IDEA LAB | Synthesis LMS

July 13, 2023 Knowledge Architecture

We're excited to announce that the Synthesis LMS Idea Lab is now open for submissions.

In conversation after conversation with this community we’ve heard loud and clear that improving your Learning + Development programs is consistently one of your highest business priorities.

Knowledge Architecture is embarking on a journey to bring Learning Management System (LMS) capabilities to Synthesis. For years clients have been using Synthesis to support Learning + Development programs by building “LMS Light” solutions with pages, videos, posts, and now, video libraries and guides in Synthesis 6.

We are going to advance beyond “LMS Light” by adding new capabilities to Synthesis such as courses, learning paths, and assignments, as well as the proper reporting and analytics functionality to help your firm track the progress of your learners and monitor the health of your Learning + Development programs.

The Synthesis LMS Idea Lab is the next step in our journey towards co-creating a unique and compelling LMS offering with our community that is both AEC-specific and also deeply integrated into Synthesis.

We’d love your help!

The Design Inspiration Gallery is Live!

July 11, 2023 Christopher Parsons

We know that designing a new page, guide, or community from scratch can be intimidating.

That’s why we created the Design Inspiration Gallery. The Design Inspiration Gallery will help you jump start your Synthesis Intranet design (or redesign) process with inspiring examples from your peers in the KA Community.

We’re launching DIG with three resource categories: Home Pages, Style Guides, and Benefit Centers, and will be adding new categories and examples each month.

DIG is now live and ready for you to explore. Enjoy!

INTRANET TOUR | Highlights from Moody Nolan's Transition to Synthesis 6

June 22, 2023 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Brian Alting, Principal, Director of Technology, Moody Nolan
Nick Bower, Director of Design Technology, Moody Nolan

Summary

We’re excited to share this tour of The Mood, Moody Nolan’s Synthesis 6 intranet. Your tour guides will be Brian Alting, Principal and Directory of Technology, and Nick Bower, Director of Design Technology.

Introducing Zendesk Help Center Integration

June 15, 2023 Knowledge Architecture

We built this integration because several of our clients have created Information Technology and/or Design Technology articles in their Zendesk Help Centers. They want those articles to appear when their end users go to create new support tickets or to be available in Zendesk Chat.

That said, our clients using Zendesk would also like for that content to be available in Synthesis Search. Our intention with this integration is to give our clients using Zendesk the best of both worlds.

Once enabled, Synthesis will index articles in your Zendesk Help Center and return them in Synthesis Search Results as External Links.

If you’d like to integrate your Synthesis 6 Intranet with your Zendesk Help Center, just reach out to us at support@knowledge-architecture.com and we’ll get you started.

Enjoy!

INTRANET TOUR | Highlights from AE2S's Transition to Synthesis 6

May 23, 2023 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Sue Hass, Marketing Manager at AE2S

Summary

We’re excited to share this tour of Drop, AE2S’s Synthesis 6 intranet. Your tour guide will be Sue Hass, Marketing Manager and Intranet Champion.

SYNTHESIS SPOTLIGHT | Sharing Best Practices and Process Knowledge @ Bora

April 26, 2023 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Corey Squire, Director of Sustainability at Bora

Summary

Knowledge management is key to unlocking success with sustainable design, but designers live in a noisy world filled with conflicting priorities. By taking the time to capture and share “what good looks like”—in other words, to separate the signal from the noise—a firm can provide its designers with a solid baseline for designing projects.

What's New in Synthesis 6?

April 4, 2023 Knowledge Architecture

Synthesis 6, our next generation intranet platform for architects and engineers, is now available.

While we have designed Synthesis 6 to continue helping AEC firms find, share, and manage knowledge, we have focused on doing so in a more simplified, intuitive, and cloud-based way.

Launching Synthesis 6 Beta

January 26, 2022 Christopher Parsons

We are very excited to announce Knowledge Architecture is right on schedule with Synthesis 6 and will be launching into beta next week!

Beta will be rolled out in three phases, with a different focus during each phase:

Beta 1: Essential Content and Information Architecture
Beta 2: Internal Communications
Beta 3: Preparing for General Availability

Beta participants and Knowledge Architecture will collaborate to reach general availability in the second half of the year with Synthesis 6 in tip-top shape.

Together we will be focusing on four main goals:

Goal 1: Learn how to create valuable content with Synthesis 6
Goal 2: Validate and refine product design
Goal 3: Fix technical bugs
Goal 4: Improve performance

We will start small and add participants during each beta phase. If you’d like to learn more about the Synthesis 6 beta rollout, please contact your Client Success Manager. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

About Synthesis 6

While we have designed Synthesis 6 to continue helping AEC firms find, share, and manage knowledge, we have focused on doing so in a more simplified, intuitive, and cloud-based way.

This video will show you some of the things about Synthesis 6 we’re most excited about.

Navigating your intranet more easily with the new mega menu, breadcrumb, and navigation block features
Building pages that are beautiful, fun to create, and easy to maintain with new image and document blocks, page templates, and drag-and-drop functionality
Authoring, organizing, and managing essential content with the new content outliner, community layouts, and guides
Managing large collections of knowledge with new grid layouts, saved views, and sorting, filtering, and grouping tools in our reimagined libraries and directories
Providing brand consistency by customizing colors, fonts, and logos with our new style and branding tools

Learn more

Information Architecture Playbook

January 5, 2022 Susan Strom

If the term “information architecture” is new to you, think of it as the navigation structure on your intranet. Effective information architecture makes it easy for employees to find what they’re looking for.

This playbook is designed to help you understand your intranet’s current information architecture and make improvements as needed. We’ve broken this process into 5 steps, some of which will be completed by Knowledge Architecture, and others that will be completed by your team. Each step is described in detail below. We look forward to partnering with you on your new information architecture.

SYNTHESIS SPOTLIGHT | Fostering Community at Ballinger, LMN, and Shive-Hattery

July 19, 2021 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Christine Larsen, Director of Marketing at Ballinger
Kristen Riley, Employee Experience Manager at LMN Architects
Amy Anderson, Marketing Information Systems at Shive-Hattery

Summary

In this Synthesis Spotlight, you’ll hear from two intranet champions who are fundamentally reorganizing their firm’s intranet to better support business needs.

Podcast Interview: Christopher Parsons on Managing Knowledge & Data for Continued Improvement

February 11, 2021 Knowledge Architecture

Christopher Parsons, our Founder and CEO, was featured in episode 24 of the Practice Disrupted podcast this week.

Practice Disrupted explores “how technology, cultural shifts, and emerging best practices are prompting firm owners to assess their business models and make adjustments in their studios. Each episode features an industry leader, and together our hosts will explore the new frontier of architectural practice.”

The whole series is great and we hope you check it out.

Listen to Podcast

Synthesis Spotlight: Intranet Reorganizations at Lochner and BWBR

October 22, 2020 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Hillary Schlehuber, Senior Associate and Marketing Communications Manager at Lochner
Stefnee Trzpuc, Principal and Operations Leader at BWBR

Summary

In this Synthesis Spotlight, you’ll hear from two intranet champions who are fundamentally reorganizing their firm’s intranet to better support business needs.

Intranet Best Practices: Research Findings from Nielsen Norman Group and Knowledge Architecture

June 25, 2020 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Kathryn Whitenton, Director of Digital Strategy at Nielsen Norman Group
Page Laubheimer, Senior User Experience Specialist at Nielsen Norman Group

Summary

In this month’s Office Hours, Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) and Knowledge Architecture share insights based on our recent study of over 120 Synthesis intranets. We discuss patterns and pitfalls of intranet navigation, share best practices for building effective and intuitive intranet navigation, and introduce you to a process for validating proposed changes to intranet navigation.

Synthesis Spotlight: Firmwide Learning @ Turner Fleischer

March 26, 2020 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Ellen Bensky, CEO of Turner Fleischer Architects

Webinar Summary

This Office Hours recording features Ellen Bensky, CEO of Turner Fleischer Architects, sharing how their intranet, Newton, supports firmwide learning through Turner Fleischer Academy.

Six years ago, Turner Fleischer recognized it needed a way to accelerate learning in order to bridge knowledge gaps between new graduates and experienced staff.

Three years ago, they launched Newton, their knowledge management platform.

Today, they have a robust firm university program administered through Newton to provide ongoing training and continuing education opportunities.

In this recorded webinar, you’ll learn how Turner Fleischer:

Accelerates learning in a digital age
Supports teachers with instructor resources
Fosters a more collaborative and engaged workforce

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:

Transition to Remote Learning (10:00)
Using Synthesis to maintain culture and connection in WFH status (37:50)

Synthesis Spotlight: Streamlining Business Processes with Online Forms at Schmidt, RCH, and ESA

January 23, 2020 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Libby Budack, Data Specialist at Schmidt Associates
Matt Richmond, Chief Technology Officer at RCH Studios
Eric Klotz, Principal at ESa

Webinar Summary

In this month’s Office Hours, team members from Schmidt Associates, RCH Studios, and ESa shared how they are using Synthesis to improve information flow across the firm with online forms.

Schmidt Associates’ Libby Budack shared how they gather internal employee recognition nominations with formstack.

RCH Studios’ Matt Richmond shared how they engage employees in employee & project information maintenance with Microsoft Forms in Office 365.

ESa’s Eric Klotz shared how they use a Smartsheet form to streamline the process of starting up new projects.

In this webinar, you’ll:

Understand several common business processes that can be automated using online forms
Learn about a variety of online form technologies that can integrate with Synthesis
See how forms are displayed on Synthesis

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to three highlights:

The Starfish Award Form (10:13)
Office 365 Forms Tutorial (16:07)
New Project Request Form (28:28)

Launching Synthesis @ RDG Planning & Design

December 19, 2019 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Ron Heims, Principal and IT Director at RDG Planning & Design
Susan Strom, Director of Client Success at Knowledge Architecture

Webinar Summary

Twelve years ago, RDG Planning & Design developed an intranet to help employees find firmwide standards, procedures, and company announcements. Over time, their homegrown intranet had become cumbersome to maintain and the content became outdated. As RDG evolved, they needed a knowledge-sharing solution that was more flexible and supportive of user-generated content.

Last year, RDG partnered with Knowledge Architecture to reboot their intranet technology, governance, and team. The result is their new Synthesis intranet, “The Know.”

Today, 100% of employees visit “The Know” monthly, 95% of employees access essential standards and guides monthly, and 80 - 95% of employees open news and announcement posts weekly.

In this webinar Ron and Susan share RDG’s story along with current best practices for launching an awesome intranet, including:

What makes an awesome intranet?
Who makes an awesome intranet?
How to launch your intranet awesomely.

We wrap up with a brief tour of RDG’s awesome intranet!

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to three highlights:

Great Intranet Teams (19:04)
Kübler-Ross Change Curve (29:24)
Brief Tour of RDG’s Awesome Intranet (38:48)

Synthesis Spotlight: Employee Onboarding @ Parkhill, Smith & Cooper

September 19, 2019 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Dawn Moore, Corporate Director of HR at PSC

Webinar Summary

Using their firm’s recent growth as a catalyst for change, Parkhill, Smith & Cooper (PSC) revamped their employee onboarding experience to be more efficient and to connect more deeply with each new team member.

The new employee onboarding process starts with in-person storytelling on key topics such as firm culture and strategy and continues with just-in-time digital resources hosted on their intranet, RED, throughout the first year. PSC has successfully onboarded 70+ employees in the new program and is seeing improvements to new employee engagement on and off the intranet.

In this office hours, Dawn Moore, Corporate Director of HR at PSC, takes you behind the scenes of their revamped employee onboarding program.

You’ll learn how PSC:

Kicks off employee onboarding with an interactive session using the intranet
Orients new employees into firm culture and builds community from day one
Collects feedback from new employees and integrates this into the onboarding process

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:

Onboarding After Red (11:33)
myPSC Community (17:07)

Synthesis Spotlight: Elevating Design Conversations @ Diamond Schmitt and Turner Fleischer

August 27, 2019 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Michael Leckman, Principal, Diamond Schmitt
Sam Horton, Administrative Assistant to the Principals, Diamond Schmitt

Ellen Bensky, Principal, CEO, CFO, Turner Fleischer
Peter Frost, Manager - Marketing + Communications, Turner Fleischer
Marco Marcoccia, Senior Designer/Technologist, Turner Fleischer

Webinar Summary

This Office Hours featured team members from Diamond Schmitt and Turner Fleischer sharing how they engage their firms in design conversations on their intranets.

Diamond Schmitt's Michael Leckman and Sam Horton shared how they:

Brought offline design conversations online
Achieved 20% growth in Open and Engagement rates within 6 months
Use positive reinforcement to mitigate employee fears about this type of sharing

Turner Fleischer’s Ellen Bensky, Peter Frost, and Marco Marcoccia discussed how they:

Integrated a new Design Director into the firm
Changed the conversation to bring design back to the forefront of their work
Build transparency and understanding through design discussions during a period of change

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:

#DesignMatters Within the Office (14:27)
Sharing Design Intent (29:18)

Synthesis Spotlight: Essential Content Reviews @ GRAEF and GMB

July 11, 2019 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Tony Balistreri, Knowledge Manager, GRAEF
Shelly VandeWege, Marketing, GMB
Stephanie Eiler, Marketing, GMB

Webinar Summary

This Office Hours features short case studies from GRAEF and GMB, two firms that participated in our Essential Content Review (ECR) Beta program.

Keeping intranet content accurate and current can feel like a daunting task. Following a short introduction of the Essential Content Review (ECR) process by Knowledge Architecture, you will hear how GRAEF’s Knowledge Manager, Tony Balistreri, and GMB’s Intranet Champions, Shelly VandeWege & Stephanie Eiler, adapted this process to meet their needs and create value for their organizations.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how each firm:

Tactically implemented a regular cadence of ECRs
Adjusted Knowledge Architecture’s ECR process to meet their firm’s needs
Identified gaps and launched intranet improvement projects to meet those gaps

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to three highlights:

ECRs Then and Now (18:00)
Discipline Wiki Pages (30:28)
Q: Do you have any advice for other firms to get started? (46:20)

Synthesis Spotlight: Elevating Leadership Communications @ Dewberry

April 11, 2019 Knowledge Architecture

Featured Guests

Kimberly McVicker, Communications Manager

Webinar Summary

We all know that firm leaders have unique and valuable insights to share with the rest of the organization. This is exactly the kind of content you want to see on your intranet! Yet, many leaders are not confident about what to share, how much to share, or where to share.

Last year, Dewberry set out to change the way firm leaders communicate on their intranet, ID. Over the course of 9 months, they increased the number of firm leaders who post on ID by 33% and realized several unplanned benefits along the way.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how Dewberry:

Planned their approach
Delivered sustainable 1:1 coaching
Used analytics to reinforce behavior change

If you only have a few minutes, we recommend jumping to two highlights:

Prep: Provide Common Topics, Examples, Potential Posts (09:21)
Lessons Learned and Tips (17:05)