Topic cluster
Systems & documentation.
Why the most important software at any company is the writing about the software. Decision logs, onboarding docs, the why-we-said-no file, and the operating systems that let small teams ship like much larger ones.
Start here · The pillar piece
Documentation as leverage
Undocumented decisions are bets that the original people will always be in the room. A practical case for decision logs, onboarding docs, and the file where I keep every reason we said no.
Systems · 8 min · 30 Apr 2026
Read the pillar →More in this cluster
- 07 Jun 2026Systems · 8 min
The handover problem — what happens when your best person leaves
Every small business has someone who is the only one who knows how something critical works. The day they leave is the day you discover how much of your company lived in one person's head. How to find that risk and defuse it before it finds you.
- 04 Jun 2026Systems · 8 min
Why your company wiki is where knowledge goes to die
Every team eventually builds a beautiful wiki, fills it for two weeks, and then watches it rot. The reason is structural, not a discipline failure — and the fix is to stop treating documentation as a separate place.
- 12 May 2026Systems · 8 min
Checklists — the most underrated tool in a small business
Surgeons and airline pilots use them because memory fails under pressure, and the stakes are lives. Your business has the same problem with smaller stakes and no checklist. The case for the humblest systems tool there is.
- 23 Apr 2026Systems · 9 min
The decision log — how to stop re-arguing the same decisions
A deeper look at the single highest-leverage document any team can keep. What goes in it, the exact format I use, the worked example, and the discipline that makes it survive past week three.
- 18 Apr 2026Systems · 8 min
The onboarding doc that gets a new hire productive in a day
Most businesses lose a new person's first two weeks to confusion that nobody wrote down. A deeper look at the onboarding document — what goes in it, how to keep it true, and why writing it tests whether you understand your own business.
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