A Knowledge Article is a well-established concept in knowledge management. It is used in service centers and professional portals in organizations.
A good knowledge article contains precise information about a product, service, work process, or problem solution, with unified, clear, and well-structured content, tailored to the target audience.
Knowledge articles distill complex information into concise, structured formats, enabling rapid, precise access. This approach dramatically reduces response times, boosts customer satisfaction, and elevates employees' professional communication by delivering accurate, up-to-date information with fewer errors.
The need to create knowledge articles may arise in situations such as implementing new products or services, new work processes and guidelines, identifying knowledge gaps in specific areas that affect the organization or proactively preventing such gaps.
Over the past 20 years, we have created knowledge articles in knowledge management systems for customer service units across different organizations, including communications companies, credit, insurance, banking, government offices, and more.
Writing knowledge articles involves investing significant resources, starting from collecting existing information, validating and summarizing it, organizing the information by topics and templates, providing convenient accessibility, and creating knowledge management mechanisms. For example, content experts, who will be responsible for writing and periodically updating the items, and knowledge managers, who will examine the extent to which the target audience uses the items.
The significant investment led to the fact that only at later stages, knowledge items also entered the internal organizational world, rich in documents and procedures, and became, through organizational portals, a unified professional knowledge source and a daily working tool for employees in various roles, not just in service centers.
In the past year, one of our clients requested us to propose an additional interpretation of knowledge articles, and we began creating "Knowledge Capsules" as a response to urgent organizational needs arising from knowledge gaps in times of crises.
Similar to a knowledge article, the knowledge capsule is also a professional content unit, containing important information on a specific topic, aimed at providing users quick access to information in a way that enables easy and rapid understanding and implementation.
Despite similarities between knowledge articles and knowledge capsules, there are several differences. The knowledge capsule is more concise compared to the traditional knowledge article. Usually, the capsule will include a reference to an existing knowledge article, aimed at deeper understanding and expansion. Additionally, the capsule is not bound to a single format or the digital platform templates of the organizational portal, thus allowing freedom and creativity in making information accessible in various formats without templates, for example:
Short digital user guide - textual format combined with diagrams and images. Suitable for complex topics requiring "step-by-step" examples. For example: a guide for software use or machine handling.
Short video - visual explanation combined with narration or on-screen text. For example: a video demonstrating a work method for performing a specific system operation.
Information page - for example, a graph showing statistical data, a flowchart of a new work process, and tips about handling special populations.
Podcast - presenting policy, strategy, worldview, insights. For example: recording an interview with an expert or senior manager in the organization about innovation.
Application - digital tool containing smart tips about handling customer inquiries, or suggesting a customer conversation script.
Game or simulation - for example: a game simulating decision-making in specific business scenarios.
There are several main organizational uses for knowledge capsules:
Providing focused professional information access to new employees who joined the organization as external workers, without access to the organizational portal and its knowledge articles.
Addressing knowledge gaps in the absence of an organizational portal and knowledge articles.
Writing new professional information as infrastructure for knowledge articles in an organizational portal or knowledge management system.
Summary:
The reality we live in, including crises, requires us to show flexibility to change and open-mindedness when working with clients and the organizational target audience.
The current knowledge management world, including the almost unlimited possibilities of using artificial intelligence tools, provides us with innovative and creative tools for performing new tasks, while still using the good and established principles of the knowledge management world.
As always, we must examine thoughtfully whether, for example, it's indeed time to give a new name to a familiar term, whether the solution offers added value to the client, and whether the artificial intelligence tools or format we chose for performing the task are suitable for the target audience.
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