After doing the initial audience analysis for my proposed project, I conducted a needs analysis and looked closely at what the audience needs before deciding on a tool straightaway. I am part of the audience that is looking for a solution.

 Needs Analysis
Some important highlights from the needs analysis I conducted are given below: 

• Need to share knowledge and information within the team

• Share and learn from best practices

• Find information on tips and tricks, templates, formats, etc. on design and development of training quickly

• Information included in the tool should lend itself to being reviewed, modified, and expanded over time

• Cannot replace email communication and regular team meetings  

Readiness of Audience
I conducted a poll to gauge the readiness of the audience in using a tool – as that would have repercussions on the selection of the tool. 

• Out of the 15 people in the audience, 13 of them have never used a blog, wiki, or podcast before.
• They are not even familiar with the definitions and uses of the tools mentioned above – which could be potential solutions.
• The audience was however, ready to experiment and learn – as long as the tool did not require them to spend long hours scripting or learning how to do it.

Selecting a Tool
After analyzing the audience and their needs, I have decided to go ahead with a wiki, primarily because of the following reasons:  

• The collaborative aspect of a wiki would offer the team the ability to make the wiki evolve into the requirements of the team. 
• Easy to use and does not require any prior authoring skills – which was the biggest concern of the audience.
• A wiki would offer an open environment for users to post content and create the foundation for a knowledge-based culture – that is very typical of the company the audience works for.
• A wiki is flexible and this feature is also in tune with the requirements of the audience.
• LPDs need not fear accidentally damaging articles when they add or improve information in the wiki, as they can always revert back to a previous version of an article.
• The “Recent Changes” feature of a wiki would make it easy for users to access the latest posts made by an LPD.
• All LPDs are responsible for the content that gets uploaded to the wiki. There would be no vandalism of content as users can access the wiki with their unique Single Sign On numbers. The wiki would be accessible only by members of the LPD team and would not have the usual concerns users have about free-flowing content on a wiki like the wikipedia.
• A wiki would work for the audience as they have traditionally worked together by building consensus – and a wiki allows users to do just that.

 

Source: Wikipedia Consensus Process Flowchart

Corporate Guidelines
However, there are a few corporate guidelines that would need to be followed while designing a wiki for the LPDs.  

• The company meatball would have to be clearly displayed.
• Corporate policies and guidelines would have to be clearly outlined in the wiki.
• Clear description of Copyright issues and guidelines.
• Communication to users on what cannot be included in the wiki. For example – new product features, pricing information, or documents that require revision control like service manuals.

Recommendations 
Apart from that, I recommend that the wiki includes the following items keeping in mind that majority of the audience is very new to working on wikis.

• A Help section to get users up to speed
• A glossary of common wiki terms and their definitions
• Some kind of a cheat sheet on formatting tips
• Known issues and solutions
• A support team to help all the LPDs be able to use the wiki quickly and efficiently
• Ability to quickly access other tools and intranets of the company that users frequently access

 Challenges
The biggest challenge right now is to identify a core team who would get the wiki up and running and act as subject matter experts for the rest of the team.
The other challenge would be to work with the IT department and ensure the wiki resides within the GE firewall and follows all the IT policies and guidelines.