What I write so I don't forget

I run many projects at the same time and it is hard to remember them all. That is why I document: so I can understand the decisions I made later on. Documentation saves me time; I have everything at hand to explain to myself what I did at the time.

What I document on my own site

This site has its own documentation, and I use it every time I change something:

• A brand manual with the idea of the cut, the tone, the logo, the colour, the typography and the rules for each component.
• A guide per component, with a working example, so I know which piece to use when building something new.
• An improvement plan with the phases of the work and the decisions taken, each with its date.
• A results summary with the before and after measurements, which is where the table in The site that times itself came from.
• Instructions for AI: how to work on the project, in which languages and step by step.

I write for four readers

For me. I do not want to depend on my memory. If I need to make changes, I have to know where I stand.

For my collaborators. A business is a business if you can delegate, and you can only delegate what is written down. I started Drakkar, the agency I run, precisely because I needed to delegate in order to grow.

For my clients. The project is theirs, and they have to know what was done. That is why I hand them documentation and tutorials that let them sort things out on their own.

For AI. It is my primary tool, and it has to be clear about what it should do. That only happens with documentation.

What I ruled out, too

The improvement plan keeps every decision with its date. It tells me when an idea I come up with is one I have already had, and it reminds me of what I ruled out and why.

AI stops making things up

The difference shows. When I hand it documentation, AI stops making things up and starts acting: it makes decisions based on my criteria, not on the average of what it has seen. I notice it in what it produces.

An example from this site: the manual bans phrases anyone could sign, such as “products that make a difference”. With that rule in writing, AI flags them and rewrites them instead of suggesting them. Without the manual, they are exactly the ones that show up first.

If you could only document two things

Document the design system and the project’s architecture: how it looks and how it is built. With that, anyone, including you a year from now, can carry on without starting from scratch.

That is how this site’s design system came about: I set the criteria and put them in writing, and the documentation carries them into every piece.