Cribl employees are renowned for their insatiable curiosity, especially when it comes to their passions. Having been a technical writer for most of my adult life, this goat is deeply passionate about two things: writing engaging content and understanding the mindset of our users. As one of our founders always says, “Software is a people business.” To make my users successful, I need to know how they think. But what if the “user” is a machine? This goat is intrigued.

The “Every Page is One Page” Revolution

Let me take you to the future by starting in the past (Marty McFly style). Many years ago, as a moderately seasoned tech writer, I was introduced to the concept of Every Page is Page One by author and former colleague Mark Baker.

The essence of this idea is that users typically use search to find what they need, so no matter how you organize your “book,” you have little control over where they begin. While it may not sound revolutionary now, at the time it was groundbreaking.

Tech writers were used to readers starting at the beginning and progressing through chapters and sections logically. We maintained and published actual indexes (ask your parents, kids). We knew how to write for an audience of readers. But what would happen if someone didn’t read it all? That seemed improbable—until it became reality.

How did this shift change our writing? We started to write more modularly. Every topic we created included:

• A quick orientation or description upfront, so users could grasp the topic’s relevance before clicking the link.
• A description of what they should already know before diving in.
• Guidance on where to go next after they learned what we wanted to teach.

And, yes, indexes gradually faded, replaced by metadata and search engine optimization. With the rise of search, we could no longer rely on navigation structures to guide readers. We could only control the content on the first page a user landed on, so it needed to be as clear as possible. Our job was to provide the user with the context needed to quickly decide if the content was helpful. If not, they’d just go back to search.

The Rise of the AI User

As a seasoned writer and documentation team manager, I find myself facing a familiar challenge. Documentation search is ubiquitous, and we meticulously optimize it to make it more effective. We aim to deliver just the right information, knowing users have limited attention spans and need to get back to work. But do we really know how to design content for all our users?

Enter a new kind of user—a very different goat. It’s not insatiably curious, but it’s a voracious reader. It reads everything, even things we might not want it to.

This new user isn’t driven by tasks, doesn’t have an impatient manager, or a deadline. It doesn’t interact with our software in the traditional way. Its only goal is to answer human questions based on whatever knowledge it’s been fed. Welcome to your new user: AI!

Writing Content for Human and Machine Comprehension

Once again, we writers are rethinking our audience. AI is now the most dedicated consumer of our technical documentation. It doesn’t have human biases, it doesn’t get humor, and it doesn’t question the accuracy of content. It doesn’t “see” our visuals or follow our navigation structures. It can’t infer the why behind a question unless we explicitly include it in the content, and its answers depend solely on the context we provide in our documentation.

Beyond Keywords: Natural Language Queries

Like the advent of search, AI is changing user behavior. We’re learning to search using natural language questions rather than strings of keywords. As content creators, how does this affect our approach to search engine optimization? How do we help users frame better questions? Most importantly, how do we write content that’s AI-friendly?

Now we’re talking! This kind of challenge gets a goat out of bed in the morning.

I’ve long believed that AI would be one of my career’s most powerful productivity tools. Only recently, though, have I started considering how AI could make me and my team better writers. I’m excited about where this is headed.

Cribl Copilot: Partnering with AI to Create Better Documentation

Our Docs team is just beginning this exciting journey, and while we don’t have all the answers yet, we’re collaborating with our Cribl Copilot developers to ensure our chatbot provides reliable and trustworthy responses.

Clearer Context and Enhanced Accessibility

These changes aren’t just beneficial for AI users. Early lessons suggest that we need to ensure clear context, describe images, keep topics concise and focused, and connect the dots with examples and end-to-end workflows.

We can still maintain our engaging, irreverent-but-serious style, but we need to make sure our humor is inclusive. The benefits extend beyond AI; clearer, well-structured content is better for all users!

New users gain more context and connections, and those who need it have access to more descriptive content. In short, we’re being encouraged to become better writers, with AI as the ultimate impartial tester of our work. Even better, we’ll gain data-driven insights into what users are really asking rather than relying on keyword search guesswork. To me, that’s the best kind of shake-up!

Answers in No Time with Cribl Docs and Copilot

This is a shift I’m ready to embrace, much like Every Page is Page One. I’m grateful to be at Cribl, working alongside the best in the business on such an important and thrilling project. Keep visiting docs.cribl.io, because these docs are going to rock. Don’t forget to chat with Cribl Copilot while you’re there. Remember, Cribl docs are open to everyone—no login required—and you can use Cribl Copilot to explore our docs for free!

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