I hear all the time, get the expert to write the manual, & it makes me cringe.

 
Quality instruction manuals are great. They can be used to reference how we do things. We can use it to cross-reference what we do with what we want to do. We can use it to onboard newcomers, and we can use it to support automation. It can be used for temporary staff, and it can be used to validate that we are doing things in a structured way.
Without them, a business is at threat of collapse, relying upon what is in the heads of that team, and not counting on so many possibilities of things that might go wrong.
 
By contrast, I think that the best person to write a manual is actually someone who doesn't know what they are doing! Sounds counter-intuitive, but it's really the complete opposite when you properly understand why.
I'm not on about throwing them in the deep end alone without any help, or without some insight. I'm thinking about them writing it, perhaps gradually, by gathering the answers to all the right questions that they feel need to be asked.
 
Do any difficult process day in day out, and you will almost certainly will struggle to write it down with accuracy in a usable way. You do it so much that it's automatic, and you miss steps when documenting it. You make assumptions, write it in language only other experts can ready. You're snow-blind to what is really happening and why.
 
Remember reading those old instruction manuals and not making sense of it? Ever tried to assemble furniture with instruction manuals that were written by the expert furniture maker who wasn't thinking of how a layman could do it?
It's the same with writing a job description or induction document. The best person to capture it is the person who has just started doing it. What they produce would be the most accurate reflection of what is being asked of them. It then acts as a perfect framework for evolution with anyone else that's new, and a fallback plan to explain why mistakes are made. After all, if it's in the approved procedure, the newbie's back is covered.
I've met many Business Process Engineers, or Technical Authors over the years, & the reason they could be so good was because they could be objective, which no-one else truly could.
 
So here are 10 reasons why the person writing the manual should not be the expert, and should instead be the person who doesn't know what they are doing!
  1. Avoids ambiguity or misunderstanding - It has to be written for a layman to read. The expert uses language that only experts understand. A layman will ask for explanation, and nothing is taken for granted. No stone is left unturned, and no expert level assumptions are made. Ever tried to ask a technical support person for help, and wish you'd never asked?
  2. Avoids overlooking the obvious - An expert simply can't do this. They are too close that they struggle to get it in the right sequence, miss our steps, or make wild assumptions of what 'always happens', with no fallback plan for those times when it doesn't
  3. Makes sure nothing is missed out - Imagine writing an instruction for something you never think about because it's second nature. How much harder is it to do right, than someone who 'doesn't get it' and needs to ask all the questions to make sure it makes sense and then puts down the steps that a layman needs to use to follow.
  4. Helps newbies to learn properly - Someone learning the process should be curious about what the reader will need to know. Most experts don't make good teachers, and most teachers aren't experts, except perhaps in theory. The expert will never need this document. A newbie, or someone back from a break away will!
  5. Fresh eyes bring a fresh perspective - The person doing it daily doesn't see shortcuts, alternatives, or other potentially better ways of doing it right. Tainted eyes really don't bring that fresh view that only a layman, ideally with some insight of the industry, can actually bring.
  6. Makes sure nothing is taken for granted - If you miss a step, an expert could cope, but a newbie couldn't. Only a newbie can truly question what happens if something goes wrong, that an expert takes for granted.
  7. It's extremely useful for a new-starter to do - A layman new starter can use this process to learn what is required, and come up to speed exponentially quicker than any other way. Nothing is gained by an expert writing it down, other than wasting the time of an expert. If a new-starter is taking notes for how to do things, it only makes sense to convert those notes into useful instructions, which can be checked together, with all gaps & questions answered!
  8. Captures changes that are often overlooked - When a process changes, an expert rarely takes note of the change. Steps are overlooked, & old processes have a way of creeping back in
  9. Avoids distracting the busy expert - That expert's time is valuable & in short supply, & that is often overlooked. They will need to have questions bounced off them, but to ask them to write it all up is often an expensive use of that person's valuable time and produces worse results!
  10. Makes it ready for the future - Having an instruction manual written for a layman can then used in automation or be read by ChatGPT, Claud, Gemini, or other AI system, & forms a great framework for being able to ask it questions. Inputting an experts manual would only cause confusion & be a complete waste of time!
 
Instructions are a great way to learn, to test the process, capture the way it's done cleanly without contamination or disappearing down rabbit holes,. They help spot limitations, and open up to the opportunity of improvement. This proves that knowledge really can be a dangerous thing.
 
So as strange as it may have at first seemed, the best person to write the process, instrution manual, job description, or induction document really is someone who doesn't know what they are doing!
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