Self Service Taxonomy

[StephanieM34173]

Good afternoon, 

We currently have a taxonomy for Catalog Requests and Knowledge, but we are thinking that we can do better and would like to see where we can improve. 

We are a law firm. 

Are there any other law firms that are willing to share their self service taxonomy for Catalog and Knowledge?

[nilskrause]

I think there is a better approach than simply looking for another firm's taxonomy—especially now that you're using Employee Center, AI Search and Now Assist.

What I would recommend for a law firm

I would separate the taxonomy into three dimensions:

1. What does the user need? — Topic / user intent

Examples:

Access & Accounts
Hardware
Software & Applications
Communication & Collaboration
Documents & Printing
Network & Connectivity
Security
Mobile & Remote Working
Workplace / Facilities
Business Services

2. What service/application does it relate to?

Examples:

Microsoft 365
Outlook
Teams
SharePoint
iManage
Aderant
Workday
ServiceNow
Document Management
Legal Research
Case/Matter Management

3. What type of knowledge/request is it?

Examples:

Request
How-to
FAQ
Troubleshooting
Access
Policy
Guidance
Known Issue

This is much more flexible than creating something like:

IT → Software → Microsoft → Office → Outlook → Email → Problems

which quickly becomes unmanageable.

ServiceNow itself recommends keeping the catalog hierarchy relatively shallow and designing the top level around how customers think about their needs, rather than around internal organizational structures. Their design guidance suggests roughly 6–10 top-level categories and a three-step hierarchy