It happens like clockwork. Someone joins a team and is surprised how their information is all split up into different tools. Wanting to put points on the board, they are on the lookout for a way to make an impact. The solution starts looking for problems and it doesn't take long to find. Why is so much of our documentation out of date? Well, if we weren't using so many tools to store our documentation... ![[Screenshot 2023-07-27 at 1.39.36 PM.png]] I take notice of this so easily because I was one such individual on more than one occasion and I learned because I was challenged. > What is it about moving into one tool that is going to make us more productive? > What issue are we seeing with our productivity from this? > What problem is this solving? > How exactly does merging into that tool solve the problem? > Who is going to make sure everyone uses it? The questions are rather grating because they feel like they don't need to be asked. To me they sounded like: > What is it about using a fire extinguisher exactly that you think is going to put out this fire? Do I really need to explain why consolidating into a consistent tool and having 🌈 everything in one place 🦄 is better? # Solutions in search of problems Don't get me wrong, merging into a single or fewer tools *could be* a good idea but we ought to be able to say why and maybe that's a good place to start. Here's a few examples - Significant time is wasted trying to figure out which tool the documentation is in. - The information is duplicated across tools and needs to frequently change which invokes the need for someone to have that job. - Each tool has different scopes of access that are not going to change for business reasons. But even with these problems, should we merge into a tool or... - Significant time is wasted trying to figure out which tool the documentation is in. - But are you sure there's not already some system the documenters have? Maybe just document that. - Create a **hub** of truth, rather than a **source** of truth. Literally a centralized documentation whose only purpose is to help you find out where to get the documentation. - The information is duplicated across tools and needs to frequently change which invokes the need for someone to have that job. - But is there a lot to gain by having those tools even with the duplication? Can the duplication be automated? Is everything duplicated or does it overlap? Maybe one tool has just the right amount of info for the audience and the same for the other one. - Each tool has different scopes of access that are not going to change for business reasons. - If you merge everyone into one tool with the union of those access scopes, maybe you've violated those business reasons. ...or not, but the point is, this is the exploration one needs to have before setting off to get everything in one place.