The thinking behind good SOPs, not just the template
Documenting everything is as useless as documenting nothing. This guide covers what's actually worth writing down, how much detail to include, and how to keep it from rotting in a folder no one opens.
Overview
This is the strategic companion to a blank SOP template, not another fill-in-the-blank document. It covers the judgment calls that determine whether documentation actually helps: which processes are worth the time to write down, how much detail is useful versus wasted, how to stop SOPs from going stale as your agency's tools and team change, and how to get people to actually open the doc instead of just asking a teammate.
Why it matters
Agencies tend to swing between two failure modes: no documentation at all, so every process lives in one person's head, or documentation overload, where every micro-task gets a five-page doc nobody reads. Both waste time — the first through repeated re-explaining and inconsistent work, the second through the effort of maintaining docs nobody uses. The agencies that get real value from SOPs are deliberate about which processes earn a written doc and how much detail that doc actually needs.
Who should use it
- Agency leads deciding where to spend limited time on documentation first
- Teams with a folder of old SOPs that no longer match how the agency actually works
- Anyone who's written SOPs before that nobody on the team actually follows
How to use it
- 1
Audit before you write
List the processes that currently only exist in someone's head or get re-explained often — that list is your documentation priority order, not an alphabetical or arbitrary one.
- 2
Match detail to risk and frequency
A process run weekly by five people needs more precision than one run once a quarter by the same senior person — use the guide's detail framework to decide, section by section.
- 3
Build a review habit, not a one-time project
Set a recurring check-in tied to real triggers (a tool change, a new hire, a process breaking) rather than a fixed calendar date that's easy to skip.
What's inside
Which processes are actually worth documenting
How much detail is enough (and when more detail hurts)
Keeping SOPs from going stale
Getting your team to actually use them
Signs a process needs to be rewritten, not just reviewed
Where documentation fits versus where it doesn't
Get it free
- A framework for scoring which processes are worth documenting first
- Guidance on right-sizing detail so SOPs stay useful instead of ignored
- A staleness-prevention system tied to real triggers, not calendar reminders
- Adoption tactics for getting a team to actually reference SOPs day to day
Common questions
How is this different from the Agency SOP Template?
The template is the blank structure you fill in for a specific process. This guide is what to think about before and after you fill it in — which processes deserve a doc, how much detail to add, and how to keep it alive.
Do we need to document every process we run?
No — documenting a process nobody repeats, or one only one senior person will ever run, usually isn't worth the time. This guide includes a scoring approach for prioritizing based on frequency, risk, and how many people touch the process.
How do we know if an SOP is too detailed?
If people start skipping steps or paraphrasing instead of following it exactly, it's often over-specified for how the process actually gets used. The guide covers matching detail level to how often and by whom a process runs.
What's the biggest reason SOPs go unused?
Usually that they went stale — the tool, the team, or the process itself changed and the doc didn't. The guide's review triggers are built around real changes instead of a maintenance calendar most teams don't keep up with.
Run the rest of your agency from one place
This resource is free. Sarion is where the day-to-day client work happens next.