Technique 4.2: Complete Thoughts, Not Complete Sentences

In KCS, we capture in the moment, using the requestor's words, but not all of them. We must be able to capture at or near the point of interaction. KCS advocates increasing the "capture-ability" and readability of content by making it short and succinct: complete thoughts or short phrases as opposed to complete sentences.

Our goal is to capture what we learn in a way that is good enough to be findable and usable by the intended audience.

We are not asking knowledge workers to become authors or technical writers. Many responders take notes as they are working on a request; KCS proposes that these notes are captured in a structured and shareable way. For most, capturing in the moment does not mean additional work; it proposes a different way to do what we are already doing.  The advantage is that the experience becomes findable and usable by others.

The KCS Core Concept of Sufficient to Solve is important here.

"Our goal is to capture what we learn in a way that is good enough to be findable and usable by the intended audience. We want to do this in a way that is efficient for both the responder and requestor. Capture the experience in a simple structure or template. Describe the issue in a bullet list format using words and phrases that represent complete thoughts or ideas. Sentences and paragraphs are not required. A bullet list is easier for the author to create and easier for others to read.

We can capture the experience with minimal effort and then let demand for that knowledge drive its improvement or expansion. In doing this we are not spending time editing an article that may never be reused. The articles that are reused get additional attention because in KCS reuse is review."