✍️ Writing Design Docs That Don’t Suck (And Why It’s a Superpower for Engineers)

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” — Albert Einstein When systems break, people usually point to a bug in the code. But more often than not? The real bug was upstream — in how the idea was communicated. As engineers, we spend years mastering code but very little time mastering the craft of explaining our ideas. That gap can make the difference between launching with clarity or drowning in confusion. The truth is: clear writing is clear thinking. And nowhere is this more visible than in a design doc. If you want to drive real impact as a software engineer — especially at senior levels — writing great design docs isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a superpower! Because whether you’re building a new service, proposing architectural changes, or aligning across teams, your design doc becomes the source of truth, the collaboration artifact, and the technical memory of your system.

May 1, 2025 - 22:38

✍️ Writing Design Docs That Don’t Suck (And Why It’s a Superpower for Engineers)

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” — Albert Einstein

When systems break, people usually point to a bug in the code. But more often than not? The real bug was upstream — in how the idea was communicated.

As engineers, we spend years mastering code but very little time mastering the craft of explaining our ideas. That gap can make the difference between launching with clarity or drowning in confusion.

The truth is: clear writing is clear thinking. And nowhere is this more visible than in a design doc.

If you want to drive real impact as a software engineer — especially at senior levels — writing great design docs isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s a superpower!

Because whether you’re building a new service, proposing architectural changes, or aligning across teams, your design doc becomes the source of truth, the collaboration artifact, and the technical memory of your system.