Ask HN: GSuite users, how do you do Knowledge Management?
18 comments
We use a combination of a couple of things, but 90% of our documentation & knowledge Management is in Quip (we have a wiki too but don't really use it). I started off disliking Quip in some ways but 90% of that was our initial poor organization of the documents, e.g. no standard. But once we started categorizing and standardizing the structure it made it much easier to deal with. The search function is also pretty good, but it will still sometimes fail to find documents I know exist and I know I have permissions to. Quip makes collaboration super simple and a no brainer to have a distributed team work on something together with comments, basic change tracking etc. It also is nice cause you can access it anywhere and from basically any device, which just makes it easy (document linking is helpful too).
We used to do a standup document (in Quip) daily for our distributed teams so everyone could update each other without having to worry about timezones etc. Works really well for that, and also let other teams peak into status of other teams really quick which is nice because you can do it on your own time and without interrupting anyone.
We used to do a standup document (in Quip) daily for our distributed teams so everyone could update each other without having to worry about timezones etc. Works really well for that, and also let other teams peak into status of other teams really quick which is nice because you can do it on your own time and without interrupting anyone.
We recently went down this rabbit hole. We extensively tested each of the following:
- http://notion.so/
- https://slab.com/
- https://getoutline.com/
- https://gitbook.com/
Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Notion is the most flexible and fun to use. Outline and Gitbook are open source, which is nice. Slab is probably the furthest along in development and in terms of being purpose-built for knowledge management.
Unfortunately, Google Sites seems to be super low priority at Google.
- http://notion.so/
- https://slab.com/
- https://getoutline.com/
- https://gitbook.com/
Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Notion is the most flexible and fun to use. Outline and Gitbook are open source, which is nice. Slab is probably the furthest along in development and in terms of being purpose-built for knowledge management.
Unfortunately, Google Sites seems to be super low priority at Google.
We use google drive for our knowledge management. I think this may cover a large percentage of people reading this.
I want to say, we hate Google Drive as a knowledge management solution, it is great as a document store in general, and the tools to create and edit the documents are fine - sheets, docs, etc, all good.
Primarily we use search in google drive to find things, and this has many issues. The document(s) that are found: - Often not the current source of truth. Either they are outdated or missing information. - Misleading or wrong. Information in many documents is just plain wrong, with drive everyone in your company can create documents and title them whatever they like, so it's often the case that a search will result in finding documents that are just incorrect. - Confusing. Often the source of truth is found in multiple documents. You need to piece together multiple searches/documents to find the answer. - Missing. This is also the case, the actual information you are looking for is not in a doc at all. - Part of a large document. This can cause issues, as well as people, who do not like to modify large documents, so they often create smaller documents. They do not always link it either. - Correct. This can happen too! They just find the right document.
Unfortunately, the problems compound one another, people will find a misleading document and spend time to fix it, leading to multiple sources of truth, for the moment. They may also find it and assume it does not exist, so they make a new doc, so it gets worse, now you have 3 docs. It goes on and on.
Some solutions that we have applied: - Delete - Just delete a document if you find it has incorrect information. I think this is rare, nobody really feels powerful enough to delete another person's document, but it does happen. - Banner - Type a banner at the top of the doc stating that you think this is not the source of truth. Even better, link the correct doc in that doc. This helps with people who have the wrong document bookmarked or if the wrong doc is higher in the search. - Use folders - Move documents into folders and have users search in folders instead of search the entire drive.
They are not ideal but might help others who are using docs in this way.
I want to say, we hate Google Drive as a knowledge management solution, it is great as a document store in general, and the tools to create and edit the documents are fine - sheets, docs, etc, all good.
Primarily we use search in google drive to find things, and this has many issues. The document(s) that are found: - Often not the current source of truth. Either they are outdated or missing information. - Misleading or wrong. Information in many documents is just plain wrong, with drive everyone in your company can create documents and title them whatever they like, so it's often the case that a search will result in finding documents that are just incorrect. - Confusing. Often the source of truth is found in multiple documents. You need to piece together multiple searches/documents to find the answer. - Missing. This is also the case, the actual information you are looking for is not in a doc at all. - Part of a large document. This can cause issues, as well as people, who do not like to modify large documents, so they often create smaller documents. They do not always link it either. - Correct. This can happen too! They just find the right document.
Unfortunately, the problems compound one another, people will find a misleading document and spend time to fix it, leading to multiple sources of truth, for the moment. They may also find it and assume it does not exist, so they make a new doc, so it gets worse, now you have 3 docs. It goes on and on.
Some solutions that we have applied: - Delete - Just delete a document if you find it has incorrect information. I think this is rare, nobody really feels powerful enough to delete another person's document, but it does happen. - Banner - Type a banner at the top of the doc stating that you think this is not the source of truth. Even better, link the correct doc in that doc. This helps with people who have the wrong document bookmarked or if the wrong doc is higher in the search. - Use folders - Move documents into folders and have users search in folders instead of search the entire drive.
They are not ideal but might help others who are using docs in this way.
Haven't really used it yet, but https://youneedawiki.com/ seem like a good hybrid approach, using Gdoc for editing, but having a browsable read version of your wiki.
I recently started testing YNAW and while it is still early, it shows lots of promise. I manage a team of ~40 and preparing for a full transition from Confluence to YNAW ASAP. The founder is also very responsive and quick to resolve issues.
Woah, I've nexer hear of this. What a great idea!
We never found a good solution with Gsuite. We're now using notion.io
Surprised no one else has mentioned it, but we use MediaWiki, which is awesome.
We've tried:
- Google Sites: too hard to make changes, keep up-to-date
- Documize: great for documentation, terrible for training non-technical staff to keep up to date
- Shared Drive -> Google Docs
That last one has the best hope of surviving, since staff doesn't have to learn a new technology.
I'd be interested in an answer to this as well.
- Google Sites: too hard to make changes, keep up-to-date
- Documize: great for documentation, terrible for training non-technical staff to keep up to date
- Shared Drive -> Google Docs
That last one has the best hope of surviving, since staff doesn't have to learn a new technology.
I'd be interested in an answer to this as well.
I am currently developing a knowledge management solution for Drive, and I am trying to understand what people are doing right now. This is why I started this thread.
I would be really glad to learn more about your needs. If you want you can drop me a mail: [email protected]
Dito this. We're currently using a Wiki built with Google Sites. Everyone hates it.
I am currently developing a knowledge management solution for Drive, and I am trying to understand what people are doing right now. This is why I started this thread.
I would be really glad to learn more about your needs. If you want you can drop me a mail: [email protected]
I use fulcrum.wiki. It is a bit like Zim in Google Drive. It's still in beta, but works quite good for me.
Hi interesting idea what is the benefit compared to atlassians confluence?
Whilst I can't compare fulcrum to confluence, I can compare Zim to confluence, and they are chalk-and-cheese. Zim was designed principally as hierarchical notes-on-steroids for personal use. There's no permissions beyond the file level. I have no love for confluence (or jira for that matter); we've used both and fight both. We now use xWiki across the org for shared knowledge -- it has good access controls -- displacing confluence. Data migration was easy. For local information management, we suggest people use the tool they are most comfortable with from {dropbox paper; evernote; zim; devon-think; apple-notes; xWiki}. (We are a Mac & Linux shop).
There is no need for a second infrastructure and I aim for a tighter integration with GSuite Tools.
In Confluence GSuite is an afterthought.
For example when you upload an image in Confluence it saved in Confluence and you can't use it in any other GSuite product. When you upload it in fulcrum you automatically upload it to your Drive and can use it everywhere else.
In Confluence GSuite is an afterthought.
For example when you upload an image in Confluence it saved in Confluence and you can't use it in any other GSuite product. When you upload it in fulcrum you automatically upload it to your Drive and can use it everywhere else.
Issues in Gitlab, plus some wiki articles in various gitlab projects. GSuite really is on the way out for us, as only thing we utilize is email.
We tried a ton of tools but Notion does pretty much everything we need perfectly. It's probably what you're looking for.
We tried Keep, but it's much too simplistic to store documentation. We now use Docs, but it is a mess, to structure the documentation.
I am curious what you do, to store important information?