Knowledge article template variations - what are you experiences?

[Magnus Hovik]

Sorry about the long read!

Note: I'm mostly curious to hear thoughts and experiences from your organisation — don't get too hung up on the specifics of our setup! 🙂

(And hopefully don't just answer that we need better content approval)

We're evaluating whether to expand beyond a single KCS template. Some context:

• Large organisation, multiple departments (IT, HR, Marketing, Finance, etc.)
• Early KCS adoption — CoE, knowledge coaches, delegated contributors, no content approval team
• Current single template (Title – Description – Resolution) feels IT-centric, losing non-IT contributors
• A "Standard" template sits alongside it — non-IT newcomers tend to default to it instinctively
• Knowledge flows both reactively and proactively — not all knowledge is demand-driven
• We are going to test variations internally based on lots of existing knowledge and tickets from different departments.

We're considering adding: 

• Problem & Solution
• Question & Answer
• How To

But I'm concerned about overlap and decision fatigue, especially without a content team to catch inconsistencies. Here's the problem illustrated. The same topic, three valid templates:

IT example — "Reset my password"

• Q&A:
  • Question: How do I reset my password?
  • Answer: Go to the login page and click "Forgot password"
• How To:
  • Introduction: This guide explains how to reset your password
  • Instructions: Step 1, Step 2...
• Problem & Solution:
  • Problem: User cannot log in due to forgotten password
  • Solution: Navigate to...

HR example — "Missing paycheck"

• Q&A:
  • Question: Why haven't I received my paycheck?
  • Answer: Contact payroll at X with your employee ID
• How To:
  • Introduction: This guide explains what to do if your paycheck is missing
  • Instructions: Step 1, Step 2...
• Problem & Solution:
  • Problem: Employee has not received expected paycheck
  • Solution: Navigate to the payroll portal...

A contributor sitting down to write either of these has to make a judgment call. And in a large, (mostly) self-regulated program, three people could write the same article three different ways. Good content standards help — but realistically, people won't consult them every time.

This gets even more interesting for proactive knowledge. Organisational content that isn't tied to a specific incident or request. That content often doesn't fit neatly into any of these templates either?

I know KCS leans toward a single template, and I understand the reasoning. We've tried it, it's not landing across our departments, and I don't think more training alone will fix it.

What are your experiences? Or thoughts?

Thank you!

[owenbarber]

From our experience I would not stray from the OOB templates (FAQ, How To, What Is, KCS Article, and Standard).  

We used to have a few more custom ones and this becomes quite an overhead to maintain whilst bringing more tables which becomes an issue for filtering and reporting on.  

Personally for the articles staying on SNOW I see no massive issue upon which of the standard templates is chosen the real benefit for me is when you want articles to appear a set way on Portals.  FAQ is perfect for your HR, Finance and Marketing Q&A's.  How to more for your simple processes, What is for your informational pieces and policies. 

Agreed the KCS template is super IT focused but is perfect for that world especially when creating from Tickets.

Standard is always the most used as its a blank canvas but I prefer the other four for the SEO benefits if the 1st fields are used well.

[Karolina]

I agree about sticking to ootb templates, we used to have custom and at some point, after one of the upgrades, some functionalities stopped working for the custom templates. Plus, it may complicate reporting.

We now have only two ootb templates - How to and What Is (we also have the Knowledge/Standard template on, but purely because it's a fuss to hide it, we do not recommend using it). 

The less templates, the better - people don't get lost at the point of  "which template do I choose".  And that's the main reason why I regret not going for one template and one template only - even though we have guidelines, people still get lost. 

I personally wouldn't go with the KCS one, I don't find it end-user-friendly. I'd go for either How to or What Is, depending which Headings would go better with the majority of content (Explanation vs. Instructions). I might consider the Standard/Knowledge template, but only if the authors were independent enough - we need to be structure-aware when using this template. 

[paulclement]

I started using Article Templates and lunged straight in and created a few varieties for various pieces of information, but getting people to use the right template was an issue. Now, I focus on the main KCS templates, How To, Known Error and FAQ.

I have added additional fields to the How To Template and Known Error Templates to allow flexibility, particularly the How To template. I have an Introduction, and Instructions field, a field for adding videos, FAQs, and Support Information. I added these to accommodate the information I was being asked to document, and it means that fields left empty are not displayed in the article.

Last year, we configured our Virtual Agent to use FAQs to help drive deflections. Like you’ve described there is often an overlap, so what I’ve done now for a while is create a main How To KB for a given application, and use FAQs to answer questions and direct users to the main How To for further information. Additionally, I also document any issues a user might face using the Known Error template - our VA will look for FAQs then other KBs as part of its fall back workflow.

this approach seems to be working well. The FAQs are much better in the VA and having just one How To type KB (combined with a Table of Contents) helps users find information quicker. Having many individual How To KBs was becoming problematic with the amount of applications we have. Plus, the truth is, we have a culture where people are not in the habit of entering useful search queries, instead opting for ‘contact IT’ to solve everything! We’re changing that slowly and so having good useful information for them to use is vital, but our deflection stat are positive.

in my post history there are some screenshots of the KBs I create using Article Templates and the approach mentioned above. Hope that helps!

[manishasinh]

Hi, As per my experience we used to have different templet based on roles. We were targeting target audience (108 countries)  , it was helpful for us and for users. We used to have some Prerequisite to check before KB starts and if that Prerequisite doesnot met they can try to meet the criteria ,If Prerequisite met then they can scroll down and follow the KB.

Introduction 
Pre requisites 
Self solutions/next steps .