Five common SOP mistakes that make documentation useless

Executive overview

Most SOPs fail not because they're unwritten, but because they're written badly. Teams spend far more time reading SOPs than writing them, so format and structure decisions compound over time.

Five recurring mistakes turn SOPs into documents nobody uses. Each mistake is fixable before you start writing.

Write for retrieval, not for creation.

Too many variations in one document

• One SOP should cover one path to one result.
• Cramming every exception and alternative into a single document produces a list of possibilities, not a directive.
• Example: invoicing SOPs should be split — create, cancel, edit, product A, custom services — each a separate document.
• Bite-sized SOPs are faster to read and harder to misapply.

SOPs that aren't skimmable

• Structure like a BuzzFeed article, not an encyclopedia.
• Use headers that state the result, numbered steps, images only where they save time, and quick links to resources.
• Collapsing sections let readers drill into detail without wading through it.
• The SOP should take less time to read than the process takes to do.

Optimising for ease of creation, not retrieval

• A typical SOP takes ~80 minutes to write over its lifetime; it may be read weekly for years.
• Reading time vastly outweighs writing time — format decisions should reflect that.
• Written, editable text outperforms long-form video recordings for routine reference.
• Video and screenshots are useful supplements, not replacements for written steps.

Typing everything by hand

• Voice dictation in Google Docs lets you narrate a process and get a draft without typing.
• Paste a dictation into ChatGPT to clean formatting and structure it as an SOP.
• Loom captures video and generates automated transcriptions with timestamped images.
• Scribe records your screen actions and produces documentation automatically.
• Sitting a second person at the keyboard while you demonstrate also works — their questions improve the output.

Duplicate data entry across multiple SOPs

• Writing the same detail (e.g. a posting schedule) in multiple SOPs creates a versioning problem when that detail changes.
• Every SOP that duplicates the same fact must be manually updated when things change.
• Instead, write the changeable detail once in a single master document, then link to it from every SOP that needs it.
• When the detail changes, update it once — all linked SOPs stay current automatically.