Sharing Knowledge: Designing to facilitate the exchange of knowledge among employees in an organisation

To effectively manage and facilitate the knowledge sharing process in organisations is crucial, as it contributes with economic and competitive organisational value. This thesis investigates the knowledge sharing process in an organisation, and how a design solution could be developed to facilitate this process. The investigation of the organisation showed that, a barrier for the employees to exchange knowledge, is that they are not fully aware of each others knowledge gaps. Consequently, due to low awareness of each others knowledge gaps, the employees are having difficulties to know if their knowledge could be valuable to share. This illuminated an area to focus upon, and an opportunity for a design solution to be developed. The design solution evolved along with insights obtained from usability testing, to achieve a result which correlates with the needs of the employees. The final design solution is a tool, which enables the employees to gather information of their knowledge gaps, thus enhance the awareness of what knowledge to share. The tool, and the process of its creation, provides an answer of how a design solution could be developed to facilitate the exchange of knowledge among employees in an organisation.