KCS Program Design: Resource Planning, Adoption Waves, and ROI

Sustaining a healthy KCS program requires thoughtful decisions about how to allocate roles and resources. So, we hosted a KCS in Action session to explore KCS program design through the lens of all things countable!

This recap aims to help KCS program leaders assess their current approach, validate assumptions, and strengthen their case for strategic investment. After expected ramp-up time, KCS metrics will reveal ROI around assisted case management, self-service success, product improvement opportunities, increased capacity, and customer experience.

Watch the recording or keep scrolling for a summary of highlights, takeaways, and additional resources.

Strategic Investment

KCS programs are strategic change management initiatives. There are two parts to the total investment:

1. People and Process (60-80%)
   Includes coaching, training, change management, role definition, and time spent cultivating a knowledge-sharing culture.
2. Technology (20-40%)
   Includes knowledge management platform, integrations, workflow configuration, search optimization, automation/AI and analytics.

When balancing these investments, it’s critical to recognize that KCS maturity is people-driven. Most program management effort goes towards enabling and reinforcing the right behaviors — coaching analysts, aligning measures, redefining roles, and making content reuse part of daily work. Technology is the enabler, not the driver. Even organizations with robust KM tools often struggle until they invest properly in process design and cultural adoption.

The key to executive buy-in is setting expectations!

The staggered nature of expected KCS benefits (Why KCS?) must be laid out for leadership to understand:

• 6-18 months – Initial commitment requires a focus on the benefits you can gain through early adoption, including operational efficiency, self-service success, and improved employee and customer experience.
• 18+ months – Ongoing commitment to KCS leads to additional benefits over months and years, including feeding and maintaining bots, AI, and automation, and removing demand drivers at the cause.

Part Time vs. Full Time Roles

The resourcing for the Program Team and KCS Council directly depends on the size of your organization.

Guidelines for people and planning:

• 50 or more Knowledge Workers: You need a full time Program Manager.
• 300 or more Knowledge Workers: You likely need more fully resourced team.
• Regarding evolution of the Program team: Early on, resources can be part time as they are integrating KCS responsibilities into their existing roles/functions. As the program evolves and matures, they can each become full time.
• To scale across 1000+ Knowledge Workers or multiple regions: Implement a “Center of Excellence” structure.

Waves and Phases of Adoption

Adopting in Waves is all about getting it right the first time. That entails taking time to set up Wave 1 thoughtfully and planning to alter program design as you increase the size of each subsequent wave. It’s important to note that “getting it right the first time” means setting expectations about what you will learn and adjust as you go!

Example Wave Sizes

• 25-100 Knowledge Workers: It may take 6 months to adopt the Solve Loop
  • Wave 1: 5-25 people for 3 months
  • Wave 2: 20-75 people for 3 months
• 100-1000 Knowledge Workers: It may take 9-18 months to adopt the Solve Loop
  • Wave 1: 10-40 people for 3 months
  • Wave 2: 30-140 people for 3 months
  • Wave 3: 120-300 people for 3 months
• 1000+ Knowledge Workers: It may take 24+ months to adopt the Solve Loop

Transformation in Action

• KPIs develop through phases based on what you’ve implemented.
• More measure examples are in the KCS Adoption and Transformation Guide.
• Highly recommended: build a discipline with your Strategic Framework to revisit and revise it each quarter.
  • Check how your program is impacting KPIs and update ROI calculations.
  • Report out on the progress that is being made and adjust as needed.
  • As the business changes, so should your measures.

Common Questions

Q: How many articles should we manually migrate?
A: Your top 20% is a good baseline and migrate the rest on demand.

Q: How many articles makes for a healthy KB?
A: Quantity does not matter, track your Reuse/Create ratio for health.

Q: What should my Content Standard Checklist compliance and PAR Index be?
A: Healthy Content Standard Checklist is 95%+ and Healthy PAR Index is 80%+.

Q: What is a healthy link rate?
A: 65-85% is a good indicator that use of the knowledge base has become a habit. (Remember: link rate is an indicator of behavior, but doesn’t mean anything unless you’re also looking at link accuracy.)

Q: What should we be counting?
A: Count and track everything. You will not replace measures, you will expand measures.

Program design by the numbers means starting with a clear goal, making strategic investments, organizing your team, and measuring your progress along the journey. Applying this structured approach can help your KCS program reach its destination efficiently and effectively.

Leverage numbers for KCS as you would leverage a compass to help navigate an adventure!

Resources Shared

• Slides (PDF)
• Join us at Service Innovation Summit 2026!
• Empowering Teams: Training for Success
• Recommended measurements to begin tracking KCS success/impact (Indicators of Transformation)
  • The Service Engagement Measures Spreadsheet is also very helpful!
• Upcoming Public Events
• KCS Training
• If you are interested in presenting at a future KCS in Action or being part of a Practitioner Panel on a topic, contact us
• Get notified about future events by signing up for the mailing list

Chat Highlights

• Sara Feldman | Consortium | Las Vegas: Fun fact: 100% link rate is more likely a red flag than a good thing :)
• Kelly Murray | Consortium | Seattle: We’ve seen Members avoid the need for a refresh by consistently telling the stories of KCS success to everyone who is participating in the program – no matter how small!
• Kate Johnston | Alation: I find if I am part of the new hire onboarding process as a knowledge manager, I can set expectations during their initial training which makes it easier to maintain the buy-in, even if we do have to reboot (which we’re working on now). That and showing the benefits and value of KCS continually helps
• Adam Woodruff: How quickly should the link rate hit the minimum healthy value (~65%)? We are trending upward in our first 6 months of adopt in waves, but not quite to your minimum yet.
• Christina Roosen | Consortium | California: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!