Three documents effective engineers should have

How to stay sharp, track progress, and position yourself for success

The improvement playground

Every engineer runs into problems on the path to delivery. The trick isn’t solving all of them immediately. It’s knowing which ones are worth solving later. That’s where the improvement document comes in.

This doc is your personal sandbox. Use it to capture ideas for potential improvements across your stack: backend, frontend, infra, process, whatever slows you down or stands out as an opportunity. The point isn’t to act on every idea right away. The point is to remember them when you’re not heads-down on a priority.

What works well:

✅ Create a segment or sub-page per improvement
✅ Review it regularly and pick items up during downtime
✅ Add artefacts like screenshots, error logs, or notes to capture context

What doesn’t:

❌ Don’t over-structure it, different problems need different formats
❌ Don’t let ideas derail your current work, just write them down
❌ Don’t trust memory alone, capture issues while they’re still visible

This document helps you build a habit of spotting potential and storing it until you have the bandwidth to act. One of the most underrated productivity tools an engineer can have.

Deployment log

The second document is simple but powerful: a personal deployment log.

Every time you ship something to production, take five minutes to document it. Track what changed, where it changed, and why. This habit creates a paper trail of accountability, clarity, and learning. It’s especially helpful in fast-moving teams where you ship often and sometimes forget what you did last week.

Structure it however you want, but here’s a basic format:

Deployment #123
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Segment: Valuable service land
Change:  Delivered a thing, created profits
Reason:  Thing needed a thing for thing, for profits ofc

JIRA:    OC-3313
Github:  https://github.com/acme-corp/valuable-service/pull/144
Project: #offical-project-channel
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Mid-deploy artefacts: screenshots, logs, metrics, system state  
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Post-deploy follow-ups: downstream updates, announcements, guides

Break it into three phases:

• Pre-deployment: Describe the change and why it matters

• Mid-deployment: Track what happens while deploying (yes, real-time!)

• Post-deployment: Log follow-ups and final confirmations

This might feel like overkill at first. But it’s a small time investment with high payoff. You’ll prevent careless mistakes, learn from each rollout, and build a record of what actually happened. Future you will thank you.

The brag doc

The final doc is arguably the most important for your career: the brag doc (aka “The Kanye Doc”).

This is where you track your contributions over time. Not once a year during performance review season, but as they happen. Why? Because memory fades, metrics expire, and you’ll forget just how much you’ve actually done.

Write everything down while it’s fresh. Capture wins big and small. Promotions, performance reviews, and self-assessments become 10x easier when you’ve got the receipts.

Your doc might include sections like:

• Projects I lead (driving results)

• Projects I contributed to (supporting results)

• Cross-team work (wider impact)

• System/process improvements (scripts, tools, automation)

• Mentorship & knowledge sharing (talks, onboarding, 1:1s)

Tailor it to your org’s expectations, but whatever you do don’t skip this. The worst time to reconstruct a narrative is when the pressure is on. Build it as you go, and you’ll always be ready.

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The takeaway

The best engineers treat documentation as leverage, not bureaucracy.

• The improvement doc helps you pause, capture, and prioritize long-term value

• The deployment log gives you clarity, accountability, and proof of progress

• The brag doc is your personal archive of impact and growth

If you’re serious about performance, growth, and avoiding painful memory lapses, start these three documents today.