If you’re in charge of designing knowledge management tools and approaches for your organization, you know you need to pick ones that employees will actually use. Otherwise, your shiny new process or software package may end up gathering dust, not providing any value. But how do you figure out which tools and approaches are most likely to fit into employees’ work processes and help them achieve their objectives?
One answer is scenario planning. If you truly want to understand your internal customers, try creating use case scenarios focused on key demographic groups inside your organization. For example, consider a 22-year old recent graduate who just joined your engineering department. What kind of knowledge is she likely to need, and how does she want to access it? What challenges is she likely to experience in terms of finding information and collaborating with coworkers? Close examination of these questions can help you pinpoint key knowledge needs and provide different audiences with customized KM solutions embedded in the flow of work.
APQC provides Guidelines for Scenario Planning in Knowledge Management to help you understand this technique and an Editable Use Case Scenario Template that you can download to start building your own scenarios. We’ve also created several example use case scenarios to give you a feel for what they look like:
- Surviving in a Multigenerational Work Force: A Sample KM Use Case Scenario
- Building Relationships in a Large, Complex Organization: A Sample KM Use Case Scenario
- Collaborating with a Cross-Functional Team: A Sample KM Use Case Scenario
If you haven’t used this technique, we recommend giving it a test drive—you may be surprised what you learn about your customers and how it shapes your KM efforts going forward.