What is a knowledge product?

The concept of a Knowledge Product is a common one in the development sector, and is used as a label for many types of document.  But what makes a product a “knowledge product”?

Many organisations working in the development sector create what they call “Knowledge Products”. The African Development bank, for example, has a whole suite of economic briefs, working papers and economic reports published under the heading of “knowledge products”. These are written by specialists in the Bank, for the education or reference of future Bank programs and for wider society. The main mechanism of “knowledge transfer” regarding these products is “dissemination” – publishing reports to target audiences, often on web-hosted repositories.

Other organisations are looking at the same topic, and wondering if Knowledge Products could be defined as a project output, for example.

But what does the “Knowledge” in the term mean? Are these reports “products of knowledge” or are they “products that aim to transfer knowledge to the user”?

If we are to use knowledge products as a component of a KM Framework, then surely they must follow the second definition, not the first?

Dr. Serafin Talisayon, in his lecture notes, suggests that

A knowledge product is something that enables effective action by an intended user, client or stakeholder of a government agency or a non- government or development organization.  

This is the second definition. A Knowledge Product must carry knowledge, and must enable action by the reader (knowledge is, after all, the ability to take effective action).  It must be actionable.

• Therefore a project report is not a knowledge product. Even if it contains a detailed history of the project, the reader does not know whether to copy this history or not. 

• A lesson learned report IS a knowledge product, providing the lessons  

• An economic summary of a region is arguably not a knowledge project. One could read the report, but still not know what action to take. 

• A summary of best practice, or recommended practice, is a knowledge product, provided that the description of the best practice is detailed enough, and provides enough contextual background, that people can act on it in their own context.