Help Article Template for Product Teams

Start with 20-30 articles covering your top support topics. Pull your ticket data from the last 90 days, group by category, and write articles for the 20 most common questions. This typically covers 60-70% of ticket volume. Expand from there based on search data and new ticket patterns.

As short as possible while being complete. Setup guides: 300-500 words. Troubleshooting: 200-400 words. Reference: as needed for the table or list. If an article exceeds 800 words, consider splitting it into multiple articles. Customers scan, they do not read.

Use screenshots sparingly for genuinely confusing UI elements. Avoid GIFs. They are large, distracting, and impossible to follow at the GIF's pace. A clear numbered list of steps is almost always better than a GIF. If video is needed, embed a short (under 90 seconds) video and provide text steps as an alternative.

Support agents who answer the questions daily are the best authors. They know the customer's language and common confusion points. Product managers and engineers should review for accuracy. Do not have engineers write help articles without support team review. Engineers write for other engineers, not for customers.

Assign an owner to every article. When a product release changes any feature that is documented in the help center, the release checklist should include "update help articles." Set a quarterly review cycle where each article owner re-tests their articles against the current product. The [self-service template](/templates) covers the broader self-service strategy including content maintenance. ---