Prodcat vs. Manual Markdown: A Time Audit
We ran a time audit comparing a manual Markdown documentation workflow to Prodcat’s automated approach. The results were eye-opening, revealing not just significant time savings but also profound qualitative benefits.
The Experiment: A Head-to-Head Comparison
To quantify the difference, we set up a controlled experiment. The goal was to create a complete documentation site for a catalog of 20 products, each with its own set of features, variants, and specifications.
Team A (Manual Markdown): This team was tasked with creating the site by hand. This involved writing 20 individual Markdown files for the products, creating and updating category pages, and manually managing all internal linking.
Team B (Prodcat): This team was given the same product data, but in the form of a single products.js file. Their task was to use Prodcat to generate the entire site.
The Quantitative Results: A 90% Time Reduction
The time-tracking data revealed a stark difference in efficiency.
| Task | Manual Markdown | Prodcat |
|---|---|---|
| Initial Product Page Creation | 6 hours | 45 minutes |
| Category Linking & Navigation | 2 hours | Automatic (0 min) |
| Fixing Broken Links | 1 hour | Automatic (0 min) |
| Updating Shared Metadata | 1.5 hours | 10 minutes |
| Total Time | 10.5 hours | ~1 hour |
The result is a 90% reduction in the time and effort required to launch a complete product documentation site. The time saved is not just a one-off benefit; it compounds with every new product added and every update made.
Beyond the Numbers: The Qualitative Benefits
The audit revealed that the true cost of manual documentation isn't just in the hours spent, but also in the quality and consistency of the final product.
- Guaranteed Consistency: With Prodcat, every product page is generated from the same template. This ensures a uniform structure, layout, and style across the entire site—a feat that is nearly impossible to achieve manually without rigorous, time-consuming reviews.
- Effortless Maintenance: Need to add a new specification to all products? With a manual approach, that's 20 files to edit. With Prodcat, it's a single change in one template. This drastically reduces the long-term maintenance burden.
- Built-in SEO and Metadata: Prodcat automatically generates SEO-friendly URLs and metadata from the product data. This foundational SEO work is often overlooked in manual processes but is critical for discoverability.
- Faster Contributor Onboarding: New team members don't need to learn a complex file structure or a long list of formatting rules. They only need to learn how to add a product object to a JavaScript file, dramatically lowering the barrier to contribution.
Is Manual Markdown Ever the Right Choice?
For a single, standalone document, Markdown is an excellent tool. But for a collection of structured documents like a product catalog, its limitations become a significant liability. The risk of inconsistency, broken links, and maintenance overhead grows exponentially with each new page.
Conclusion: Upgrade Your Workflow
If you’re still managing a product documentation site by writing Markdown by hand, this audit demonstrates that there is a more efficient, reliable, and scalable way. Prodcat isn’t just faster — it’s a smarter workflow that delivers a higher-quality result with a fraction of the effort.