How to design your own knowledge base

First and foremost, it is crucial to thoughtfully plan the structure of our knowledge base before we start adding content.

If we begin creating documents without prior planning, chaos will quickly ensue, making it difficult for both humans and artificial intelligence to navigate.

Of course, the structure will evolve as our knowledge base grows. Changes in the future are inevitable, but regardless, we should make an effort to lay a solid foundation from the start.

Step 1 - Consider the shelves

Shelves are the largest units of our structure and are at the highest level in its hierarchy. We should begin designing our knowledge base by thinking about the shelves.

According to the most classic division, each shelf should correspond to a particular department of the company. In this scenario, we would create shelves such as:

1. Marketing
2. Human Resources / HR
3. IT
4. Design
5. Management
6. Finance / Accounting
7. Logistics
8. Production
9. Customer Service
10. Sales
11. Legal

Of course, such a structure is not mandatory. Every company has its own needs and specifics, and the knowledge base should best reflect the structure of the company itself.

If you're unsure where to start, the above structure is a good starting point.

Step 2 - Create a dedicated shelf for general company matters

It's advisable to ensure that every piece of content finds its proper place in the appropriate book and shelf. However, occasionally, new content may fit into several different departments or even the entire company.

In such cases, do not duplicate content. That is, do not create copies of the same page in different books or shelves. This will cause maintenance difficulties in the future, as each change will need to be updated in multiple places and discrepancies will eventually arise.

In this situation, create a "General" or "Company-wide" shelf and place content and data fitting more than one department there.

Step 3 - Think about the structure for each knowledge area and each shelf

Once you have designed the high-level structure of the knowledge base, you should approach the structure within each shelf with similar diligence.

This is a very individual matter, but it is important that the division within each shelf be as precise as possible. This means that each book should correspond to a specific segment of corporate knowledge reserved in that shelf.

Step 4 - If possible, ensure fluidity in chapters and pages

Physical books naturally maintain a direction and flow of information—we read them from the first page to the last.

In digital document management systems that mimic books (like CogniVis Docs), this isn't necessary, although if such fluidity can be maintained, it's excellent.

This means that if the content you're adding to a book can maintain a linear structure (i.e., the first page should be read first, and the last page last), it's worth doing so.

For example, if you're creating a book with instructions and procedures for onboarding new employees, such a linear structure might be highly desirable. This way, the new team member will read all materials and complete all tasks in the correct order, instead of tackling a task they can't complete until they have familiarized themselves with a prior procedure.

However, sometimes a linear structure is neither possible nor necessary. If, for example, you're creating a book with content and data for the marketing team, then each page might be equally important and there is no proper order in which to place them. And that's perfectly fine.

Remember that the structure of the knowledge base should meet the needs of your company, not fulfill abstract theories. The important thing is only that it is done planfuly and not to let chaos creep into the documents.