Technical documentation is supposed to make things clearer. But too often, it creates more confusion than clarity. We know firsthand.
For sales engineers and strategic enablement teams, this isn’t just a minor frustration, it’s a daily drag. Docs are outdated. Diagrams are static. Updates require hunting down original files or pinging product managers who have better things to do. Worst of all, most docs get ignored.
So how do you create technical documentation that your team actually reads, uses, and learns from?
This guide breaks down what works, what doesn't, and how to create high-impact, low-maintenance documentation, especially when your workflows evolve constantly.
1. Define the Purpose: Who Is This Doc For?
Start every document with one question: who needs this, and why?
Documentation that tries to serve everyone ends up serving no one. Be specific.
- Use case: A sales engineer preparing a new AE for a technical discovery call
- Use case: A strategic enablement lead creating a reusable artifact for onboarding
- Use case: A product team documenting an integration for customer success to reference
Define the reader, then match the content to their level of technical fluency.
For example, sales documentation for new hires should explain what the system does and why it matters, not just how it works. Leave deep API specs to the engineers.
2. Make It Visual With Diagrams That Stay Updated
Static diagrams are the fastest way to lose trust in your documentation.
Technical flows change often. If your docs contain screenshots or PNGs from a tool like Lucidchart or Miro, they’re probably outdated the moment you paste them in.
Instead: use live diagrams.
With Splotch, you can build interactive diagrams that reflect real systems and update automatically when processes change. No manual redraws. No version control chaos. No guessing what "v3_final_final" really means.
- Use case: Product marketing and sales engineers collaborate on a solution diagram that syncs across onboarding guides, sales decks, and internal wikis.
- Use case: A live architecture doc shows exactly how a customer's workflow is configured today, not last quarter.
This eliminates one of the biggest pain points in documentation: maintaining accuracy over time.
3. Build Collaboratively to Avoid Rewrites Later
You shouldn’t have to chase down four stakeholders just to verify one diagram.
The best documentation happens collaboratively. When engineers, PMs, and sales enablement leaders contribute early, everyone aligns on the process and the output gets used.
Splotch enables real-time collaboration on live docs, so feedback, edits, and version control happen in one place. It’s like working on a shared doc, but for visuals. For instance, a technical PM drafts a flow, a sales engineer annotates it, and the enablement team packages it into a customer-facing doc in one workflow.
This saves hours and avoids the "one person owns the doc" bottleneck.
4. Layer Information for Skimmability and Depth
Good documentation supports multiple reading styles:
- Skimmers should get the gist in seconds
- Deep-divers should find all the details they need
Structure docs with clear headings, short paragraphs, and a visual-first layout. Then, use hyperlinks, toggles, or expandable sections to surface deeper technical details without overwhelming casual readers.
With Splotch, you can embed explanatory notes directly in diagrams, add tooltips, and link out to supporting materials like API references or GitHub repos.A diagram shows the high-level integration flow, while a click reveals call-by-call specs for implementation engineers.
5. Keep a Single Source of Truth
Docs decay when they live in too many places.
A PDF in a shared drive. A Notion page someone bookmarked. A diagram buried in an email chain. None of these are reliable.
Centralize your documentation and keep diagrams linked, not copied.
With Splotch, every visual can live in multiple documents and stay synced. Change it once, and it updates everywhere. If you update one solution diagram, it reflects across pre-sales assets, onboarding playbooks, and customer success guides.
This reduces errors, saves time, and keeps your enablement stack lean.
6. Show Progress, Not Just Structure
Docs often show what a system looks like, but not how it works step by step. That makes them hard to follow.
Add motion or step-by-step logic to explain flow.
- Use case: A new AE watches how data moves from a user action through an API call to a system response, all in a visual timeline.
Splotch supports progressive diagrams that reveal flows over time, helping learners understand systems in motion, not just boxes and lines.
7. Make Updates Effortless
If your documentation process requires designers or engineers to make updates, it’s already broken.
Empower the people closest to the work to maintain docs themselves.
Splotch makes it easy for sales engineers, enablement leads, or customer success managers to update diagrams with minimal effort. No special software. No waiting.
Like when a field engineer adjusts an integration diagram after a customer call, and the change reflects instantly in the internal knowledge base.
8. Measure What Gets Used
Documentation isn’t valuable if no one uses it.
Track engagement. Ask what’s working. Archive what isn’t. Create feedback loops.
Some simple ways to do this:
- Review traffic to internal wikis or enablement hubs
- Ask new hires what helped (or didn’t)
- Check where reps link to docs from CRM notes
Splotch integrates with your systems to track usage and provide insight into what’s getting traction.
Docs That Drive Enablement
The best technical docs don’t just explain things. They teach. They align. They accelerate.
For sales engineers and enablement leads, effective documentation is a force multiplier. It reduces onboarding time, improves handoffs, and makes your entire go-to-market motion more technical, without being more complicated.
With Splotch, you don’t have to settle for docs that go stale. You can create live, visual, collaborative documentation that keeps pace with your product and your team.
Ready to build technical docs that people actually use? Get Splotching today.