5 proven knowledge management best practices to move faster and stay aligned

What are the common challenges of knowledge management?

Teams aren’t usually short on knowledge, they’re just struggling to find, share, or reuse it effectively.

When information is scattered across tools, people, and outdated systems, workflows slow down. Projects stall, work gets duplicated, and key decisions are made without the right context.

Here are some of the most common (and annoyingly familiar) knowledge management challenges—and how they can show up in a workflow:

Knowledge is siloed across platforms

Documents live in your cloud storage, strategy calls happen in Slack, and key decisions are made in a nebulous haze that nobody can see through. These silos break communication and lead to confusion.

For example, you might have sales strategy updates being shared in Slack that never make it into the campaign brief saved in Dropbox—so the creative team moves forward with old messaging.

If this sounds painfully familiar, you’re not alone. According to a 2025 IBM report, 82% of businesses say data silos interrupt critical processes.

Teams duplicate work or waste time chasing down files

If you don’t know a file name or who created it, good luck finding it. Nobody wants to spend ages searching for a guideline doc buried under years of poorly named folders—so when something’s hard to find, teams just start over.

You can see this in play in many industries, let’s say a consulting firm rebuilds a pitch deck from scratch—unaware that the final version already exists in a project manager’s local files. It’s wasted time, effort, and budget.

Governance is unclear

The wrong people have access, and the right people don’t. Without clear permissions or central oversight, things can quickly fall apart.

Consider the example of sales reps who can’t open the most recent price list because it’s locked in a department lead’s private folder—while outdated versions are still publicly visible to non-staff users. It’s a mess!

Overall, these issues don’t just slow teams down—they cost time, hurt morale, and undermine the quality of your work. Whether you’re a startup or a global enterprise, getting knowledge management right is essential to doing great work consistently—and at scale. Let’s talk about how to fix it.

How Dropbox Dash makes knowledge management easier

No one wants another complicated system that takes weeks to learn or forces them to change how they already work. That’s why Dash is designed to dovetail with your existing setup, giving you an all-in-one, cloud-based, AI-powered workspace that helps you manage knowledge across teams.

You can avoid the headaches with a few incredible features that make knowledge management feel effortless:

• Start page—your smart command center, giving a clear view of recent files, tabs, meeting reminders, and more

• Stacks—automatically sort related files, tabs, links, or notes into tidy collections, perfect for keeping organized

• App integrations—search, surface, and organize data across emails, calendars, documents, and much more

Dash gives you all of these features in a single AI-powered tool built with security in mind—so you can share files, track activity, manage feedback, and stay aligned with total peace of mind. If your team is ready for knowledge management that actually makes life easier, get a full demo and see how smooth things can be.

5 best practices for effective knowledge management

Knowledge management isn’t just for team leads—it’s for anyone who creates, shares, or relies on information to do their job well. Good news for leaders, as it empowers team members without adding to your workflow.

Here are some knowledge management best practices to do it right—with tips and examples to make it stick:

1. Centralize your content in one place

One of the most fundamental knowledge management best practices is to avoid jumping between apps, tabs, emails, and folders—this wastes valuable time. Keep everything in one organized spot to avoid confusion.

Example: A brand team uses cloud storage with a consistent folder structure so that brand guidelines, press kits, and final assets are always just a few clicks away. This makes knowledge sharing much easier.

Best practice: Use a smart tool like Dash to connect your favorite apps, link your files across platforms, and make it super easy to find what you need—no matter where it lives.

2. Organize content around how teams actually work

Folders are fine—but dynamic grouping by task or campaign is even better. This way you don’t arrange important files by less useful criteria, like date created, formats, or other default sorting methods.

Example: A product marketing manager uses stacks to group creative assets, rollout plans, research docs, and timelines all in one view, providing a simple overview for an upcoming launch.

Best practice: Use AI-powered tools to group content by purpose (e.g., campaigns, launches, workflows), not just file type—so it’s ready when and where your team needs it.

3. Use universal search to surface information fast

You shouldn’t have to remember exact file names or where they’re stored. Just ask and go with universal search tools than can look within files and understand your queries with human-like langage.

Example: A content lead needs to find last year’s holiday campaign assets and types “holiday campaign creative 2024” into the universal search. Instantly—it’s found across emails, folders, documents, and connected apps.

Best practice: Use AI-powered universal search features in tools like Dash that work across apps, emails, documents, and even the content within files using natural language.

4. Keep knowledge visible—not buried in folders

Out of sight = out of mind. Make sure what’s important stays top of mind. Ever space out on a meeting or forget about an important email? That’s a sign you need a better knowledge management process!

Example: A creative team keeps campaign content sorted by date in their dashboard, along with synced meeting notes, client feedback, and the latest assets—so they can jump straight into action.

Best practice: Use a smart homepage like the start page in Dash to surface your recent files, important deadlines, and decide next steps in one place.

5. Make access and ownership easy to manage

The right people need to see the right things—without a million permission requests. With CCPA, SOC 2, and many other security standards built into your knowledge management tools, permissions are easy to enforce.

Example: A marketing lead manages cross-functional access using the Dash admin controls, assigning view-only access for clients and full editing rights for internal teams or relevant stakeholders.

Best practice: Choose tools that respect existing file permissions and give you the ability to manage access, sharing, and audit trails—all from one place. Dash helps you do this with an intuitive admin console.

With smart habits and the right setup, knowledge management isn’t a chore—it’s a competitive edge. Robust knowledge management systems are one of the best initiative leaders can take to optimize their team’s decision-making abilities. Keep on top of key productivity metrics without the waste of knowledge gaps.

Manage knowledge better with Dash

The best knowledge management strategy does more than organize a digital mess—it helps you make decisions faster, collaborate, and save time. With the incredible suite of features in Dash, knowledge management is simple.

Dash lets teams store, organize, search, and collaborate on content in one intuitive tool—no messy handoffs or confusing folder mazes necessary. Stop digging and start doing—try a Dash demo to help your team work smarter.