Productivity Tips for Knowledge-Users

Productivity-Tips for Knowledge-Users Optimizing knowledge creation and management in ServiceNow involves a combination of strategic, organizational, and technical skills.

Here’s a comprehensive guide to enhance these processes:

1. Creating Knowledge with Precision and Relevance

Focus on Quality: Commit to crafting well-researched, concise, and relevant articles. For instance, a troubleshooting guide should be thorough and up-to-date, using a clear, professional tone.

Utilize Templates: Consistently use ServiceNow’s templates for a uniform layout and structure. Example: Standardize incident resolution articles with a common template.

Convert new customer tickets/cases, or questions to knowledge: Good ticket handling will be a great source for content. Learn how to Create a Knowledge Article from an Incident in ServiceNow. Whben agents always close a ticket with what was reported, how it was validated and how it is resolved, they can close out that ticket and draft the knowledge that when written once, can solve issues for hundreds via self service.

2. Efficient Reuse and Productivity-Tips for Knowledge-Users

Tagging and Categorization: Apply precise and relevant tags and categories for easier retrieval. For example, tag an article about software installation with specific software names and installation procedures.

Create a Reference Repository: Build a repository of commonly used templates, phrases, and data points for quick access and reuse in new articles.

3. Avoiding Duplicate Content

Rigorous Search Before Creation: Conduct thorough searches using keywords and phrases to ensure the topic isn’t already covered.

Utilize ServiceNow’s Duplicate Detection: Use built-in features for detecting potential duplicates before publishing new content.

4. Improving Findability

Optimize Article Titles: Create clear, descriptive titles with relevant keywords, like “Step-by-Step Password Reset in [Software Name].”

Implement a Robust Tagging System: Use comprehensive, relevant, and consistent tags to boost searchability. Continuously update tagging and references to improve findability.

Leverage Analytics: Employ ServiceNow’s analytics to understand user searches and tailor articles accordingly.

5. Offering Productivity-Tips for Knowledge-Users Feedback

Here are some proactive ways that Knowledge users can offer feedback and recommend improvements to the content they are using. How to recommend updates, for example a policy article reference has been replaced by a newer policy, the user can notify of the improved policy, and recommend and even attach the new policy to the comments. In some cases, the content might no longer be relevant, they can offer that feedback and recommend retirement instead of rewriting.

Encourage User Feedback: Make it straightforward for users to provide feedback on knowledge articles.

Regularly Review Feedback: Assign a team or individual to review and act on feedback, ensuring content remains relevant.

Comment to Suggest Enhancements: Empower users to recommend updates or enhancements to an article using comments. This can include suggesting improvements or adding new, relevant documents. For example, if a user finds an updated process or additional resource, they can comment on the article, providing a direct avenue for continuous content enrichment.

6. Recommending Creation. Content and Productivity-Tips for Knowledge-Users

Identify Gaps: Analyze user search trends to find knowledge gaps. Example: If many users search for data migration but find limited information, consider creating content in that area.

Encourage Contributions: Foster a culture where team members feel empowered to suggest or create new content.

Stay Current: Monitor new ServiceNow features, industry trends, and organizational changes to identify new content opportunities.

Additional Strategies

Integrate with Other ServiceNow Modules: Link knowledge articles to relevant incident, problem, and change records for a holistic approach.

Regular Content Reviews: Set up a schedule for periodic content review and updating.

User Experience Focus: Continually assess the Knowledge Base’s user interface and experience, ensuring it’s user-friendly.

By implementing these advanced productivity strategies, ServiceNow Knowledge Management users can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge creation, maintenance, and utilization.

Other Resources and Productivity Tips for Knowledge-Users

• 5 ways to give effective feedback | Zapier
• 9 Productivity Tips from People Who Write About Productivity (hbr.org)
• 10 Knowledge Management Best Practices (shelf.io)
• Introduction to Knowledge Management
• Knowledge Categorization “Find-ability”
• The Art of Brainstorming: How to Generate Content Ideas That Stand Out (aicontentfy.com)