I always start with the audience in any writing. I'm often asked, "write documentation for your tool" by technical peers and managers and I always have to push

I always start with the audience in any writing. I'm often asked, "write documentation for your tool" by technical peers and managers and I always have to push back trying to get more specifics. Am I writing for a non-technical end-user? Am I writing for a technical person troubleshooting the tool (can I assume they know yaml or how to use a Terminal)? Am I writing for someone who may reimplement or heavily modify this tool. Is this intended for reference or to walk someone through the process for the first time? All of those are documentation and technical writing, but vary greatly in what details you include and how you approach it. In my experience, as a tool writer/maintainer I tend to want to document the implementation, but nobody cares about that until you leave your job (by then the documentation may be out of date if you don't maintain it). Most people's highest priority is a troubleshooting guide (which is difficult with a new tool) and a very explicit walkthrough for non-technical people (which is difficult to maintain because dialogs get tweaked and supporting tools can change).