What is a knowledge hub?
Knowledge hubs (or khub) are information networks that are dedicated to fostering knowledge sharing within peer groups. Knowledge hubs started out in academia to facilitate joint research and have since been adapted by the private sector as a way to improve collaboration on initiatives and decision-making.
The knowledge hub docs themselves may be different, but the goals are similar—we want new hires to feel welcomed and onboard efficiently, team members to be aligned, and everyone to have a space for shared understanding and ongoing learning.
Our goal with this knowledge hub guide is to inspire you with to build a your own and give you the tools with to make it your own. Challenges of knowledge sharing
After talking with clients and teammates, I started to see common challenges in gathering and sharing knowledge. I’d love to learn more about your ideas and experiences as leaders so we can reimagine best practices for work in our current remote world and beyond. At Coda, we use voting tables like the one below to spark ideas and conversation. Please 👍 what you’ve experienced, and feel free to add new challenges. Let’s discuss together!
Tips to create useful knowledge hubs
What I’ve realized is that the best knowledge hubs are the single source of truth. They show us what we’re doing and why, how we’re doing and with whom, and when. They create a place to articulate, craft, and align knowledge, a process which is essential to a strong direction and company culture. Once I’ve collected everything into one Coda doc, the next part is funーbut also an essential part to others actually using your toolーmaking it engaging and useful. The goal is to create a doc that informs and inspires action.
Build a single source of truth
It is good practice to start by telling comprehensive stories with everything in one place. Pull together content from many places and put them in various within your doc. (A quick makes it easy to get all your various writing in to Coda). Then start connecting all the ideas together with s. Many knowledge hubs start as merely a collection of links, as you’re already using apps designed to communicate specific types of information, like resumes in Greenhouse and analytics in Mode. With Coda, you can use and to bring in information and knowledge from other places—and save your team the hassle of jumping between tabs and systems. 💡 Try using and to make the content more easily navigable.
Get your sheet (and docs) together with a
Encourage team collaboration with a living doc
Transitioning from printed manuals, static intranets, or many (many) slowly dying documents, I’ve loved creating living docs with Coda—something that people are always contributing to and is getting more useful and growing over time.
And one stand-out feature I incorporate in docs, like our , is direct engagement. Once I the company, leaders have full edit access, readers are making , and there’s interactive to mark items that need updates. With ongoing conversation and collaboration, we’re constantly improving the playbooks and guides that help us improve our work. Content stays fresh, which is especially valuable for our IT and HR leads who constantly need to update policies & procedures.
The IT Help / FAQ doc with a Request button
Use different content formats with a multi-dimensional surface
Knowledge is the ultimate shapeshifter because we all communicate and learn in our own unique ways. As a result, resources come in various forms.
Some of my favorite docs have:
: I love the welcome video in the and the in the . in the same place: The Canva team was using spreadsheets and documents, but could pull this all together in the for their doc. : One table that I can be viewed as calendar or like an app like in the of the . to make concepts pop and to visually introduce . Keeping new hires excited and engaged during onboarding and training.