Why Your CRM Documentation Isn’t Helping (And How to Fix It)
You’re Running CRM Experiments. But is your team Learning Anything?
At one of my recent client engagements, we had dozens of CRM tests under our belt. The team had been testing a bunch of things with almost every comm they had been sending out, but when it came time to plan the next quarter — it felt like we were starting from scratch — again.
No one could remember what worked. The test reports lived in Notion, Confluence, slides... scattered across tools and minds.
CRM teams don't learn from their experiments — not because they lack documentation, but because they lack intentional, audience-driven, and curated documentation.
So the team suggested a fix: Let’s start a documentation hub.
The idea was simple: if we recorded every experiment, we’d never repeat mistakes. We’d have a record. A system. A single source of truth.
It made sense. I’ve seen many teams do this. I’ve suggested it myself in the past.
But here’s what actually happens (most of the time):
The page is created with enthusiasm.
A few experiments get logged, inconsistently.
Then the team gets busy.
New tests launch. Documentation lags.
No one checks the Confluence page.
Eventually, it becomes a dusty archive — not a decision-making tool.
Come to think of it, this isn’t a documentation problem. It’s a learning retention problem for your team.
So why does this happen over and over again?
In my experience working with many apps of varying team structures and sizes, most CRM documentation fails for 3 key reasons.
It’s created without a clear purpose or audience.
Testing decisions are made outside of the Documentation. There’s no alignment on HOW and WHEN will we use the documentation.
Most experiments “make the cut” and are documented - there’s no filter for the experiments that make into the documentation. This creates mess & chaos.
In this article, I’ll break these reasons down and provide examples & templates that can help you make your documentation great again!
Start With the Audience, Not the Test
Consider this example analysis of a “win” that was shared by a CRM team in an All Hands Meeting.
And this was a win. But no one in the room was listening. No one understood the win. I remember feeling really bad for the team to not being able to communicate the incredible job the team had done on the project in an effective way. This isn’t bad just because it’s a missed opportunity to showcase your work, but it impacts how and when other team members approach you with new ideas, or understand your work enough to be able to help you, think of you when they are doing their work.