Hey there, I'm Devin!
Most of the time you can catch me deep in the world of internal comms at Workshop (yes, the Happy Mondays folks!), and while I love AI, there are just some comms questions that need a human who really gets it… that’s me!
Devin — There are a lot of communication inefficiencies across our global team. People are often asking the same questions to different people, and we don’t have a formalized, centralized document storage or knowledge system.
I think a large part of this could be solved with a company intranet or knowledge store, where employees have some edit access to update relevant information, while other areas are locked down for things like policies. However, we’re working with a really tight budget, and most of the solutions I’ve looked at are paid per user, not very intuitive to set up or maintain (like SharePoint), or don’t integrate well with our existing software.
We already use a lot of SaaS platforms, so I’m really hesitant to add yet another one. Do you have any tips on how to set this up thoughtfully, avoid duplication, and keep it simple for employees to navigate and actually use?
Hmm! This is such a good question — and fair warning, my response will be on the longer side. But I really want to get detailed because this isn’t the first time I’ve seen or heard something like this.
As I understand it, the issue here isn’t entirely the lack of a tool — it’s shared clarity. Communication inefficiencies start to bubble up when people don’t have a common understanding of where information should live, where to go for answers, and what channel is meant for what.
So if I were starting from scratch, I’d focus on a few things.
First, get clear on your channel expectations — and separate the timely from the evergreen. Email and Slack/Teams are great for timely, action-oriented updates — things people need to know right now, quick reminders, short-term coordination. But they’re not made to be a long-term home for information, and over time they become near impossible to search, especially for global teams working across devices and time zones. A knowledge hub should exist for the durable stuff: policies, FAQs, onboarding resources, and answers to the questions that keep coming up again and again. The timely stuff — what’s new this week, what’s changing, what employees need to act on — should get pushed to them through your existing channels. Keeping those two functions separate makes it so much easier for employees to know where to look and what to expect.
Second, solve the most obvious pain points first. It sounds like you already have a good pulse on what those are, but I’d look back at the last month or two of internal messages and identify the handful of questions that keep getting asked on repeat. You can even use AI to spot patterns (ChatGPT is great here!) across those messages by exporting content and asking it to scan for themes. Those recurring questions should become your first pages! And here’s a little bonus tip — pay attention to when those questions spike. If you’re seeing a flood around open enrollment or performance review season, that’s an opportunity to get ahead of it with a drip campaign rather than always playing catch-up.
You’ve already named this, but there does need to be one consistent place to point people when those questions come up — with some areas editable and others (like policies) locked down. Otherwise, everything just keeps living in threads and inboxes. I know you’re hesitant to add another tool, but this is honestly one of my favorite parts about Pages in Workshop — it gives you a centralized place to house answers without the heavy lift of building a full intranet. Pages can be topic- or department-specific and shared via a simple link, which makes it way easier to build that “go-to” home over time.
Third, make adoption part of the everyday workflow, not a separate initiative. The easiest way to keep things from duplicating is to gently train the entire company over time. When someone asks a repeat question, answer it once, then link back to your hub. That small habit signals, “This is where we keep this information,” without adding more noise or completely ignoring someone! And to reinforce that even further, I’d create a simple channel matrix (a sheet that spells out what belongs where and why) and share it widely so employees feel confident about where to look and where to post going forward. Oh — and a small but mighty tip here: use consistent naming conventions for your documents and pages. It sounds basic, but it makes a huge difference when people (or tools!) are trying to search for something later.
And I’ll leave you with one more thought, because I think this is where things are headed. A lot of the SaaS tools I’m seeing are starting to use AI to solve this exact problem — not with better folder structures, but with agents. Instead of employees digging through folders and hoping they find the right doc, they can just ask an AI agent, “Where can I find X?” and get pointed to the right place. We’re already seeing lightweight versions of this in email search and Slack, and I think that’s going to be the real unlock for knowledge management in the next year or two.
And one honest moment — even at Workshop, with ~100 employees, we have brand guidelines in three separate locations and people still ask where to find them. So will you ever fully eliminate the repeat questions? Probably not! But you can absolutely reduce the noise, build good habits, and make it way easier for people to help themselves. Fingers crossed!
