 600 ms for 5 minutes
Actions: switch to retry queue with backoff, inform on-call in Slack, escalate to platform engineer if unresolved after 10 minutes
Post-mortem: capture root cause, customer impact, timeline, and preventive actions
These concrete examples help Nigerian engineers picture how to apply the guidance in their own projects.
Leverage visuals only when they add value
Screenshots, diagrams, and runbooks can be powerful, but they’ll slow readers down if not truly helpful. Use visuals sparingly and ensure they’re directly tied to the steps readers will take. If you include diagrams, annotate them with one-line captions that explain the action the reader should take.
When you do use diagrams:
Keep them simple and focused on flow rather than architecture trivia
Use colors to indicate actions, not just aesthetics
Add a brief caption with the exact interaction the reader needs to perform
Localize without shrinking the universe of readers
Nigeria is diverse — teams in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja, and remote niches work with different constraints. Make your docs usable across contexts by:
Describing how to handle typical network conditions in Nigerian ISPs and cellular networks
Including notes on time zones and on-call rotations that align with Nigerian practices
Providing alternatives if a preferred tool or service is unavailable locally
If you reference a service that isn’t universally available in all regions, offer a clearly defined substitute and explain why it works in our context.
Encourage feedback and quick updates
Docs that age quickly become useless. Invite feedback from readers and set a cadence for updates. In practice, this means:
A single, visible owner for the doc
A simple feedback link or a short comment section
A lightweight review schedule: every 6 weeks or after major incidents
Be explicit about how to propose changes and what kind of feedback you’re seeking (clarity, completeness, actionable steps, or local relevance).
Practical takeaways you can act on this week
Start every doc with a crisp goal sentence and a prerequisites list. If you can’t do this, rethink the scope.
Frontload actionable steps and verification criteria in the first screen. Do not bury them in the middle.
Build docs around outcomes rather than features. Define what success looks like upfront.
Use real numbers and Nigerian-context scenarios to anchor your guidance.
Create a lightweight checklist for critical procedures like deployment, rollback, and incident response.
Include at least one concrete example that maps to your current project, with concrete metrics and steps.
Invite feedback and set a review cadence so the doc stays fresh.
A quick, relatable closing thought
Writing docs that actually get read isn’t about fancy prose or clever templates. It’s about helping your teammates do what matters in their daily work, in a way that respects their time and local realities. When you lead with a clear goal, frontload the essential steps, and give readers concrete paths to act, your docs stop being background noise and become a reliable tool for delivery.
If you try one thing this week, make a deployment guide for your current project that follows the goal-first, frontloaded, outcome-driven pattern. Share it with your team and ask for specific feedback on clarity and practicality. You’ll be surprised how quickly the document becomes a reference — not just a thing you wrote and forgot.
Final takeaway
Clarify the goal, frontload the critical steps, and frame content around concrete outcomes. Add real-world Nigerian context, keep it skimmable, and back it with actionable checklists. With practice, your docs will become a trusted part of your engineering workflow, not an afterthought.
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