Start With One Page

The reason most teams never document their AI is that they're imagining a fifty-page binder. Forget the binder. Start with one page.

One page, five lines: the system's name, what it does in one sentence, what data goes in, the name of the human responsible, and the date you wrote it down. That's it. Tape it to the wall if you like.

That single page answers an astonishing number of questions. A new employee reads it and understands the system. A client asks what your AI does — you send the page. An auditor asks for an overview — you hand them the page. Eighty percent of documentation value lives in that first page.

Then let it grow naturally. When something changes, update the page. When you need more detail — incident logs, data sources, version history — add a second page. Documentation that grows with the system stays honest; documentation written in one heroic weekend goes stale by Monday.

Perfectionism is the enemy here. A rough, current one-pager beats a polished, outdated manual every time. Start small, stay current, and let the binder build itself.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.