Launched the Knowledge Base

My team launched 2 Knowledge Bases for Waymo employees and partners.
Our knowledge bases currently are the one-stop shop of information for:

• Waymo-trained drivers and their managers
• Customer Support agents and their managers

A Knowledge Base is a source of truth for Waymo employees & partners

A Knowledge Base houses all the documented information someone needs to do their job, almost like a customer Help Center but the users are your own employees.

Some content you could find in a Knowledge Base includes:

• Troubleshooting articles to help you through tough issues you might face on the job
• Procedures for basic things you should know how to do
• Launch articles that explain new information that might be relevant to you
• Policies that explain how to do your job well and what is expected of you as an employee
• FAQ pages with answers for question you might have your your job

A Customer Support manager can use the Knowledge Base on their computer to guide them through coaching agents on their quality.

Writing what people need

My team and I write content for our employees that is as simple, organized, easy to navigate, and useful as our help articles for customers.

To figure out what we need to write, we:

• ​Do on the ground shadowing
• Set up focus groups and surveys to understand our users' needs
• Interview stakeholders
• Look at metrics to ensure our articles have impact
• Reply to day-to-day feedback and make continuous updates to keep content fresh

Making content easy to find & use

Content needed to be accessible to teams in different ways based on how they work.

We made the driver Knowledge Base available on mobile since they will need to look up guidance while out in the field, while the Customer Support agents use their Knowledge Base from their desktop while taking calls.

A driver can use the Knowledge Base from their mobile phone to help them troubleshoot when a car won't start.

Other considerations we made for accessibility:

• Card sorting activities to ensure the landing page of the Knowledge Base is easy to use and agents can find what they need quickly
• Projects to link articles within tools that agents and driving managers already use every day
• Templates for pages so critical information is always in the same spot

Results

Waymo employees and partners use the Knowledge Base daily to help them do their job

• Over 100 articles available for drivers and their managers on tasks that were previously undocumented
• Customer Support agents and their managers visit their Knowledge Base multiple times a day (~60 on average daily visits). They reference ~100 articles throughout their shift to provide excellent customer service.