BACK / How Lumana rebuilt its documentation on GitBook and kept pace with product releases
Location: California, United States Content type: Technical documentation
1 release cycle
From feature ship to updated docs
CHALLENGE
- Lumana’s existing Zendesk documentation had fallen behind changes in the product UI.
- The documentation did not have a clear information architecture, which made guides harder to follow and left related content mixed together.
- The existing docs did not have a clearly defined audience, so the team first worked with Lumana to identify the primary users of the documentation.
- Lumana needed to migrate its existing documentation while updating the content to match the current product.
- The team also needed a process that could keep documentation current as Lumana continued shipping new features.
SOLUTION
- Hackmamba moved Lumana’s documentation from Zendesk to GitBook and created the information architecture used to organize the new docs.
- We configured GitBook and implemented the new navigation and content structure.
- We rewrote the existing Zendesk guides for the new platform, updating them to match Lumana’s current UI, intended audience, and documentation style.
- We created Lumana’s documentation style guide and a Vale linter to help writers apply the same writing rules across the docs.
- Hackmamba’s technical writer handled most of the documentation, while Lumana’s in-house writer covered selected hardware features and release notes.
- Lumana’s in-house technical writer reviewed Hackmamba’s content before publication.
- We held weekly documentation syncs and worked with the product team to structure content around the user journey.
- Both teams used Slack for day-to-day questions, reviews, and product updates.
- We created a shared content tracker so Lumana could see which writer owned each piece of documentation and its current status.
- Hackmamba also took ownership of the documentation codebase, including its groups and overall structure.
RESULTS
- Lumana migrated its documentation from Zendesk to GitBook with the existing guides rewritten and reorganized for the new platform.
- New product features are now documented in the same release cycle in which they ship.
- Each new guide goes through review and verification against the Lumana UI before publication.
- The documentation was ready before the launch of the updated docs experience.
- The new information architecture gives users a clearer path through the documentation based on the tasks they need to complete.
- The style guide and Vale linter give Hackmamba and Lumana’s in-house writer a shared set of writing standards.
- Writer self-review shortened the review process before content reached Lumana’s in-house technical writer.
- The team established a consistent approach for product screenshots using GitBook image frames.
- Weekly product and documentation syncs give the writing team a direct way to capture product changes before they become documentation gaps.
Hackmamba migrated Lumana’s documentation from Zendesk to GitBook, rebuilt the information architecture, rewrote the existing guides, and introduced shared writing and review standards. Lumana now documents new features within 1 release cycle, with each guide reviewed and verified against the product UI before publishing.
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