Practical Insights for Knowledge Sharing

Until demand is insatiable, we have work to do

Most organizations have the desire and capability — but lack
the operational commitment — to effectively share knowledge

Our self-help, learning, intranet, extranet, support and technical knowledgebases exist to deliver game-changing ROI as customers, partners and staff discover solutions to time-critical problems.

When we’re successful, users swarm the site expecting to find answers and are gobsmacked when they don’t.

Conversely, flat demand signals failure. Whether it is a lack of useful content or treasure buried beneath clunky navigation, users are not relying on our knowledge systems. They are getting their answers elsewhere and that wastes time and energy while risking poor decision-making.

We can do better. Effective knowledge sharing requires us to have an enterprise content strategy reflecting that — in addition to our goods and services — we are in the business of publishing.

It’s a matter of quality

The typical content strategy is inconsistent: airtight control over marketing and branding while tolerating ad hoc knowledgebase publishing from multiple departments. Absent effective quality control, our audiences suffer from avoidable problems that undermine our credibility, add to costs and weaken our brand. The following articles cover key challenges faced by organizations striving to enact a truly enterprise content strategy:

Hey! Where’s Our Content?
We often invest more energy into leadership briefings than preparing for customer support

Enterprise Content Strategy. Includes key principles to follow and recommended mechanisms for implementation

Digital Publishing
Examines obstacles and requirements for success and offers practical solutions

From Strategy to Operations
Let’s engage those who will do the work to draft the plan. Includes an exercise to jump-start the project

(Im-)Proper Care & Feeding of Experts
Preparing knowledge resources for future use is no easy feat

The Discipline of Publishing
Timely, high-quality, useful knowledgebase resources require a publishing process

The Curse of Elegance
A creation that appears simplistic and obvious is unappreciated until we grasp the difficulty

Swing and a Miss — Support Center Metrics
A user engaging the support center may be a symptom of deficient self-help resources

Think Like a Librarian
Librarians focus on the nature of the resources and the needs of the users and refine their approach over time

Tag-Ur-It!
How to combine the flexibility of tags with the utility of controlled vocabularies

Your Personal (Knowledge) Shopper
Take a tip from Medium.com: Collections rock!

Managing the Expectations of Leadership
We have to make sure they hear and understand the caveats

Online Quality Control
Co-opting our frustrated users makes $en$e