Planning a successful knowledge platform - A 9-Point checklist

The guide outlines nine critical questions for planning a successful climate knowledge platform, emphasizing the need for clear objectives, a distinct niche, and a deep understanding of the target audience. It highlights that content quality is the most important factor for engagement and stresses the necessity of proper staffing, clear governance, and a sustainable business model to avoid the common failure of platforms where initial enthusiasm fades and traffic dries up.

• To avoid failure, knowledge platforms must identify a distinct niche and conduct early research to ensure they add value and do not duplicate existing resources.
• Effective audience engagement requires narrowing down the target group and understanding their specific information needs, timing, and language preferences, ideally through face-to-face data collection.
• Content is identified as the primary driver of audience engagement, necessitating a formal strategy for the continuous creation and presentation of high-quality, current material.
• Operational success depends on having dedicated roles for editing, IT, design, subject knowledge, marketing, and management, as well as clear governance rules for decision-making.
• Financial sustainability is critical; platforms that rely on intermittent outside funding without institutional guarantees or a self-sustaining business model typically fail within a few months.

APA

Barnard, G. (n.d.). Planning a successful knowledge platform - A 9-Point checklist. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/story/planning-successful-knowledge-platform-9-point-checklist

Chicago

Barnard, Geoff. Planning a successful knowledge platform - A 9-Point checklist. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, n.d. https://cdkn.org/story/planning-successful-knowledge-platform-9-point-checklist.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Barnard |first1=Geoff |title=Planning a successful knowledge platform - A 9-Point checklist |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |url=https://cdkn.org/story/planning-successful-knowledge-platform-9-point-checklist |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{barnardndplanning, author = {Barnard, Geoff}, title = {{Planning a successful knowledge platform - A 9-Point checklist}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, url = {https://cdkn.org/story/planning-successful-knowledge-platform-9-point-checklist}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }