How to Build a Scalable Company Wiki: A Step-By-Step Guide
Use this easy, 4-phase strategy to launch an internal knowledge base for your team this week.
In today's rapidly expanding businesses, effective knowledge management is critical.
Recently, I worked with a client to build their first comprehensive company wiki. This was no small task, considering their organization had been built on institutional knowledge for years. With a 6% churn rate and most employees sticking around for 6+ years, you might wonder—why even bother with a wiki?
The answer: Growth.
Over the past five years, this client has expanded into new regions and grown to nearly 3,000 employees. As they scaled, so did their operational complexity.
Multiple departments were duplicated across regions, and ensuring consistent customer experiences became more challenging.
At the same time, the team was feeling overwhelmed. New hires needed access to vital resources like sales scripts, FAQs, troubleshooting guides, and overall process documentation.
The solution? It's time to start documenting everything in a wiki.
Here’s the strategy I used to help them develop and implement their wiki—feel free to steal this for your own business:
Phase 1: Research the Right Wiki Platform
Start by researching various wiki platforms, comparing features, pricing, and scalability. My go-to tools are Notion and Slite, both of which offer intuitive interfaces and robust functionalities for teams of any size.
Phase 2: Strategy & Development
1. Determine Team Needs: Hold a session with your team to discuss the purpose of the wiki and identify what specific knowledge should be captured.
2. Design the Structure: Build a wireframe that organizes your wiki into categories and tags. Consider user experience and branding to ensure the wiki feels like a cohesive part of your company's workflow.
3. Create Templates: Set up templates for both text-based and visual content to standardize entries and streamline the content creation process.
Phase 3: Audit Existing Knowledge
Conduct a thorough audit using a tool like Google Sheets. Document all current knowledge, marking what’s outdated, what needs updates, and who is responsible for maintaining each piece of content. This keeps everything organized and ensures accountability.
Phase 4: Content Creation & Migration
With your wireframe and templates in place, begin adding content to the wiki. Assign team members to migrate existing knowledge into the wiki using the templates you created in Phase 2. This ensures consistency and accuracy across the board.
Phase 5: Establish Good Habits for Wiki Usage
1. Promote Usage: Direct team members to the wiki whenever questions arise to reduce reliance on institutional knowledge.
2. Update Regularly: Assign content creation and updates as tasks following team meetings, 1:1s, or Slack conversations to keep the wiki current.
3. Maintenance Routine: Set a quarterly or annual review to ensure the content remains relevant and useful.
4. Track Success: Present transformation metrics at 90 days, 6 months, and 1 year to demonstrate how the wiki has improved workflow efficiency.
One powerful tactic I used with a previous client (a 400-person global team) was creating a dedicated Slack channel for wiki updates. Every time a new item was added to the wiki, a Slack notification was sent with a direct link to the content. This simple change resulted in a 60% increase in wiki engagement, proving that repetition and accessibility drive adoption.
Why Your Growing Company Needs a Wiki
As companies expand, a centralized knowledge base becomes essential. A well-organized wiki ensures that all team members, old and new, can easily access critical information, reducing operational bottlenecks and improving consistency across the business. Implement this strategy today and watch your team thrive.
Written By: Sara Loretta
👋🏼 Sara Loretta is the Chief Digital Architect & Founder @ _systms™ — she’s also the 10th US Certified Notion Consultant, and 1st Certified Paperform Expert. Through her work and creatorship, Sara is focused on connecting and educating teams on tech, workflows, and all the ways they can optimize their business to scale.
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