Kari Shonblom, Knowledge Manager, BWBR

Talk Description
What do you do when your firm grows by 70 people in two years—and your senior staff is stretched thin trying to bring new team members up to speed? At BWBR, that challenge became a strategic focus for knowledge management and AI. Rather than trying to do everything, Kari Shornblom and her team concentrated on one high-impact goal: helping emerging professionals learn faster, feel more confident, and contribute sooner—without relying solely on overburdened mentors.

In this talk, Kari shares how BWBR is building an integrated upskilling system to support this next generation of talent. From documenting the firm’s project lifecycle in clear, role-based guides, to capturing deep expertise from Communities of Practice through structured knowledge mapping, to transforming their long-running Landmark Learning program into modular, AI-searchable resources. The upskilling system is designed to make knowledge more accessible, reusable, and aligned with how people work. AI supports both the creation and discovery of content, helping junior staff ask smarter questions and get relevant answers when they need them most.

Speaker Bio
Kari Shonblom is a knowledge manager at BWBR, a firm specializing in commercial architecture, interior design, planning, and research, where she balances big-picture strategy with the fine details of execution. A systems thinker, she loves data and process improvement, connecting people to the resources they need to do their work better, faster, and smarter.

Christopher Parsons of Knowledge Architecture interviews Kari Shonblom of BWBR at KA Connect 2025.

Q+A Timeline

00:00 What does the hour of knowledge mapping involve?
02:18 Will you do knowledge maps for additional markets?
03:12 Are the knowledge maps a one time exercise?
04:57 What is the threshold for becoming and expert?
05:59 Will you use the maps to reorganize Hive content?
07:24 What are your hopes for an LMS at BWBR?
08:30 Thoughts about creating content for AI vs humans?
10:04 Can you talk more about the calibration step?
11:50 Tell us about becoming a knowledge manager.
14:31 The shift from marketing to broader KM?
15:55 How do you keep content up to date and relevant?
19:39 Is the AI supplementing or replacing training?
22:42 Lessons learned for starting a KM program?