Keep the know-how. Keep the expert's say.
When your best expert cannot be in every room, or is about to leave, an engram built from the expert's own record answers colleagues the way the expert would, citing past answers. The expert owns it and decides who may ask.
Know-how leaves with people.
Average job tenure fell from 4.6 to 3.9 years over the past decade, by research from eGain, which sells knowledge software, with Deloitte. Each departure takes judgment that was never written down.
A knowledge base holds what someone wrote for it. Most of an expert's judgment lives in replies, reviews and decisions, and it walks out the door with the expert.
The expert owns the engram.
Written consent
Nothing is built without the expert's written consent, scoped to the sources the expert chooses.
Only the expert's own words
Replies, reviews and notes the expert wrote. Colleagues' messages are context for a reply, never a source.
The expert scopes the questions
Which colleagues may ask, and about what. Every answer cites the past answer it came from.
Revocable
The expert owns the engram, chooses its sources and can revoke the firm's access, and can export or delete it.
One expert, one team, one scope.
- 01Agree the scopeThe expert, the firm and Traide agree in writing which sources, which colleagues and which topics.
- 02Build from the expert's recordRules, precedents and reasoning become nodes citing the expert's own words, with names turned into roles.
- 03Measure against the expertPast questions are replayed with the answers held out. The expert sees every disagreement and corrects it.
- 04Colleagues ask, the expert stays in chargeAnswers cite the past answers they rest on. A question with no precedent goes to the expert, or is marked unanswered.
Three ways to keep an expert's know-how.
| Dimension | A knowledge base | An employee-twin platform | An expert-owned engram |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it holds | What someone wrote down for it | A model of the employee, built from work systems | The expert's decisions and reasoning, each citing the expert's own words |
| Who owns it | The firm | Depends on the contract | The expert, who licenses it to the firm |
| Consent | People write for it on purpose | Depends on the product | Written, scoped and revocable by the expert |
| Shows its source | The page | Depends on the product | The past answer, and where the expert gave it |
Categories, not products: what each kind of tool does by design.
When the answer is not this.
Covert capture. Nothing is built from an expert who has not agreed in writing.
Replacing the expert. The engram answers from the past, and asks the expert about anything new.
Decisions about people. Hiring, firing and pay stay with people.
What people ask first.
- Who owns the engram?
- The expert. The firm uses it under a written licence the expert signs, scoped to sources, colleagues and topics, and the expert can revoke it, export it or delete it.
- What happens when the expert leaves?
- Whatever the licence says, agreed before the build: the expert decides whether colleagues may keep asking, and for how long, and keeps the right to export or delete it.
- Can colleagues ask it anything?
- Only what the expert has scoped. Every answer cites the expert's past answer, and a question with no precedent is marked unanswered rather than guessed.
- How accurate is it?
- It is measured against the expert: past questions are replayed with the answers held out, and the score is reported as a fraction of the expert's own consistency. The expert reviews every disagreement.
- Can a firm build one without asking the expert?
- No. Duplikate builds an engram only from a person's own record, with that person's written consent.
Read how consent and control work.
Talk to us about a pilot.
You'll talk to a senior engineer, not a sales rep, and leave knowing what your engram would be built from and how it would be measured.