Knowledge Base
Enterprise Knowledge Base Architecture
What began as a request to recreate documentation for a new point-of-sale system exposed a larger problem: operational knowledge had no consistent architecture or source of truth. I proposed and led the design of a new operational knowledge system, then used the POS beta and rollout to test the model while building the first production resources.
Role
Knowledge Architect & Solution Owner
Ownership
- End-to-end strategy
- Information architecture
- Design
- Technical implementation
- Content development
- Governance
Scale
- ~950 franchise clinics
Current State
- Phase 1 live; broader operational consolidation in progress
The Challenge
A newly designed point-of-sale system was preparing to enter beta, with an accelerated rollout to approximately 950 clinics following only a couple months later. Because system navigation was embedded throughout the existing documentation, nearly every Quick Reference Guide and how-to resource would become obsolete.
The initial ask was simple recreate the existing resources for the new system.
But I had recently rebuilt many of those same resources and knew that replacing them one-to-one would reproduce an existing problem. Operational knowledge was scattered across QRGs, videos, manuals, implementation guides, training courses, newsletters, and one-time communications. There was no consistent way to determine where an answer should live—or where to find it later.
They symptoms were often treated as communication problems. Clinic staff were receiving too much information to reasonably retain, leading to calls for fewer emails and less frequent newsletters.
The volume wasn’t the only problem. Enterprise communication was being asked to do the job of a knowledge base.
An email can announce that a procedure changed. It shouldn’t be the place an employee has to find that procedure six months later.
With the new POS approaching, recreating the existing resources would have given us current screenshots without addressing the system that allowed knowledge to become fragmented and outdated in the first place.
The project needed to shift from replacing documents to creating a reliable home for operational knowledge.
Initial Ask
Recreate the existing POS docmentation.
What the audit revealed
The documentation was not just outdated. The knowledge system was broken.
Discovery
Before deciding what the new system should look like, I needed to understand the one we already had.
I inventoried operational resources across the franchisee-facing file system, LMS, internal Operations platform, and network drives, recording what existed, where it lived, and it’s intended purpose.
I also printed the existing materials (yes, all of them) and reviewed them as a single body of knowledge. For the first pass, I removed only information that was clearly incorrect or tied to an implementation that had already ended. The goal wasn’t yet to decide what the new artitecture should be. It was to understand what employees were currently expected to navigate.