While tools aren’t the end-all and be-all for distributed collaboration and knowledge sharing, they’re hardly trivial. Companies cannot allow their collaboration tool stack to languish. They must aim for a world-class user experience.

Group chat can be both a helpful tool and a distraction in the workplace. While suitable for quick exchanges and simple information sharing, it falls short for more important discussions and tasks.

Remote work would have renewed your organisation’s interest in knowledge management. Considering one can’t walk up to co-workers for a quick clarification, could we instead ask the system for an answer? In an asynchronous, remote-first culture, a solid knowledge strategy can be a productivity power up.

In this article and a few subsequent ones, I want to share my thoughts about creating a knowledge ecosystem that keeps pace with your people’s know-how.

Let’s look at the categories of collaborative tools most software development teams will need. Many of these will seem familiar to you already, and that’s a good thing. You just need to use the tools effectively. I’ve broken down the list into three categories - must haves, good to haves and optional extras.