Turn repeated questions into a troubleshooting doc
Organizes by symptom rather than by cause, because users only know the symptom.
| Category | Development › Technical writing |
|---|---|
| Tags | ChecklistDraftingDeveloper |
Write a troubleshooting document from these repeated questions. Structure by **symptom**, in the user's words: 1. Heading = what the user sees or types when asking. `"It won't save"`, not `"Persistence layer errors"`. *Users search with their symptom; they do not know the cause.* 2. Under each symptom, the checks in order of **how often that cause is the answer** — not in logical order. 3. Per check: what to do, what a good result looks like, what it means if not. 4. The resolution for each branch. 5. When to stop and escalate, and what to include when doing so. Then: - **Symptoms that map to more than one cause** — these need a distinguishing question up front. - Questions that are actually a product problem, not a documentation problem. *If three people ask how to do something, the interface is unclear and a doc is a workaround.* Say which these are. - What to put in the error message itself so the question never gets asked. Rules: - Use the words the asker used, including informal phrasing. Search matches their words, not yours. - *Where I did not tell you the cause of a symptom, write "cause unknown — investigate" rather than inventing one.* A wrong troubleshooting step costs more than a missing one. - No step that says "check the logs" without saying which log and what to look for.
After pasting, fill in the fields at the bottom (Repeated questions · System · Who asks)
What this prompt does
Troubleshooting docs organized by cause are unfindable. This leads with the symptom as the heading and branches down from there.
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