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Getting started as a Guru Admin

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Guru helps you and your employees instantly find the information they need, without having to dig through multiple systems or ask a teammate. Guru users can search across all of the company's knowledge, get instant answers, and capture important information as they go, right in their workflows.

To ensure your team's success, we've laid out a clear path that will take you and your team to Guru greatness. Getting started with Guru is a self-serve process - no coding or developer resources are required.

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Access required

This guide is intended for teams on Guru's All in One Subscription and for users who have Admin status.

Not sure if you're an Admin? Navigate to Manage > Users and Groups > Admins.  If you don't see your name listed, contact another Admin to add you and have them follow the Adding Admins instructions.

Quick overview training

Checklist for getting started with Guru

  • Review Admin role and establish company specific goals
  • Establish a timeline for testing and subsequent deployment 
  • Complete Essential Setup Steps such as adding and grouping users, connecting knowledge, downloading browser extension, and chat tool integrations
  • Determine finding knowledge functionality of interest
  • Determine creating knowledge functionality of interest

The role of an Admin

Your role as workspace Admin is to configure Guru so that your team can have the information they need at their fingertips! It's important to note that if you are the person who signed up for our free trial, you will be automatically listed as an Admin, unless removed by another Admin.

Admins control the Guru infrastructure including all integrations. Admins will have the permission to invite users, create groups, manage subscription details, connect sources, set up chat tool integrations, customize the web app with branding, turn certain features on and off, manage the API, and more. For a complete list of responsibilities check out our Organizing Groups, Roles and Permissions article.

In addition, review the Help Center articles under "Workspace Administration" for a deeper understanding of the functionality you'll be managing. 

The goals of an Admin

Your first step as a Guru Admin is to envision what success looks like for your team. You don't need to have answers to the points below on day one! Instead, we want you to have a sense of the key management areas so that you can set up Guru from the onset to be a source of truth and drive Guru adoption through trusted knowledge. 

  • Pinpoint critical apps and workspaces for integration: Identify the primary apps and platforms where your knowledge currently resides and the apps over which it is frequently accessed. This includes databases, wikis, cloud storage solutions, CRM systems, chat tools (like Slack and Microsoft Teams), email platforms, and any other web-based applications that are essential to your operations. Engage with department heads and IT specialists to understand the specific needs and how Guru can bridge the knowledge gaps.

  • Think about knowledge accessibility and management: Determine how Guru will serve as the primary gateway for searching and accessing your information. Outline how knowledge will be curated, updated, and maintained both inside and outside of Guru, to ensure its continued relevance and accuracy.

  • Expect to scale with AI and drive user adoption with training: Explore Guru's functionality for scaling your source of truth and devise an action plan for long term usage which includes using our AI training Center and in app Analytics. As the Guru platform and your company evolve, be ready to train your staff on utilizing Guru effectively, emphasizing its role as the go-to search tool and how it can enhance your team's workflows.

Setup timeline

Now that you know what your role as an Admin entails, you'll move onto our Essential Setup Steps which are a must do for any team using the platform. Once those are completed, you'll start putting additional functionality into action.

Before you know it, Guru will be seamlessly integrated into your daily workflows, ensuring that your team can effortlessly access the right information at the right time in the right contexts.

If you are curious about a timeline, it could look  a bit like this. It won't be long before your efforts pay off and your Guru dreams come true! 

Essential setup steps

Complete these steps over the first two weeks. The actual time it takes to finish setting up Guru depends on various factors such as the size of your company, the number of teams using Guru, how many apps you're integrating Guru with, and whether you're creating a brand new knowledge base (or not). Regardless of your use case, you can have Guru up and running in a few days!

Invite users 

Decide who you are inviting to your Guru team and invite them. This number will vary depending on the size of your team and your goals. These will be the people who are going to build your initial Proof of Concept. If your company leverages an SSO provider to provision access to tools in your tool stack, you can integrate with it!

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Tip

It's easier to start with a few teammates to get things initially setup. Once the basics are complete and you are clear on the most pressing challenges you want to solve, you can add more team members to help with further testing and content creation.

Add users to Groups

Add your new team members to Group(s). It's easy to start with groups such as Admins and non-Admins or X team members and X team leaders. You can always change the groups you create in the future.  If your company automates group provisioning via an SSO provider using SCIM you'll be able to automate user and group access in Guru as well. You'll use these Groups to permission your content. 

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Each team member will be part of the All Members group so you'll have at least one group made for you. When you are testing Guru with a small group, it's best to use the All Members group, to ensure your testing pulls from all the information you have connected.

Source knowledge

Decide what/where you'd like Guru to pull knowledge from. You don't need to connect or add everything all at once. Be intentional by starting with your highest value knowledge first or the knowledge for a specific use case. Once you get a feel for Guru's functionality and how you'll use it, start adding more.

  • Connect sources if you want knowledge across your tech stack to be used when searching and answering questions 

  • Sync knowledge if you want a copy of your content to also live on a Guru Card making it browsable, viewable, searchable, and easily maintained by members of your Guru team

  • Migrate knowledge in bulk if you have it documented elsewhere and want it have a new home in Guru's wiki making it browsable, viewable, searchable, and easily maintained by members of your Guru team

  • Create knowledge to live inside Guru's wiki making it browsable, viewable, searchable, and easily maintained by members of your Guru team

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Tip

When managing documented knowledge, focus on the content and its intended use. For frequently updated information, use Guru for its wiki features. For static assets like PDFs or slide decks, store them in a knowledge repository and connect to Guru as a source. Integrating various tools with Guru creates a centralized source of truth, rather than storing everything in one location.

Enable integrations

Download our extension, add-in, and/or connect Guru to your chat tool. This is how you'll bring Guru to where your team will be working ensuring folks can find what they need, when they need it. These integrations are critical in realizing Guru's value and helping employees access what they need to do their best work quickly and efficiently. 

Ask and Search

Ask Guru questions and search for knowledge. Put your use cases to the test! Think about your pain points with finding what you need and feel the difference with Guru as part of your workflows. When asking questions be sure to give feedback and train the AI as necessary. 

Guru's functionality 

Once you've gotten the Essential Setup Steps completed, it's time to check out some Guru functionality. As you explore Guru features, evaluate how much easier they make your work life!

This is something that can be done over a week or so, depending on how much time you have to test. In order to focus your energies, pick the areas that solve your most pressing challenges.

Finding knowledge with Guru

Guru helps teams find knowledge that's trusted, relevant, and timely as quickly as possible. Aside from asking questions and searching, Guru pushes and pulls information wherever teams are working, making it everyone's favorite non-human colleague!

Chat Tool Integration functionality 

  • To reduce shoulder taps and get answers to askers faster, set up Suggested Answers in Slack which will automatically provide answers to questions in active channels, using data from Collections and authorized external folders, without needing an @mention

  • To stay in the know with new knowledge that's created, set up a Slack Activity Feed which will automatically post an update to a Slack channel each time new information is added to Guru

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Tip

When exploring chat tool functionality, set up a shared testing channel so folks only in your testing group are seeing Guru bot messages.

Wiki functionality 

  • To reduce noise, collect read receipts, and automate reminders, create a Guru Card and send it to relevant groups as an announcement 

  • Give the team the information they need in browser based applications by setting up knowledge triggers.  Knowledge triggers will automatically push relevant information to your teammates via the Guru browser extension based on keywords and fields of the page they're viewing

  • To stay in the know with important information, follow Cards and Authors which will send you a notification when something new has been published or updated

  • To access useful knowledge quickly, mark Cards or Folders as favorites which allows you to create a mini library of your greatest hits

Web app Customization functionality 

  • To reflect your company's branding and operational needs, customize your workspace which will make Guru look and feel like your company's homebase

  • To connect people with the knowledge that they create and consume, set up employee profiles which will add a layer of personal connectivity to the information the team accesses day in and day out

  • To get a contextual understanding of team member roles and their areas of expertise, set up an employee org chart (HRIS Sync) which will unlock insights that lead to more effective conversations, deeper collaboration, and better business outcomes

Creating knowledge with Guru

We know that quickly finding knowledge makes a sizable impact, only if the knowledge found is usable. As such, it's part of Guru's mission to help teams create knowledge and keep it trusted.

Chat Tool Integration functionality 

  • To identify gaps in your knowledge base, enable Guru's Trending Topics for Slack which uses AI to monitor topics that trend in specific Slack channels. Those topics and chats can then be quickly turned into Guru Cards

  • To quickly document important knowledge, create and add to Guru Cards in Slack which will allow you to take Slack threads and quickly turn them into summaries or FAQs with AI

  • To quickly document important knowledge, create and add to Guru Cards in MS Teams which will allow you to take MS Team threads and convert them into content

Wiki functionality 

  • To format your content so that it can be easily accessed, digested, and shared, check out the editor features, which allow images, files, and videos to be embedded in the body of a Card

  • To get over writer's block or clean up existing content, use Assist while creating which utilizes AI to help subject matter experts quickly and efficiently improve and bring clarity to the knowledge they're creating

  • To keep your Cards consistent, concise and organized, create a Card template, which will make it easier for your team to create and share knowledge

  • To automate content management, check out Guru's verification engine, which will ensure your team can be confident that the knowledge they read is up to date and approved for use

  • To maintain consistency, boost accuracy, streamline collaboration, set up a publishing workflow which will ensure the highest quality content gets published

  • To create a continuous feedback loop between Card authors and readers, add comments to a Card which will help maintain an up-to-date and reliable knowledge base for your team

Updated about 16 hours ago