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Mapping knowledge

Denham Grey has written a blog entry on mapping knowledge, in the knowledge management sense. To quote:

Using a questionnaire has proved, in my experience, to be the least effective way to map and understand knowledge gaps, surface issues, to identify worthwhile new practices or opportunities.

I definitely agree with all of this. In fact, I've found that both surveys and focus groups are often ineffective at determining needs and identifying cultural issues. (At one conference I talked at, I became known as "the guy who hates focus groups", all very amusing.)

Instead, I recommend a variety of ways of conducting research, including:

• stakeholder interviews (my favourite technique)
• workplace observation
• process mapping
• analysing the existing site
• usage stats & search engine reports

These are all the very topics that my Techniques for Building a Better Intranet workshop focuses on: the useful and practical ways of identifying needs and mapping knowledge.

Posted by jamesr on September 24, 2003 09:36 AM
Categories: Intranets, Knowledge management