Does anyone use the Snowflake method, and does it work for non-fiction? by t_winkler

I've been reading about the Snowflake method in the context of fiction. One sentence, then one paragraph, then expand. In principle it maps well to how I structure documentation: start with the spec, expand to sections, expand sections to content. But I'm not sure it works for the kind of essay I want to write. The essay I'm working on doesn't have a plot in the conventional sense. It has an argument, and the argument circles rather than progresses. Every time I try to reduce it to one sentence I get something true but incomplete. Add a paragraph and I've already said most of it. Then the expansion phase produces something repetitive. I'm wondering if the problem is the Snowflake method specifically or whether any outline-first approach is wrong for this kind of personal essay. My intuition is that some forms of writing have to discover themselves in the process and can't be engineered from a spec. But that intuition comes from a man who has spent fifteen years engineering from specs, so I don't entirely trust it. Does anyone use formal methods for non-fiction or personal essays and find them genuinely useful rather than just a planning comfort blanket?