Since Carol is valiantly leading the initiative to revamp the PK space on Innovate, Jackie and Jenette thought it might be a good idea to post a few tips and tricks for using Innovate to stay informed, contribute, and collaborate. Innovate will eventually supplant Confluence, and it will supplement the other collaboration tools we already use (email, Google drive, Rally, etc). Everyone should have a basic awareness of the tool and how we're going to use it as a team. It will soon be the primary source for announcements, reference information, and a place to post comics (XKCD).
The best place to start if you haven't really delved into Innovate, or even if you have poked around and just wouldn't mind knowing a little more, is the training section Innovate: Basic User Training. I had already put together some quick information and instructions for a few areas that seemed to be most relevant to our team when Carol helpfully reminded me that this site existed. In the interest of not reinventing the wheel, I went through and found what I think is most helpful.
READ THIS PART!
- If you're relatively new to Innovate and want the basics, make sure and go to Innovate: Get Started.
- If you haven't set up your profile and don't know where to start, go to Innovate: Set up Your Profile.
- To learn how to casually and quickly share a link or bit of information (or a picture!), go to Innovate: Update Your Status. I challenge you to share something now after you read this post! Or after the team meeting. Or after lunch. Do it today.
- For a quick overview of some terms you should get familiar with, go to Innovate Terminology.
This last one is especially useful, and it explains some basic concepts. Notable sections here include Email Notifications, how to search for content, and what it means to follow someone. Take note of how to follow a person and a space, and make sure to see how to set up your email notifications. You will probably want to follow the Product Knowledge space in your email; it won't be enough to bookmark it, whether in your browser or in Innovate itself. I'm intermittently active on Innovate, so I set up a filter in Gmail to archive and label messages from Innovate so that I can check it daily instead of getting a flood of information at once.
You also might want to follow individuals, like Jackie, your direct manager, or anyone who posts information you need or want to see. If you check Innovate regularly, you can follow spaces and people in an activity stream instead of or in addition to getting email notifications. That can get noisy if you follow a lot of people and spaces, though, so keep that in mind.
As you start contributing to the PK space, try to follow the organizational structure Carol and team are setting up when you add content. More information about this will be coming soon. As a sneak preview, take a minute to learn how to tag content (Innovate: Using Tags - TAG OFTEN! And exuberantly!). Avoid creating new subspaces; it buries information and these spaces usually stagnate.
And because it's 11pm (23:00) right now, which hopefully excuses my adverb abuse in this post, I'll leave you with this.
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