If you want readers to succeed, follow your own instructions. Testing what you write exposes gaps, awkward phrasing, and missing steps that disappear when you already know the product. Strong technical writing does not stop at clarity on the page. It proves itself in practice.
Why It Matters for Product Teams
Unverified instructions quietly create obstacles. They look reasonable, ship confidently, and then fail users in small but expensive ways. A missing step. Outdated UI text. A command that only works in the writer’s environment.
When teams do not walk their own documentation, support tickets rise and trust erodes. Users blame themselves first, then the product. Walking the path catches issues before customers do. It improves first run success, lowers support load, and shows users that the product is built with care.
How to Apply It
Start treating testing as part of writing, not a clean up step at the end. Follow your documentation from start to finish as if you are seeing the product for the first time. Verify that screenshots, commands, and menu names match the current interface exactly, and update steps immediately when something does not work as written.
Ask someone unfamiliar with the task to use the content without explanation. Watch where they hesitate, make assumptions, or go off track. Build time for this feedback into your writing process so accuracy is the default, not the exception.
Examples
- If a step reads “Restart the app after saving your configuration file,” restart it yourself and verify the change takes effect.
- If the documentation says “Run the migration and confirm success,” run it in a clean environment and check that the expected data changes actually occur.
Walking the path you write turns instructions into proof. If your words do not work in practice, they do not work at all.
