Scaling Engineering Teams via Writing Things Down and Sharing – Aka RFCs
This sounds like a description of a Design Document, which are very valuable when the problem space is well understood.  It can serve as an alternative to sprints and sprint planning for a very small team, or when working with contractors.When a problem is not as well understood, e.g. can't be solved just by engineering planning upfront and needs user input, I like Google's Design Sprints which uncover the critical features using a 1 week process.With my experience leading engineering teams and growing startups, I agree completely that documentation is the #1 blocker in scaling engineering teams, all else being equal.  If the design, planning, and execution process are well-documented then engineers can be onboarded as soon as they are hired without slowing down the team too much.