Developing a Knowledge Base for a SaaS Product

Clearly Acquired is a SaaS-Enabled SBA Business Acquisition Marketplace on a mission to build a better way for business buyers and intermediaries to connect, get verified, qualified, and execute deals in a high trust, data rich, technology-driven environment.

My Primary Role:

Chief of User Experience

Time Frame:

Sept. 2023 - Present

Project Summary:

As the Chief of UX, I developed the comprehensive knowledge base for Clearly Acquired, to provide users with valuable resources and guidance throughout the acquisition process. This knowledge base streamlined user support by offering clear, accessible information on key topics such as deal rooms, financing, and listing creation.

Responsibilities:

Developed a comprehensive strategy to structure the knowledge base, ensuring easy navigation and access to essential information for users of the Clearly Acquired platform.
Wrote, edited, and organized detailed guides, FAQs, and articles that address key platform features, business acquisition processes, and user support needs.
Worked closely with engineering, marketing, and support teams to gather relevant information and ensure the knowledge base reflects the latest platform updates, features, and user feedback.
Designed the knowledge base to provide a user-friendly interface, incorporating search functionality, tagging, and categorization for efficient information retrieval.
Regularly updated and improved the knowledge base based on user interactions, analytics, and feedback, ensuring it remains a dynamic, up-to-date resource as the platform evolves.

✨ Results & Take Aways

🏆 Wins & Important Callouts:

6,500+ Visitors

We marketed our website immediately and saw an immediate abundance of website traffic per month.

< 40% Site BR

After making site design / layout adjustments with Hotjar insights, the site bounce rate remained below the industry standard 40%.

↗ Brand Reach

We saw well over 60K social impressions weekly through traditional organic posts across our channels.

Founder

As a founder I forged the path for the knowledge base & user experience, for buyers, brokers, banks, and more.

🗒️ Project Overview:

I developed a comprehensive knowledge base for Clearly Acquired, a business acquisition platform. This included crafting support videos, designing website page templates, and organizing essential resources for users to easily navigate the platform’s features. The knowledge base aimed to provide clear, accessible guidance on tools such as the Deal Hub and Financing Support, improving user experience and platform engagement. Through this project, I ensured that users had the information they needed to succeed in their business acquisition journey.

🆘 The Problem:

While building the knowledge base for the business acquisition platform, I faced several challenges, including limited resources and the need for rapid deployment. Having never built a knowledge base before added complexity, as I had to quickly learn best practices and effective design strategies. Additionally, it was crucial to ensure that the knowledge base was scalable, allowing for future expansion and updates as the platform grew and user needs evolved.

Questions I asked myself when starting out:

❓ How do I build a scalable knowledge base?

❓ How do I produce support articles that clearly outline processes

❓ What platforms are the best to work on and work with?

❓ How do I produce support walkthrough videos that I can add.

💡 My Solution:

My solution was to build a user-friendly knowledge base on Webflow by leveraging CMS collections and page templates to streamline the creation and launch of support articles. This approach enabled rapid updates and consistent formatting, ensuring a cohesive user experience. The use of dynamic collections allowed for easy organization and management of content, making it simple for users to find the information they needed. Ultimately, this innovative setup enhanced accessibility and engagement within the knowledge base.

My Goals for the Knowledge Base:

✅ Create a user-friendly, Knowledge Base, serving various site visitors

✅ Optimize for SEO, inclusive of site architecture, technical foundation, keyword support and editorial content

✅ Work Fast, creating page templates, and CMS collections

✅ Blend Imagery, Iconography, and Information in an aesthetically pleasing manner

✅ Get user feedback & team feedback to make site adjustments

✅ Test the site on various devices to ensure the best user experience

✅ Publish the content, take the site live, and continue to optimize

✨ Results & Takeaways:

The launch of the Clearly Acquired website successfully met the needs of Brokers, Buyers, and Banks by delivering a seamless, user-friendly experience that aligns with the brand's vision. Using tools like Hotjar to track user behavior, I made continuous improvements based on real-time feedback, enhancing navigation and functionality. The fully responsive design and consistent brand representation across all touchpoints have strengthened user trust and engagement, driving platform adoption and satisfaction.

50+ Articles

I rapidly produced more than 50 articles to support various parts of the platform so our user base could easily & effectively get started.

20%↑ Adoption

After launching some support articles to help users understand Plaid Identity Verification, we saw a 20% increase in users creating accounts.

30% Faster

We also saw an improvement of users completing Appcues flows once we provided support documentation to aid their onboarding and getting started on the platform.