The right place to document information ✅‍

I spoke last week about knowledge decay and life of information, and how we could use this to persist information for a longer time. We also discussed about possible ways to execute this - defaulting to asynchronous, building a knowledge base etc. However, there's still one critical question that remains unanswered, 'Where do I store information?'.

The right place to store information

Of course you already know that there's no one place to document every bit of information you have. Let's say if you start putting everything you discuss with your colleagues on your company wiki or handbook, it would easily get bloated and turn useless due to the sheer volume. On the other hand, if you decide against documenting a critical piece of information on your wiki and instead just keep it on email or chat, you stand to lose it altogether in a matter of days or weeks.

So it's clear then. The right place to store the information you have at hand should depend on a set of factors including the nature of conversation, the amount of time you expect the information to stay relevant among others.

Framework to help you decide where to store information

So we got to work and put together a framework to help you decide where exactly the information you have should reside. You have to just answer 5 simple questions here and voila! You will have a recommendation on whether the information should just stay on chat, if a broadcast on email suffices or if it must be documented on your wiki/ handbook.

To give you more context, I have listed below the set of factors we have considered in making the recommendation(s). I would love to hear your inputs on how useful you think the framework is or if we should factor in something else as well.

1. Type of information


2. How long do you want the information to stay relevant


3. Nature of conversation


4. People involved in the conversation

A quick note - While the result/ recommendation is generated dynamically as you answer each question, please ensure you respond to all 5 questions. Our recommendation will be more accurate that way.

Waiting to hear back on how and where you used this framework :)

Here's the link again - Half-life of Knowledge Framework.

Remote Working Chronicles - A bestselling author who has worked remotely for 10+ years

Hannah very recently joined Running Remote as their Operations Manager and this is also her first role with a company that is fully remote (although she's been working remotely for 10+ years now). She's passionate about helping people change their lives through travel and is also an author, currently writing a book about her experiences on an 18-country overland journey between the UK and Bhutan. Read Hannah's full story here!

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