Want to scale fast without falling apart?

Every time someone new joins the team, they ask the same questions:

“What exactly do we do?”

“Who do we serve?”

“Who owns what internally?”

“What tools do we use again?”

We had answers, but they were scattered across Slack, Notion, Zoom calls, and memories.

Onboarding was taking longer than it should.

And even existing team members weren’t always sure how it all fit together.

That’s when I realized: This wasn’t just a hiring problem.

It was a context problem.

When company knowledge lives in people’s heads, progress slows down.

People waste time asking around, waiting on replies, or reinventing the wheel.

For a fast-growing agency like RevvGrowth, that kind of inefficiency can quietly eat away at clarity, culture, and confidence.

We needed something that explained not just what we do—but how and why we do it.

That’s when I came across GitLab’s public handbook.

It was clean, transparent, and deeply reflective of their company culture.

So, I set out to build our own version

And here’s what it covers:

✅ What we do and who we serve
✅ Our services and internal structure
✅ The tools and systems we use (and why)
✅ Who owns what across functions
✅ Workflows, onboarding steps, and internal best practices

It’s still evolving, but here’s what we’ve already seen:

• New hires feel more confident on day one

• Onboarding time is down

• Internal collaboration is smoother

• And most importantly—it’s helping us build a brand we’re proud of

How to Actually Build a Company Handbook (That People Will Use)

If you’re thinking, “This sounds great but where do I even start?”, here’s the approach that worked for us.

1. Define the handbook’s purpose (from your team’s perspective)

Ask yourself:

“What should someone understand by their first week—without needing 10 calls?”

This isn’t about micromanaging tasks. It’s about giving them business context.

Clarity = confidence.

2. Start with the story, not the process

Instead of jumping into time-off policies or workflow docs, start big:

• What’s your mission and positioning?

• Who are your customers, and what pain do you solve?

• What services or products do you offer—and how are teams structured around them?

This gives your team a narrative they can anchor to, not just rules to follow.

3. Break it down into simple, focused sections

Here are the core “knowledge zones” we structured ours around:

• Business 101: What RevvGrowth does, who we serve, our mission, and evolution

• Services & Teams: Clear explanations of each service we offer, the value it delivers, and who’s responsible

• Tools & Systems: A practical list of the tools we use, broken down by function

• Workflows & Playbooks: Our current approaches to content creation, client delivery, hiring, onboarding, and more

• Resources & Templates: Reusable assets, past presentations, internal docs, anything that saves time or explains how we work

• Handbook Changelog: A simple log to keep the team aware of what’s been added or updated

This structure has helped us make the handbook usable from day one and easy to expand over time.

4. Make it collaborative—not top-down

This was key.

I built the initial structure, but then looped in each team lead to co-own their sections.

We reviewed asynchronously via comments, Looms, and voice notes.

That way, the team wasn’t just following the handbook, they were helping shape it.

5. Keep it visible and evolving

We didn’t let it sit in a folder.

• It’s pinned to onboarding docs and project dashboards

• It’s mentioned during weekly check-ins

• It gets referenced during handoffs and reviews

• And we track edits in a quick changelog, so people know what’s new

6. Accept that it will never be “done”

A great handbook is never final.

It grows with your team. It reflects your learning.

So don’t wait for perfection. Launch a messy version.

Add to it every month.

Want to grow your team without losing alignment? Start with a handbook.

Because clarity compounds.

And when your team has access to that clarity, everything changes:

💡Meetings get shorter.
💡Onboarding gets smoother.
💡Collaboration gets faster.
💡Culture feels stronger.

So if you’ve been meaning to “document things properly,” consider this your nudge.

Start with what you know. In your own words. For your own team.

You don’t need a handbook that looks good.

You need one that gets used.

Until next time,

Karthick Raajha.