Documenting Processes, World Cup Art & America 250
Documenting processes is one of those things that often lingers on the to-do list. Maybe you know you should, but who has the time? Maybe you think it’s for a bigger company than yours. Maybe it’s so unglamorous that you fall asleep on your keyboard the second you try to start. But — as we’ve touched on before in our issues on outgrowing your own capacity and the lies we tell ourselves about delegation — documenting your processes can pay off in spades.
This week, as many businesses enter a summer slow down, allow us to convince you that now is the time and this is the hour by giving the topic the full Q&A treatment.
🤔 Why should I document my processes?
Three reasons, and the first one you already know:
1. Delegation gets so 👏 much 👏 easier. 👏 When how you do things exists only in your head, handing off work often requires hours of meetings, calls, and emails — that you have to repeat every time your team grows or changes.
2. Sometimes it’s for you. We don’t talk about this enough, but as business owners, there are plenty of tasks we only do once or twice a year, or that we do intensely for a period and then not at all. Think renewing licenses, reconciling accounts, setting up holiday product listings, or executing a large-scale influencer marketing campaign (if that’s not your core business). If you add up all of the time it takes to shake off the cobwebs when these tasks come up, or the results you lose because you found the best way to do it once, but forgot it the next time, we’re betting the time to write it all down pays off.
3. For feminism. Of course. Always. Womxn are trained to be the keepers of invisible knowledge — at home, at work, and in our own businesses. Being the only one who knows how everything works can feel like security. It isn't. It's a ceiling, and you're standing under it. Writing it down isn't busywork. It's how you stop being your business's single point of failure.
📝 What should I document?
Three categories:
Anything you've done (or know you'll do) more than 3 times. The third time is the signal. If it's recurring, it deserves a doc — whether that's client onboarding, your batch production specs, or how you close out your books each month.
Anything you'd one day like to hand off — to an employee, a subcontractor, or a hired professional like a virtual assistant, bookkeeper, or fulfillment partner. Even if that day seems far away. It'll arrive faster than you think.
Anything you want to become a differentiator. The way you run a discovery call. The way you pack an order so unboxing it feels like a gift. If it's "The [Your Brand] Way of Doing [Thing]," it should exist somewhere other than your muscle memory — that's how it stays consistent as you grow, and how it becomes something you can train, market, and be known for.
⏰ When should I do it?
Before you think you need to. The absolute worst time to create training materials is when you're overwhelmed and rapidly onboarding help — you end up spending hours explaining things live, over and over, and then doing it all again for the next hire. That’s why we’re suggesting your next slow moment.
If — for you and your business — that time is now, take step one this week: make a list of everything you want to document in order of priority. Then start knocking them off one by one.
⚙️ Fine, I’m convinced, but…how?!
We have never had more options. Beyond the classic instruction doc and training deck, you can now screenshot, screen record, or build live examples someone can actually click around in.
A few principles:
Match the format to the task. Software steps? A screen recording shows what a paragraph can't. A sequence with no judgment calls? A checklist. A skill that requires feel — how you talk to a difficult customer or how you know a batch is done? Show it and let them try it with your feedback.
Start with how you like to reference things. First, to say it again, a lot of this documentation in the near term may be for you. But also, thinking about your own experience is a great lens for empathy for others. If you think about instruction that’s worked for you in the past — and, just as important, that hasn’t — you’ll likely arrive at an approach that works for more people than just you.
Consider where someone will need and use the tool. Might they reference it somewhere without wifi, like setting up a market booth? Then don't make it online-only. Might they watch it somewhere they can't play sound? Then your training video needs captions at minimum, ideally an accompanying doc.
🧰 Are there tools to help?
You know it! Some of our favorites are listed below. Pick what makes your life easier, but don’t over-rotate on the technology. The content is just as important.
To capture yourself doing the thing:
Loom — records your screen and your face at the same time, generates an automatic transcript, and gives you a shareable link. The workhorse of "let me just show you."
Your devices' built-in screen recording — Macs (Cmd+Shift+5), iPhones, and Windows machines can all do this for free. No need to invest in a fancy tool when the simple will do just fine.
Meeting recorders like Fathom or Otter.ai — already explaining a process to someone live on a call? Record it once, reference it (for yourself and others) forever.
To turn the mess into materials:
Scribe or Tango — these watch you click through a task and auto-generate a step-by-step guide with screenshots. Genuinely magic for anything software-based.
Claude Cowork — if you’re already investing in an AI assistant, no need to double up on tools. Paste in a rambling Loom transcript or talk through a process in a voice memo, and ask for a clean SOP, checklist, or training doc. Pro tip: Ask it to read a draft back to you and flag the steps you skipped because they're so second-nature you forgot they're steps.
To give it a home:
Notion, Trainual, or Guru — your company's own searchable how-to database. Trainual is purpose-built for exactly this; Notion is a more robust tool that includes some functions of the other tools above.
Google Sites — free, easy micro-sites, great for a visual training hub.
Canva — beyond decks, Canva Docs and its recording features let you make polished, visual guides. Especially good for product businesses: a photo-rich packing guide or booth setup doc beats a wall of text.
A good ole spreadsheet or slide deck — a reporting template with the formulas already plugged in is documentation. Never underestimate it.
To let people learn by doing:
Sandbox copies — a "make a copy" version of your template with dummy data, a duplicate Canva brand file to practice in, a test product in your Shopify or Etsy backend.
Supademo or Arcade — these interactive walkthrough tools turn a process into a clickable, guided demo someone can move through at their own pace.
🗂️ But what actually goes in each doc?
The specifics vary significantly by process, but every good one answers five questions:
What is the purpose of this process — why does it matter?
What triggers this process?
What are the steps?
What tools, logins, or files do I need and where can I find them?
What does "done right" look like?
If your doc answers those questions, it works.
One process. One slow afternoon. That's the whole ask. Your future self — and your future team — will thank you. Want a little company (guaranteed to keep your head off the keyboard) while you tackle it? Our next Work With Day is tomorrow, July 9th.
🪢 Laura & Lauren
Things We Loved This Week
LaurA’s Things
😵💫⚽ Mesmerized by the creation of this soccer-themed painting.
😍 How stunning is the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library?
🍽️ Making this perfect girl dinner asap.
Lauren’s Things
🗽 The best America 250 content I consumed (serious category).
🔮 The best Taylor & Travis wedding content I consumed (unserious category). Also fr both of Selena Gomez’s looks were 👌.
⚖️ Believe it or not, I was sort of iffy about Court reform. I’m over it.
🧀 Let’s just give in to the parm.
