Welcome to the State of Docs Report 2025, bringing together insights from documentation experts from across the industry.
This comprehensive report explores how teams track their docs’ success, the future of the industry, the ongoing impact of AI on documentation, and much more.
444
Total Respondents, with roles across multiple disciplines
46
Questions covering team structure, workflows, future of docs and more
Introduction
Documentation’s strategic role goes beyond support
Documentation is no longer just a support tool — it’s a real business asset. Companies today want to measure how docs help at every step of the customer journey, from first impressions to long-term loyalty.
We asked Christopher Gales, a veteran technical writer and author of The Product is Docs, about what great documentation is really about. He in turn quoted Mark Baker, author of Every Page is Page One, and said “the only true measure of successful documentation is mean time to productivity”. Docs can boost customer satisfaction and make people stick around, but at the core, they’re about getting users to success as quickly as possible. The tricky part? Proving the value of docs when success can only be shown as problems not happening.
But good documentation doesn’t just support a product — it makes the whole experience better, from the moment someone first hears about it, through onboarding, and into advanced usage. So how do you measure their real impact?
This State of Docs Report 2025 brings together insights from tech writers, product managers, engineers, and leaders across the industry. We‘ll dig into how companies structure their doc teams, how they measure success, how docs fit into the product journey, and how new tech like AI is changing how we think about and create documentation.
Who we heard from
Total participation
We received responses from 444 hands-on documentation experts — including technical writers, managers, engineers, support teams, designers, marketers, and developer advocates. This variety shows just how many teams are involved and invested in documentation today.
We also conducted interviews with a number of technical writers, engineers, and documentation leaders from across the tech industry to get their insights into specific areas — you can read quotes from them throughout the report.
Total respondents
What roles our respondents have
Company size
Most of the respondents work at either small businesses or large enterprises, but we heard from companies of all sizes — from solo freelancers to giant global companies. This gives us a good view of how documentation challenges — and solutions — change depending on how big the company is.
Where respondents are based
Most responses came from North America and Europe, but we also had strong input from Asia/Pacific, with a few from South America and Africa too. It’s clear that good documentation is a global need, not just a regional one.
Report structure and methodology
Total participation
The report analyzes documentation’s impact across the entire product lifecycle, from purchase decisions to user onboarding, support, and retention.
This report examines documentation from multiple perspectives:
Purchase decisions and business impact
How does documentation influence purchase decisions, user adoption, support efficiency, and overall customer satisfaction?
Documentation team structures
How do organizations resource, organize, and scale documentation teams?
Documentation tooling and API docs
How do teams think about, create, and manage their API documentation?
Documentation metrics and measurement
How do organizations track and prove their documentation’s value?
AI and the future of documentation
How are emerging technologies like AI are transforming documentation creation and consumption?
Each section explores one of these areas in depth, with data-driven insights, visualizations, and practical recommendations for documentation professionals.
