# Developer Onboarding & Documentation

> Treat docs and the first hour with your product as marketing, and measure whether they work.

A Heavybit skill in developer relations and community, from The Developer Marketing Guide.

HTML version: https://www.devmarketingguide.com/skills/developer-onboarding-documentation/

For a developer product, the docs and the first hour with the product do much of the marketing. This skill covers designing the getting-started experience, structuring API documentation, cutting the time to a first successful call, measuring onboarding, and building a docs team. It draws on practitioners from ReadMe, Netlify, Stripe and others.

Draws from: Greg Koberger, Joyce Lin, Brian Douglas, Peggy Rayzis, Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Samuel Hulick, Amber Feng, Swyx, Megan Sullivan, Nick Cawthon

## Use it when you're

- Designing a developer's first hour with the product
- Writing or restructuring API documentation
- Shortening the time to a first successful call
- Deciding which docs to write first
- Measuring whether onboarding works
- Building and staffing a docs or DX team

## Try it with your agent

Connect Crucible, then describe your situation. For example:

> Use the Developer Onboarding & Documentation skill to cut the time it takes a new developer to make their first API call.

> Use the Developer Onboarding & Documentation skill to decide which docs to write first for our public beta.

MCP endpoint: https://crucible.heavybit.com/mcp?utm_source=devmarketingguide&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=developer-onboarding-documentation

## The talks and articles behind it

This skill was built from these pieces in the Heavybit Library. All of them are free to read or watch if you want the source material yourself.

- [The Future of Software Documentation in the Age of AI](https://www.heavybit.com/library/article/software-documentation-in-the-age-of-ai?utm_source=devmarketingguide&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=developer-onboarding-documentation) (Article, 2025)
- [Who Owns the Documentation and Why It Should Be the Robots](https://www.heavybit.com/library/article/who-owns-the-documentation-and-why-it-should-be-the-robots?utm_source=devmarketingguide&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=developer-onboarding-documentation) (Article, 2021)
- [The Good, The Bad, & The Fugly](https://www.heavybit.com/library/video/the-good-the-bad-the-fugly?utm_source=devmarketingguide&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=developer-onboarding-documentation) (Video, 2016)
- [How Great Documentation Drives Developer Adoption](https://www.heavybit.com/library/video/how-great-documentation-drives-developer-adoption?utm_source=devmarketingguide&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=developer-onboarding-documentation) (Video, 2014)

## More in this collection

- [Developer Communities](https://www.devmarketingguide.com/skills/developer-communities.md)
- [DevRel Strategy](https://www.devmarketingguide.com/skills/devrel-strategy.md)