Space Homepages

When someone opens a space in confluence they'll be sent directly to its home page. This page is created when the space is created and serves as a landing page for the space. Every home page will come pre-built via a template that Atlassian has provided, which gives teams a great starting point for building a useful and compelling home page.

While it is created automatically and with a special template, a home page is basically the same as any other page in the space, however, there are a few specifics you should know about. These include a mix of technical features, like where the home page lives, and some best practices, like updating the homepage to make it useful.

Its at the top of the spaces hierarchy 

The home page is accessed by clicking on the name of the space, either in the Spaces menu, or in the top left of the navigation bar. The page itself lives at the top of the space hierarchy, which mainly means it won't appear in the content tree. This can make it a bit confusing for people who are new to confluence, but you can always get back to it by clicking on the spaces name in the top left, or via the spaces menu.

Having the home page be the top of the page hierarchy can, however, cause issues if the home page is changed (See the next section for how to do this), or if other pages are added to the top level of the space.  When this happens, those pages will essentially become invisible in the hierarchy. You can still search for them or link to them, but they'll be impossible to browse. This can easily cause frustration and friction as pages seem to disappear.

Changing the home page

By default the home page is the top of spaces hierarchy and is set when the space is created, however, you can change which page is the home page. This is done by a space admin and going to space details, and changing the space’s home page. This can be done at any time, so it’s easy to change back if you realize you made a mistake.

You can also see where the home page is in relation to other pages by opening the Reorder menu as a space admin. This will visually show you the home page with an orange icon, and every other piece of content under, or around it. This is the best place to find content that falls outside the home page (typically not something you want to do as that content won’t be visible in the space hierarchy).

The biggest issue groups run into when they change their home page is any piece of content not under the home page will seem to vanish from the space hierarchy. This can easily frustrate users as content will disappear (although it can still be searched for and linked to). Fortunately this is easily fixable by just moving that content somewhere under the new homepage.

Make it useful

The default template for a home page is a useful guide to help teams add useful information. Unfortunately one of the biggest mistakes I see is a team not curating their spaces home page. This is important as it's the landing page for the space, and should serve as guidance for visitors on where to go or what to look for in it.

Editing the home page is easy - just click the edit pencil (like any other page) and get started.  I think of the home page as a way to show people what's in the space, so typically I fill it up with links, references or general information. It can be helpful to ask someone who’s new to your team to take a look and let you know if they find it useful as their perspective can help you find blind spots in what you’ve added.

What you put on the home page will depend on what your space is for. A space for a team (Engineering, Human Resources, etc) might include information about who’s on the team, what they do or how to contact them. A space for a project might include high-level information like its scope, timeline or other information.

Confluence Whiteboards

Years ago I learned the “claw” technique for holding dry-erase markers. You take three markers of different colors and hold them between your fingers when you’re presenting. This makes it easy for you to switch colors to draw attention to something or make it stand out. Over the years I added holding an eraser in my palm to make it easier to remove things from my drawings. I really like this technique since it means I don’t have to keep walking back to a table to get a different color.

Much of my job now, however, involves working with virtual teams, and unfortunately sharing a whiteboard on a conference call is iffy at best. This means that the claw technique isn’t really helpful when most of my team is virtual. Over time this forced me to look into other tools, like draw.io or Lucidchart to satisfy my whiteboard needs. At the same time I primarily have used Confluence as my knowledge base / collaboration platform. This means I am constantly opening multiple applications to document a process, brainstorm and record information.

This certainly isn’t the worst thing in the world - however - it does mean I have to maintain (and pay for) multiple systems. This is where Confluence whiteboards come in. This is a (relatively) new content type that natively hosts a whiteboard within your Confluence instance… which has several benefits.

Context

Having the whiteboard appear in Confluence directly next to, under or above, related information is incredibly powerful. This means new hires can easily find related information, engineers don’t have to go far for API documentation and project managers have their planning diagrams in a single spot. Until I began using Confluence whiteboards I didn’t realize how important this was, but now that I have it I can’t easily see myself changing.

Whiteboards can be placed anywhere in the hierarchy you need. Typically I place them under a related page - for example system diagrams go under the page for that system. Whiteboards, however, can also be parents to other content. This makes it easy to include relevant information to support the whiteboard in a spot that’s incredibly easy to find.

Integrations

Like any other part of Confluence, whiteboards are natively integrated with other Atlassian products, mainly Jira and Confluence. This means that with a few clicks you can pull in any number of Jira tickets or Confluence pages. This has make it much easier for me to plan out things like sprints (by visually showing tickets on a whiteboard) Confluence redesigns (by visually moving things around).

Some upcoming features will also allow us to create Confluence pages based on whiteboard summaries - further improving our ability to quickly share information. This particular feature also helps teams better utilize whiteboards as many times I find they get incredibly broad. The summary page helps teams understand what the whiteboard is about.

Another feature will allow you to change fields on the ticket (such as assignee or priority) just by dropping it onto a section. This can help teams better manage their tickets by giving them a visual, hands-on, way to quickly edit multiple tickets.

Single tool

Many organizations these days have 100’s of different tools they manage and maintain, so (almost) anything you can do to reduce that number is a win. Not only is it a cost savings, it reduces administrative overhead, as well as frustration. The first is important as your information technology teams are likely already stretched thin, so having one less thing on their plate is important. The second is important as your workers won’t have to struggle to remember which system is for what. Instead they just open up Confluence and everything they need is in there.

Whiteboards are still a relatively new feature, however, I’ve found a lot of use - and removed my reliance on other tools. They’re available in all versions of Confluence Cloud (but limited in Free/Standard to 3 per person). Definitely worth a look!

Keep up with Confluence Comments

Confluence is intended as a collaboration platform, and one way it enables this is via comments. People can go onto a page, and leave questions, ideas or corrections at any time. This is a great feature since it allows anyone (or at least anyone with appropriate permissions) the ability to pitch in. (personally I do this a lot when I notice something seems to be out of date, misspelled or otherwise needing help).

Unfortunately I notice that many groups don’t follow up on comments - their pages end up riddled with yellow highlighting (indicating there’s a comment) that just sit there. At best this will result in a minor error (like spelling) not being corrected - at worst it can result in frustration and damage relationships. Fortunately, there are a few ways to keep track of comments.

Turn on (and monitor) notifications

If you’re @ mentioned in a comment, Confluence will helpfully send a notification to your email. This is the default behavior, but can easily get lost or ignored. I always recommend that groups keep their notifications on, and don’t filter them out of email, just to ensure they see them. I’ve also rarely run into someone who gets too many comment notifications, so realistically keeping them on won’t drown you in emails.

Generally I don’t find I get too many notifications (likely because many people aren’t commenting!), so when I do get one or two I take it as a good sign as people are actually engaging with my content.

You can control your notifications by clicking on your account name (in the top right, then on “Personal settings”.

Next click on “Email”, then review the options on the right.

Actively monitor your pages

If you’re a page owner you should also be actively reviewing your pages for comments (and other things like updates). Depending on the page you may do this more or less frequently, but making time to review the pages you own (and are ideally updating regularly) will help catch new comments.

Fortunately Confluence makes it easy to see those comments - just click on the comment icon at the top - and you’ll see them all pop out on the page. Personally I find myself reviewing my most popular / visible pages regularly to ensure I catch any comments, while less-used pages I check less frequently.

Search

You can search for comments in Confluence - however, without add-ons this can be a bit clunky as you’ll have to search for keywords in the comments to find them. Search also doesn’t currently support the ability to find unresolved comments, so you should rely on the top two methods to really catch them all.

Confluence for Project Managers

Confluence is a widely available tool that offers a lot of functions that support project managers. Unfortunately much of the time project managers are unaware of the various features available in Confluence that will help them better run their projects. These features include things like using templates to easily spin up content, databases to track tasks and whiteboards for planning.

Templates

Templates are pre build pages you can use to guide content creation. Confluence comes preloaded with over 100 of these, and you can even build your own (or modify existing ones) to better fit your needs. I find they serve two main purposes - making it easier to create content, and setting expectations for folks using that content.

One of my favorites is the meeting notes template, which I use for almost every meeting I'm in. If I have time I'll create it in advance so I don't have to enter attendees or other background info. This makes it much easier to write down real time notes on how things are going. The template comes with an area for attendees, an agenda, meeting notes, follow up tasks and decisions. Those last two use Confluence Macros to easily share information between pages, making it easy to pull in a list of every task or decision on a specific project.

Databases

Databases are what tables want to be when they grow up. They take the visual organization of a table, and expand on it. This allows you to more easily structure data, including adding multiple columns of information, linking in Jira tickets or Confluence pages, tagging individuals and more. I frequently find myself using them for project planning as they have a lot more horsepower than a spreadsheet, but aren’t as complex as a series of jira tickets.

Databases also allow you save views - for example a list of just items that are blocked, or assigned to a specific person. This makes it easy to share a link and empower stakeholders to get specific information at their fingertips - further removing roadblocks to important information.

Whiteboards

I used to spend a lot of planning using a physical whiteboard to draw out process flows, list ideas and more. While it's not quite the same experience, confluence whiteboards offer a great digital alternative to this. They are essentially an endless digital space where you can add shapes, lines and text to map out ideas, share brainstorming and more. They also allow you to pull in Confluence pages or Jira tickets, making it easy to represent existing work or knowledge in your diagrams.

They allow for easy collaboration across locations, with multiple team members being able to easily contribute or follow along. A recent addition also added the ability for folks to vote on items. This gives your team an easy way to indicate which things they think are most important, allowing you to focus on the biggest impact items.

Organization

A big challenge I run into on a project is organizing data. Confluence offers a number of different options to help with this, including things like labels, a nested content tree and folders.

Labels serve as meta data - information about content - that enable a number of features. Most apparently is improving search. Not only do labels impact search results, they can also be used to filter content. Additionally they tie into a number of marcos/page elements to automate things (such as gathering a list of content containing specific labels).

The content tree helps you visually organize information. For example anything related to your kickoff call could be put under the 'kickoff call' page. This makes it very easy for your team to find specific pieces of information quickly. These structures can be easily edited to via drag and drop, or even moved between spaces with a few clicks. 

Folders are a recent addition that serve as a way to group information without being information themselves. This lets you easily group information without cluttering up your documentation. For example, before folders were available I would frequently have a blank page in my content tree whose only purpose was to house other pages. It helped me organize content, but it didn’t do anything else. This cluttered up space and confused folks who ended up clicking on it.

These are just some of the Confluence features I’ve found helpful as a project manager. If you’ve got access to the tool I’d highly recommend checking them out and seeing what they can help you do!

Global Page Templates

Every space in Confluence can contain any number of templates. These allow editors to quickly format pages to speed up content creation and also set expectations of people reading pages about what to expect. Confluence even comes preloaded with 100+ “blueprints”, ensuring you start off with some great options.

When non-admins create a template it’s only usable in the space it’s created. For example if I make a new template (or edit one) in the “Rob” space, that template is only usable in the Rob space. There is a way around this when creating a page, however, most folks are unaware of the dropdown to pick different spaces and it adds extra steps.

This limitation, whoever, can be overcome with global templates. These can be created by Confluence admins (e.g. instance admins) and are available in every space in that instance. This allows your team to ensure everyone in your organization has access to the same set of templates.

Read on for more or check out this youtube video

Where do they live

Confluence admins can access global templates in a few places.

The first is by opening the Templates menu from any space’s space settings, then scroll all the way to the bottom. (It is under every blueprint, so I didn’t know it was there for quite a while).  Clicking on “Manage Global Templates” will bring you to the “Global templates and blueprints” admin panel, which is the second way to access them.

The Global templates and blueprints panel is accessible from the admin panel and is where global templates live. It looks and feels almost exactly like the templates panel from a space. The only difference is templates created or edited here will be available in every space.

Why is this useful?

Global templates are useful for a few reasons:

1. They ensure templates are available everywhere. This doesn’t seem like much, but it can be frustrating when you can’t find the template you want. Creating it as a global template ensures it’s available to everyone, making uniform content significantly easier.

2. They centralize administration. Without global templates may groups will make multiple copies of the same template in different spaces. This makes it incredibly hard to keep them all updated as each one is a separate template. Global templates remove this pain as updating it once updates it everywhere.
   
   
   

What else can you do on the global templates and blueprints page?

There’s a few other nifty things you can do from the global templates and blueprint page.

Manage blueprints - Blueprints are provided by Atlassian (or third parties) and are by default turned on and available in Confluence. These can be a great resource for folks looking for a template… however, they also clutter up the templates list, and in most cases they aren’t used. The global panel allows admins to disable them across the instance, freeing up visual space and reducing confusion.

Editing default pages - Admins can also change the default pages assigned to new spaces (including personal spaces). Doing this is helpful as it makes the beginning experience in a space more uniform or useful to the team.

New Confluence Feature - Folders

Up until recently the only way to organize content in Confluence was to put it under other content. For example if I wanted to organize all of my meeting notes in the same spot I would have to create a page called “Meeting notes” to be the parent for all the other pages.

This is a bit silly, as that “meeting notes” page’s only purpose is to serve as a place to put other content. It doesn’t offer anything new to folks, no new information, nothing.  Essentially it’s a placeholder that people can get confused by, or, at best, just another thing to click on on their way to somewhere else.

That, however, is all changing now that Folders are being released. The rollout began in mid September and will gradually expand to include everyone.

Keep reading for more and check out this video for a walkthrough

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What are folders?

Folders don’t contain any content themselves, instead, they allow you to organize content in your content tree. Other than not having any of their own content, they behave very similarly to other things in Confluence - you can rename them, star them, restrict them and more.

They allow you to more easily manage and organize your content by providing a way to contain information without requiring a page.

Why are they useful?

Folders are useful because they allow you to better organize content in a way that makes sense to your needs. Prior to this, the only way to do this was to create a page that didn’t have anything on it (or had very minimal information like the “child pages” macro). This served a similar function, however, resulted in non-useful content being added to your space.

What are some use cases?

Personally I take a lot of meeting notes in Confluence and I frequently end up with a string of pages just called “Meeting Notes” or “Meeting notes from Q1”. The only thing those pages do is serve to organize underlying meeting notes, so folders will easily replace those.

Other use cases I can easily see being useful include:

1. Support materials - Have a folder called “Get Support Here” (or something similar) and put any content related to support under it

2. How to - Another thing I commonly do is built out how-to articles. Now I can group them all under a single folder (or series of folders) to help my team more easily find content.

Can I turn folders off?

Yes, space admins can disable folders on a space-by-space basis. I cannot think of a specific reason to do this, however, if a group doesn’t think they’re needed they can be disabled.

Can I turn existing pages into folders?

Yes - any existing page can be converted into a folder. This will make it much easier to convert those placeholder pages. Even better, Confluence will save an archived copy of the original page in case you need it later. Just go to More Actions -> Convert page to folder.

What else should I know?

If you happen to have pages that are either blank or only have the “child pages” macro, Confluence will let you know you can convert them to a folder via a banner at the top of the page when you edit it. Personally I appreciate this call out, as it can be very easy to be complacent and leave those placeholder pages.

Types of content in Confluence

Confluence is a great tool for hosting content and storing information. Not all content, however, is the same. So, let’s take a look at the basic types of content that you can add to Confluence (at least as of the time of writing! Atlassian is constantly expanding and exploring new things to do with this tool, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this changed over time…).
Note all Blogs, Databases and Whiteboards can be disabled by a Space admin, so if you don’t see them check with your IT department or Space admin for help.

Keep reading for more, or check out this video walking you through them all

Pages

Pages are what most people think of when they think of content in Confluence. They’re a blank document that can contain any combination of text, images, attachments, macros and more. They’re also an easy entry as many people are already familiar with a document (Word, Google, Lotus, etc.), and many of the concepts and ideas behind word processing apply to pages.

Pages are also the only content type that cannot be disabled - meaning every space will always have this content type available for use.

What are pages for?

Here a page is used to detail a how-to guide

I find pages to be particularly useful for content that is perennial - that is it’s always useful or needed. Things like policies, team playbooks, how-to articles and the like are things that someone can always pull off the shelf and use. This is in contrast to “point-in-time” information, which we’ll explore down in blogs.

Pages also exist in the space hierarchy, meaning you can nest them under, or use them to use, other pieces of content. This allows you to build out a visual representation of information. For example a “policies” page could house every policy, or a page about a system could have everything related to that system under it.

What are pages not good for?

While pages are versatile they aren’t always the best at conveying visual information (check out whiteboards for that), and while they can house a table, they’re not the best at conveying structured data (check out databases instead). 

Blogs

Blogs look very similar to pages… they have the same editor, and they are (almost) visually indistinguishable from pages. That said, there’s a key difference - they don’t live in the page hierarchy. Instead, they live under the “blogs” link, and, unlike pages, they can be disabled on a space-by-space basis (so if you don’t see the menu, check with your space admin for help).

What are they good for?

Here a blog is used to share a project update

While blogs don’t appear in the space hierarchy, they do sort themselves chronologically. This makes them a great candidate for point-in-time information. Common examples I’ve seen include:

1. Product updates

2. Weekly data drops

3. Personal performance information

4. Team announcements

Information of this type tends to be useful in the moment, but quickly becomes outdated as things change (e.g. there’s a new release). This doesn’t mean it isn’t useful, just that we need to put different things in as a blog.

What are they not good for?

Given that blogs aren’t part of the page hierarchy they’re not the best place to put information that needs a general structure. For example, I can’t nest a blog post under another page, so using it for a how to article wouldn’t make sense. This also means blogs should be (relatively) contained and not outside context to fully understand.

Whiteboards

Whiteboards are what they sound like - a digital space to map, diagram, draw and collaborate. They allow users to collectively work on diagrams, brainstorm and manipulate objects in real time. Personally I prefer a big physical whiteboard, but frequently my team isn’t in the same office, so this virtual version is a great replacement.

Like pages, whiteboards appear in the space hierarchy, which is a great feature. This allows you to nest them under related information - think putting a system diagram under the page that details that system, or the sprint planning whiteboard under the sprint’s main page. This makes it incredibly easy for teams to quickly find related information, and to gain important context, about what’s on that whiteboard.

What are they for?

Here a whiteboard is used to map HR systems

Whiteboards are great for conveying, and collaborating, on visual information. Need to diagram a system? What about brainstorm how to improve a process? Diagram that process? All of that can be done in a whiteboard, and saved directly into the page hierarchy near related information. I find them useful any time I need to draw out my thoughts, or walk someone through a process (both things that are hard/challenging in other types of content).

They do also integrate with Jira, allowing you to pull Jira tickets into the whiteboard as objects. You can also represent confluence pages as objects. This allows you to easily pull in related information, or build page hierarchies visually.

What are they not good at?

Whiteboards are not good for storing a lot of text, or managing written information. They also don’t contain macros, so there’s not as many clever things you can do within a whiteboard (pages are better at that).

Databases

Up until the release of Databases your only option to represent data in Confluence was to use a table. Tables are great, however, they have a lot of limitations that Databases don’t. This includes things like:

1. Add different information, like dropdowns, to cells

2. Back link entries in one database with another (e.g. having one database list customers, and another list all the contacts for them)

3. Pull in Jira or Confluence information automagically

4. And more

What are they for?

Here a database is used to track project status

I find that databases bridge the gap between a page and a Jira ticket. They offer a lot more options for storing and sharing information than a table, but aren’t as complex as a ticket. This makes them great at helping organize information - think things like project plans, a CRM or marketing plan. They also have some great features allowing you to save various views (for example showing all the unresolved items) and easily share them with stakeholders. This makes sharing all that structured information a lot easier.

You can also copy the structure of database into a new one, which makes using them for similar needs a breeze.

What are they not good at?

While Databases are a great middle ground, there are times when you need more than what they offer. If you have a need to move things through a workflow or share outside of Confluence you might need Jira instead. Similarly if you have a simple use case - just recording names or a list - you might opt to go with a page instead.

Confluence Blog Posts

Confluence comes with two basic resources, pages and blog… Pages always made sense to me - they’re the stuff I put into Confluence for other people to use (there’s a biiiiit more to them then that, but I’ll cover that later). Blogs, on the other hand, remained a mystery for a while.

Personally I’ve always thought of blogs as something an individual or company will post online to share their thoughts on something. On the individual level the phrase “check out my blog” can be a bit cringe-worthy… and on the company level they can be a bit bland. This understanding may have caused me to ignore the Confluence Blog for longer than necessary, but I eventually figured out that they both exist, and are useful.

Where they are

Blogs exist in spaces (much like pages), however, instead of appearing in the “Content” section, they appear in the Sidebar.

This makes the visually one of the first things people will see when they browse the page (and something I glossed over for years..). Note that your Space Admin can turn off blogs, so you may not even see this option! If it’s missing, contact your Space Admin to see if they’ll turn it back on.

How they’re similar to Pages

Pages and Blogs share a number of similarities:

1. They exist in a space - Pages and Blogs exist in one, and only one, Space. This means they are generally controlled by Space access, allowing admins the ability to easily limit visibility by not providing access to the space.

2. They can be Restricted - Both resources can be restricted on the individual level, allowing authors the ability to hide, or control editing, one their content.

3. Robust editing - Both resources share the same editing capabilities (Headers, formatting, sections, etc).

4. Macros - Both support Macros, allowing you to easily extend functionality and interact with other resources.

How they’re different from Pages

While they do share many similarities, there are some major differences between the two resources that are important to understand.

1. Templates - Blogs do not support templates. This means you’ll be starting from scratch every time. Personally I get around this by using a (very) simple format for my regular blog posts (sometimes I Just copy/paste older ones).

2. Hierarchy - Blogs do not show up in a hierarchy (e.g. a blog cannot have a parent or children). 

3. Visibility - Unlike pages, Blogs can be disabled in a particular space by a Space Admin. This lets admins clear up space in the sidebar if they’re not used, but can make it a bit frustrating if folks are looking for blogs, but can’t find them.

4. Display - Blogs are displayed chronologically, allowing folks to browse by year or month. This differs from Pages, which are displayed in their hierarchy.

What I use them for

I started using blogs to capture “point in time” updates or information and left things that update over time, or are frequently looked at, to pages (e.g. “meet the team”, policies, etc). Over time this has included things like:

1. Weekly Updates - Details of what a team has accomplished over a week are a great thing to put in a blog… after all, it’s not like that will change over time, and having them in the chronological format makes it easy to browse through and see changes.

2. Product Releases - Another item that is a great “snapshot” of what’s happened, and easy to display chronologically.

Their chronological listing can also make Blogs a great way to capture performance information, or your accomplishments over time. This makes it easy to search for them since you can filter your search just to Blogs and anything with “achievement” in the title or label.

Other thoughts

Like any tool it’s important to consider WHY you’re using it before you just jump in. Personally, I’ve found Blogs to be useful to help chronicle activities over time, but groups may find other uses for them. Some groups may also opt to hide them entirely, and just focus on pages. Neither approach is better than the other, but in some cases one may make more sense for your team.

Challenges faced when updating Confluence

Confluence is. a great tool, but, like anything, over time it will wear down. Pages will get stale, content won’t be updated, and some information that should be there is just missing. Ideally organizations counter this by performing regular reviews of important or high-priority information in Confluence every 6-12 months. This helps ensure the tool remains useful and doesn’t get too cluttered.

Much more commonly, however, groups neglect to update Confluence, resulting in spaces and pages that are less than useful. Eventually someone will decide they need to do something about it - and run into challenges and opposition.

Below are several challenges I’ve come across (but are by no means ALL the challenges out there!), as well as some ways to get around them.

Challenge #1 - What is Confluence?

Someone not knowing what Confluence is, or realizing they have access to it, is more common than you think. On the one hand this is a bit crazy since organizations pay good money to utilize it, but on the other hand it’s entirely understandable as many times knowledge management isn’t at the forefront of anyone’s mind.

Overcoming this challenge can be hard as you’re working with someone who has zero understanding of the usefulness of Confluence. Here, focus on some of the following to help overcome it:

1. Education - Start with the basics. What challenges can Confluence help your organization solve? How is it already being used? What efficiencies are gained from it?

2. Demonstrate - I find it handy to have a demonstration space setup in advance so I can walk them through what a good setup looks like. This lets them get hands on to see what it’s like.

Challenge #2 - Where to begin?

Many times I find it challenging to pick a single point to begin - after all there can be dozens or hundreds of spaces in an instance, so choosing one to start improving can be hard.Even within a space it can be challenging to pick a single area to improve.

Taking an educated guess is a great way to overcome this challenge. Ask yourself the following questions to help target an area to start with:

1. Are there specific areas where most workers are required to go or would find information? Something like a company hub / employee central that houses general information can be an easy target.

2. Are there any areas that have low traffic? Low-traffic areas can be a good target for improvement, but you’ll have to determine if they’re worth it.

3. Is anyone screaming about it? You may be getting complaints that XYZ area isn’t up to speed - this makes this step easy, just go there and look a round!

Challenge #3 - "We don't have the resources"

Organizations have a lot of priorities, and I’ve never met one that put improving Confluence up near that top… this makes this objection incredibly common when you’ve identified some work that could be done. Typically I’ve found that more budget isn’t needed, making this a matter of getting some person-hours to help out. Typically I can tackle it myself, but sometimes getting another expert in is needed. 

Here’s a few ways you can approach this one:

1. Determine the minimal amount of work needed - Take your plan and boil it down to just the necessary changes or updates. Challenge yourself to make Confluence more useful while minimizing your ask. This is a good exercise in general, but will help you focus on the important parts.

2. Realistically estimate the work - Take some time to understand exactly how much time or money it will take to do what you’re planning. This won’t necessarily overcome this objection, but it will demonstrate you’ve done your homework, and set you up for the next item. This will also help you figure out what other folks you need to help you, and how much of their time you need.

3. Can you do it on your own - Many times I’ve found the updates I see are things I can do in my “spare” time at work. Sure, it will take longer since it’s just me dedicating a few hours here and there, but by taking on the core load yourself, you help deflate this objection.

Challenge #4 - Not a priority / “This isn’t important”

Another very common objection is that it’s not a priority for your organization. I completely understand this, as there’s a lot going on… however, as you’re likely aware, having a Confluence space that isn’t organized is almost worse than not having one at all.

For me, this challenge is best overcome by using numbers and gathering feedback. These both give you things to point at when making your case, helping show that it should be a priority.

1. Metrics - Pull whatever numbers you can on how much Confluence is utilized. How many times are pages with critical information accessed? How frequently are they updated? Are they even being used at all?

2. Feedback - Solicit, compile and analyze feedback from other people in your org about Confluence. What frustrates them? How much time do they waste struggling to find information? 

Challenge #5 - "It’s always been this way / It's not broken"

Organizational inertia can be very hard to overcome… folks get used to things being a certain way and become incredibly resistant to changing anything about it. That, however, doesn’t mean that we can’t do better.  Fortunately the way to overcome this is the same as Challenge #4 - gather information about the pain that is currently being experienced and quantify it.

Challenge #6 - "XYZ software does that"

Organizations have many, many tools (one place I worked had over 200!). This makes it highly likely there is another, similar tool, that does (at least part of) what Confluence does. Unfortunately this will result in folks pointing to the other software and saying “we don’t need to improve Confluence”.

My approach with this objection is education. Take time to clearly lay out the intended use of Confluence as the source of truth for information (or at least an index pointing the way). Reinforce that while information doesn’t have to live in Confluence, people should be using it as a first point of contact while looking for information.

Gathering feedback is also a good approach - especially if people are confused about where to go to get information or which system to use.

Challenge #7 - Resistance to archiving/deleting / No alignment on how to manage old content

This one pops up once you get your project started and have identified content that has to be retired. Content that has outlived its usefulness should be either archived or deleted as it just clutters things up for everyone else.

This pushback could be the result of a few things, so your approach will differ:

1. If they’re unfamiliar with Confluence - They may just not know you can safely archive items and still find them. If this is the case, educate them on how the feature works. Give them a live demonstration of how easy it is to archive, view, and recover, that information to help them understand how easy it is.

2. They think it’s still useful - Sometimes they’ll think that the information is still needed. This is where your metrics and feedback come in handy. In many cases you can show them that it hasn’t been viewed or updated in a period of time, or that only a small number of people use it. Getting hard data - or anecdotal data - can help them see that the content should be retired.

Challenge #8 - Resistance to using the tool

This is a very common challenge with Confluence in general. Many times people don’t want to use it at all, or only in a limited way. Overcoming this can be particularly challenging, especially if they’ve already made up their mind about it

Depending on how severe, this can take time to overcome, and is mainly education-focused. Take time to understand why they don’t want to use the tool, then tailor your response accordingly.

Challenge #9 - Disagreement on design principles

For me this is a less-common objection, but one that still does come up. Sometimes a group will have a particular idea of how things should be set up or look, which can clash with another group’s ideas. Taking time to understand each group’s desire is important here, as you’ll want to b e sure you understand their disagreement. 

From there, you may need to educate them on what is possible (e.g. you may not be able to do XYZ idea given constraints), or mediate a compromise with another path.

Confluence Databases for Project Tracking

Keeping track of all the pieces of a project can be challenging. Fortunately, there are a ton of different tools out there to get the job done. Recently, however, I’ve been using Confluence Databases to see how this feature can help me track project work, and I’ve found it to be pretty good at handling small to mid sized projects.

What is it?

Confluence Databases sit somewhere between a table/spreadsheet and Jira. They live in the content tree of a Confluence space, and look similar to a table. That is where the similarity ends though, as they have a number of functions that are very useful in tracking project statuses. This includes things like tracking specific users, linking to Jira tickets or Confluence pages, and even linking to other tables.

Features that help project managers

There’s a few specific features that I’ve found make a database very useful to project managers.

Saving (and easily sharing) filter views is incredibly useful. This allows me to create a view once, then share it with specific groups. I could, for example, share a list of new tasks with analysts so they can build out specs, or a list of blocked items to bring up at the start of our calls. Since the filter is saved in the URL this is as easy as copying/pasting, and can be bookmarked.

The native integration with Jira is another great feature as it’s highly likely I’ll be using Jira if I’m in Confluence. Being able to link a line in my database with 1 (or more) Jira tickets lets me keep my developers in Jira while still giving me easy access to what’s going on in there. This allows me to easily give my stakeholders a view of the project that isn’t too “technical” while preserving direct links to more information in case they want it.

Finally, configurations can be copied into a new database. This lets me easily make a clean copy of the database for a new project and preserve all of the columns and other settings I have. This means that once I have a good structure in place I can make as many copies as I need to, slot them into the proper place of Confluence, and not have to worry about deleting anything.

Database Setup

I’ve been using Databases to track relatively simple projects, so I added in a number of basic fields:

1. Task Name - A text field containing the name of the task

2. Status - A Tag field indicating the status (To Do, Blocked, etc) of the task

3. Owner - A User field with the task owner

4. Due Date - A Date field with when the task is due

5. Jira Ticket - If the task has a jira ticket it’s linked here

6. Jira Ticket Details - The assignee of the linked Jira ticket

7. Documentation - A link to any Confluence pages with more information

Why not just use Jira ?

There is an interesting question of why wouldn’t I just have used Jira to track my project work. There’s a few reasons:

1. Trying something new - I find it’s really important to expose myself to new ideas, tools and methodologies. Not only will this give me more options for managing projects, but I might find something useful that can be applied elsewhere.

2. Light weight - Setting up a Jira project takes time and sometimes requires a Jira admin to help with setup and changes. Both of these things may be in short supply, so having an option that is more robust than a spreadsheet (which may be flexible, but lacking features), but less heavy than a full-on Jira project is very attractive.

3. Presentable - I’ve found that many stakeholders don’t like going into Jira to get information on how things are going. Having another option, like an easily-accessible page in Confluence, has been great as people actually use them.

4. Flexible - The ability to easily add new columns, save filter-views and share information quickly makes databases very attractive. It hardly takes any time to add or adjust data, making it easy for my team to keep things up to date.

5. Integrations - Being able to instantly connect Confluence pages and Jira tickets makes Database more data-rich. For example teams can easily see any related Jira tickets, and stakeholders can easily access documents from one spot.

Why not just use a spreadsheet?

Spreadsheets are a great tool for many things, and they’re incredibly flexible. This makes them the go-to for many project trackers, especially if they don’t need specific features or integrations. That said, use a Database has a number of advantages:

1. Everything in one spot - If you’re already using Confluence you’re likely storing other project documentation in there as well. Having a database to track your progress puts everything in one spot, in the same system. This reduces the administrative overhead needed to track, maintain and manage things, and also leads to

2. Integrations - Aside from the built-in integrations with Jira, having your plan in Confluence makes it a lot easier to reference on other pages, integrate with other information and make more easily available.

3. Presentable - Similar to #3 above, I’ve found a database is easier to share with others, and easier for them to interpret. While a spreadsheet may have all the info in there, it’s easy for someone to go to the wrong tab, workbook, etc. and get frustrated.

4. Re-use - The configuration of a database can be copied into a new database in a few clicks. This makes it incredibly easy to spin up new projects with the same setup as an old one. A spreadsheet would require copying, then deleting everything to start over.

Final Thoughts

Databases are a great mid-weight way to track projects. The biggest hurdle for me was just figuring out what fields to include and after that I found them easy to update and use. Will they entirely replace spreadsheets? No, however, they do give project managers another great option to keep things on track.

New Confluence Beta Feature - Company Hub

Company Hub

Company Hub is a new beta feature for Confluence Premium and Enterprise that I think many folks will find very interesting. Up until this feature released we were stuck making a “central space” and hoping folks could find it.. but now there’s a highly visible, accessible page everyone can see to help direct them to content - the Company Hub.

See it live here!

What is it?

The Company Hub attempts to answer the question “What is one place everyone knows to go to for information”. It does this by making itself available in the navigation bar of every page, meaning it’s always visible. Prior to this feature the best way to solve for this challenge was to build out a space and call it something like “Employee Home” - but then you end up with folks not knowing where to look for it, losing it in a list of spaces, etc.

Features

The first thing I noticed in the Hub was the inclusion of two new macros (also available in Beta for Premium/Enterprise groups outside of the hub). Both appear to be aimed at helping folks more easily display information in a more visually pleasing way. Prior to having these I’ve been forced to use add-ons like Aura to make things look better.

The new macros are:

Cards

The Cards macro allows you to organize and display information visually. Each card can include information like a name and a link making it easier for folks to find content. I can think of a lot of good uses for this, from directing people to interesting pages, to lining up a process by step, to guiding new hires around the company.

Setting up cards

Setting up cards is simple - just add the macro, then adjust the general settings (applied to all the cards in the macro).

If a card is linked, you can have it also show the last time the linked page was updated, and the image for it’s owner (helpful so folks know who to go to or to judge stale-ness)

Settings per card

Each individual card also has information associated with it, including a link to other information, description title, and - interestingly - an integration with Unsplash so you can find images to add.

Cards of different sizes

You can also arrange cards in smaller sizes or vertically for more display options

Carousels

Similar to cards, these display a rotating series of up to three items and help you showcase information. 

These support up to three cards that users can click on for more information, or to link out to other resources. Each one supports a link, title, description and the same Unsplash integration as the Cards macro.

I can think of a number of uses for Carousels, ranging from highlighting regular information, to calling out specific parts of a how-to or process, or just breaking up the page with something that looks prettier.

Other Hub Features

While the Carousel and Card macros can be used on any piece of content in Confluence, there are a few Hub-specific features.

Naming

The default name of the hub is “Company Hub”…. which is boring. So, you can also name the Hub anything you want. This name appears on the Hub itself, but also in the navigation bar. I can easily see groups choosing something like “Home Base”, “Click here for info” or basically anything else to attract attention.

Permissions
The Hub also has its own permissions. These function almost identically to space permissions so you’ll have plenty of flexibility in determining who can view and edit the page.

One thing to note is that permissions are found under the “more actions” menu. Personally I find this a bit annoying as they’re a bit hidden, but they do function similar to Space permissions so you get a lot of control over who can do what.

Use Cases

Given the universal visibility of the Hub link in the Nav bar the Hub is an excellent place to put company-wide resources. Personally I can easily see HR/People teams leverage this to build a clearing house of information for workers - not only including pointers to HR policies, benefits, etc. but also things like

1. Calling out new hires - Use a carousel or card to link out to new folks

2. Company marketing materials - Link to the company blog, or references for workers (templates, brand materials etc)

3. Index team spaces - Provide easy access to each team’s spaces in Confluence

4. Company events - Hype up upcoming company events or provide access to the company calendar

Basically any company-wide information should be posted or linked from here. I wouldn’t use the Hub itself to host a lot of information, but instead leverage it for pointing folks to the appropriate spots. I also don’t think the hub should be a very long page - people should be able to use it to quickly find what they need and get to it - not scroll endlessly.

Potential Challenges / Limitations

Maintenance

Ensuring the Hub is regularly updated and maintained is another easy challenge I see cropping up (this is by no means unique to the hub!). If workers are told it’s the clearing house for information and find it to be out of date, incorrect or missing things, they’ll stop using it. That type of trust is very hard to rebuild, so groups using this feature should ensure they have someone regularly maintaining it.

Visible to Free / Standard

Less of a challenge and more of an annoyance is that the Hub is visible even for Free and Standard subscriptions… despite being unable to use it! There’s no way for admins to turn the link off, so those groups are essentially left with a sales-banner staring at them all day. (I certainly understand the need to upsell/etc. But having a way to disable the link would be nice).

It’s Beta

The hub is currently a beta release, meaning it can (and will!) change rapidly.There’s also a (very small) chance Atlassian decides that the hub shouldn’t be launched, meaning it would disappear.

Final thoughts

Overall I”m excited to see how more groups leverage the Hub. I think it’s a great feature that can help shorten the distance folks have to travel to find useful information. Certainly something worth checking out if you’re on Premium or Enterprise!

Mission Control for Confluence Spaces

One of the things that makes missions to space so successful is mission control - a room full of really smart people who help the astronauts solve complex challenges in real-time. While Confluence isn’t as complex as sending people into space, it still has levels of complexity that require us to manage it (and sometimes get our own room of smart people to help solve challenges).

Recently Atlassian released a feature called Mission Control that helps do exactly that. It lives in space settings and is full of resources to help admins manage their space.

Read on to learn more - and check out this youtube video detailing the feature.

Start at the top

At the top you’re presented with three metrics - the total amount of content in the space, the number of content views, and the amount of content created, plus a change over the last week for all of those. I find these three numbers are useful to determine how well the space is being utilized. For example, if the amount of content in the space spikes, it suggests something is going on in the related area. If the number of views falls off a cliff, I would want to dig into what happened.

Access questions

Next we get a view of access to the space in the form of external access and admins. I really appreciate having external access immediately available as I am (more than) a bit paranoid about external access. Seeing who the space admins are is also useful in the event I need some backup, or need to audit.

Metrics, Metrics and more Metrics

While the top focuses on high-level information about the general setup of the space, the middle gets into the numbers. For me this section helps me identify how the space is doing, and helps highlight areas I should look into. All this information can be displayed daily/weekly/monthly over the last 7/30/60 days via a selection at the top.

Metrics include:

1. Content views - The total number of views in the time frame, split by content type (pages, blogs, whiteboards).

2. Move viewed pages - The top 3 pages by visits. This is a great way to find your most popular content. Also includes a link to view ALL you content by number of views.

3. Content created - The total number of content created in the time frame. I find this more useful in spaces where I’m not the sole creator, or spaces with a broad audience. I use it to gauge how interested folks are in contributing to the space. A spike could suggest a new initiative or project, and a dip could suggest a project is winding down.

4. Content updated - I really like this metric as it helps me figure out how “fresh” the space is. Over time we can expect some pages not to be updated, but if we see a constant amount of updates being made it suggests that the space is live and being actively used.

5. Total content - The total amount of content to the space by type. Useful for seeing how a page is growing, and what types of content your team uses.

Managing content

Below metrics we get two more valuable pieces of information. Prior to Mission Control this information was available, but could be hard to get to. Having it all in one spot makes it MUCH easier to dig into and manage.

1. Inactive pages - Any page that hasn’t been updated or visited in 6 or more months. This is an incredibly useful thing to track as you should be either updating or archiving that type of content (e.g. stuff that’s not being used). Getting a list that’s easily accessible makes this process a LOT easier..

2. Pages without active owners - As folks leave your organization (or lose Confluence access) any page they’re an owner on will no longer have an active owner. This is an issue as the owner is the point of contact for the page and should be actively maintaining it. Getting a list of pages with inactive owners makes it much easier to go find new ones and ensure your content is maintained.

Security

The final section of mission  control displays the total number of active public links, and the number of views those links are attracting. I find this to be very useful information - but only if you have public links turned on.Personally I’m a bit paranoid about publicly facing information, so having these metrics easily accessible helps put my mind a bit more at ease.

1. Active public links - The total number of active public links in the space (including a link to see them). Spikes in this metric could suggest someone is sharing information they shouldn’t, or that a new initiative is going live that requires public links. Either one should be investigated to valid it’s an appropriate use of the feature.

2. Public link views - The number of views made against public links. Similar to the active links, a spike could just mean something went live (e.g. a new feature or guide), or could suggest your links are being abused in some way. Definitely worth checking out if you see spikes in the metric.

Final thoughts

Mission control is a great step in the right direction for helping manage spaces, particularly ones that are accessed by larger groups (e.g. employee hubs) or are for sensitive things (e.g. special projects). Having access to all this information in one space is a very useful tool and one I hope to see more of in the future.

Using Confluence databases for a FAQ

I frequently find myself using Confluence to track Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). I’ve done this for HR/People teams, Customer Support, Engineering, and many others, and it’s a great use of the platform.

Historically I’ve accomplished this one of two ways:

1. Parent with Children - Have a parent page called “HR FAQ” and then have a single child for each question and answer. (Check out that approach here)

2. Headers and sub headers - Have a single page with all the FAQ and use headers (and the Table of Contents macro) to break out questions.

Since the launch of databases, however, I’ve found myself wondering (and have been asked about) how databases could support an FAQ.

What are databases?

Databases are a relatively new feature to Confluence that allow you to build a structured data set into Confluence. On the surface they can look a bit like a table but they go far beyond the humble table and start to overlap (a bit) with the concept of a Jira ticket.

Each column of the table is a piece of data about something. In our FAQ this would be information about the question - its name, an answer (or link to one), the owner, category and more.

Each row is an entry - in our case, a question.

Databases also include some additional features that make them very useful:

Saving filtered views

These are a saved list of all rows that meet some criteria. For our FAQ this could be all IT related questions, or anything unanswered.

Different visualizations

Databases display info in a tabular view by default, but there are other options include cards and a board view. For me the table view works best for a FAQ, but teams may prefer the others as well.

Search

Databases have their own search bar. This allows users to easily search within just that database. This makes it easy for your users to find answers in your FAQ.

Catch up on other basic features in this video:

How do they help build an FAQ?

Databases live in the content tree, making them very simple to insert where people will look for information. They also allow multiple entries, keeping their presence in the content tree limited (if you go with the “one page per question” route you end up with a lot of pages, which can easily turn some teams or groups off from considering it as an option).

Since databases allow for multiple columns you can also include a lot of information about questions. Things like who asked it, what type of question it is, what version it controls, etc. can all be included (This could also replace using page properties if you’re using that to track this type of information). This allows you to build very robust answers, including linking out to reference content and more. You can even pull in excerpts from linked pages, potentially allowing you to include an answer directly in the database automatically.

Anyone with edit access can also add new entries to the database, making it very easy for someone to be able to add questions. Imagine if anyone at your organization could drop in and add a new question which you can easily filter for and assigning to someone to answer.

What are the downsides of using a database for a Confluence FAQ?

There are a few downsides to using a database to host questions and answers:

1. Jira Knowledge Base - JSM appears to only see Pages as answers to questions. This means if you’ve got a JSM instance linked to Confluence answers in your databases can’t currently be displayed… so if you want to use this to support your help desk you’re a bit out of luck (although you could use this to support agents, or others who leverage Confluence, but they’d have to access it independently of JSM).

2. Control - Like other forms of content you can place restrictions on the database… However, those restrictions apply to all records. This means you can’t “lock” a single row and prevent anyone but yourself from editing it. This opens up the risk that answers will be changed or added when they shouldn’t be. You can solve this by restricting editing to only a few folks, but then you face a bottle neck around adding new questions.

3. Confluence search - Individual database entries currently are invisible to general Confluence search. This means someone searching from another piece of content may not be able to find your FAQ.

Final Thoughts

While using a database to host FAQ is a great way to store info it does present it’s limitations. This makes them less-than ideal for some applications, however, for instances where you have an internal team who knows which database to look at these are incredibly powerful. Similarly if you are able to share saved views with internal users you’ll likely get a lot of utility out of them.

More Info

See how to set them up in this hands-on video:

Improve your short updates

A large part of my life is spent creating, and sending, updates. Updates on how projects are going. Updates on a bug a customer is experiencing. Updates on how the updates are going… it goes on.

This means I spend a lot of time thinking about how those updates are read, and how they can be more effective. Take this update, for example:

"Rob is working on the Task"

This isn’t a (very) bad update. It does share some important information - namely that Rob is working on the Task. This, by itself, is important to share - after all, many times folks are mostly nervous because they don’t know if someone is working on the Task. When I see someone post an update like this I breathe a sigh of relief as it means they’re at least paying enough attention to provide the basic information about what’s going on.

What’s wrong with that?

Updates like this one, however, drive me nuts. While they do provide a bare-minimum about what’s going on, they also breed anxiety and frustration. They do this because they’re lacking a critical piece of information - when will you share more information?

They don’t answer “When will the Task get done” or “when will I get an update”. This information is arguably more important than “Rob is working on something” as it lets everyone know when they’ll get more information. Updates missing those two pieces of information are dangerous since folks will wonder “When will I get what I need?”.

What’s the fix?

Fortunately the fix is fairly easy… just add a time and date for a follow up. For example, consider:

“Rob is working on the Task - I’ll provide an update tomorrow at noon”.

That extra bit at the end immediately answers the question “When will I get more information”. Note that it doesn’t even require you to add anything about what to expect - just that you’ll post something. At the very least it will stop someone from immediately asking “when will it get done”, but it does far more - it gives the reader peace of mind. They don’t have to worry too much about what’s going on because they know they’ll get something tomorrow at noon.

Of course, this requires you to actually send an update tomorrow at noon! That update, however, doesn’t have to be “and the Task is done” - it could just be a followup letting folks know it’s still outstanding. This does run the risk of a string of “I’ll update you tomorrow” updates, but ideally each one includes a bit more information on where the task is (e.g. what’s the blocker, what other info is there).

The best part of this is that it takes basically zero effort - just add a short bit of text to your updates on when you’ll give more info and you’ll save everyone a lot of frustration!

When to use Confluence or Jira

Almost every company I’ve worked at has provided access to both Confluence and Jira. These two tools offer a ton of functionality and features that can help make our lives easier, but many times I find myself asking myself “which one should I use?”.

On the surface this should be an easy question - after all Confluence is a knowledge base and Jira is for ticketing. This distinction, however, can easily break down - Confluence supports task tracking and can be used to manage work, and Jira can easily be used to house information about things in the form of task descriptions, fields and more.

So let’s take a deeper look at these two systems, their differences, and why we may choose one of the other in some cases.

Confluence

Confluence is intended to serve as a collaborative platform for sharing, maintaining and creating information. It excels at allowing individuals to work on content together, manage and store that information and easily add more as it is created or discovered. Personally I find myself using it mainly to keep track of what I’ve been up to in the form of meeting notes, product updates and other notes.

Part of collaborating, however, includes tracking tasks or action items. For example, during a meeting I may record that Bob will update the server on Friday, or that Sally will connect with Procurement about an important contract. To support this, Confluence allows us to track tasks, which can have assignees, descriptions and due dates… which sound awfully similar to a Jira ticket.

Jira

Jira is intended to help teams manage work in the form of tickets. Tickets can have different types, for example bug, task, story, etc. Each type of ticket can also follow its own workflow, so tasks can have a different set of steps necessary for completion than bugs. Additionally tickets can have any number of data fields attached to them allowing teams to collect and track many kinds of metrics relative to their work.

Part of managing work, however, includes collecting information about what you’re doing. For example an HR team may build out policies using Jira tickets and include information about them in the description field. An engineering team may collect API documentation on a ticket as well… both of which sound awfully similar to a Confluence page.

How to choose

Given the number of similarities the systems share (tracking an item of work, collecting information, etc) it can sometimes be hard to know which one to use. For example, I could keep Jira open during meetings and add new tickets as action items are identified. I could also open up Confluence any time I learn something new about a task and add it to a page.

My general rule is to use whichever one requires the least amount of work. Typically this results in me using Confluence as it makes managing information easier, and also supports tasks. Only when I get to a point where Confluence tasks don’t support what I need (e.g. adding more information to a task, requiring a workflow or approval, etc) will I switch to Jira.

Fortunately both systems are tightly integrated, allowing Jira tickets to be posted directly on Confluence pages and Confluence pages to be easily linked to Jira tickets. This makes it very easy to span both systems when I need to.

Seeing your own improvement

"If you don't look at code you wrote a year ago and think is garbage you aren't getting better"

I heard that from a software engineer and have spent a lot of time thinking about it. At it's core it's reminding us that our skills grow over time, and having something we've done in the past serves as a great baseline to compare our growth to.

I recently reviewed my Knowledge Base Fundamentals course over at Udemy and immediately thought of that quote. To be honest it's incredibly humbling (and a bit painful) to look at older work and compare it to what I'm capable of doing now, if only because I see all the areas I'm now able to do better.

This particular course was created over 2 years ago. I had a fairly good grasp on concepts like editing, lighting, scripting and more... but now that level feels so... basic (and I'd bet I'll say something similar in a year about where I'm at now!).

After taking a look at the course I determined that I could make it a much better experience for students in a number of ways. I realized that my own skills had grown substantially and would allow me to produce a much better course. This was an incredible experience in realizing I've changed in many ways:

Ways I improved #1 - Scripting

Originally the course was entirely "talking head" and scripted entirely in advance. This required a lot of time and energy to create and edit the script, but it did result in me knowing exactly what I'd be saying. Unfortunately this approach also resulted in me getting a bit “stuck” at times as I felt trapped by the script. This led to several, frustrating, instances of having to delete a lot of work and restart as I couldn’t figure out how to work in the newer ideas I had.

My general approach has since changed to instead using slides with bullet points. These guide my discussion, allowing me to explore more areas or go "off script". It also frees me from writers block / having to rewrite a script. I also find forcing myself to distill something into 3-4 bullet points a good exercise in determining what is really important. This helps focus my ideas and helps improve the final product.

Way I improved #2 - Filming

Shooting the scripted content was a pain. Not only was lighting a mess (see the fun shadows in the image below), but I had to juggle a camera and a teleprompter. Making a mistake required me to reset almost everything and rewind so I could re-record that section. The audio setup (a shotgun mic on the camera) also required a lot of work in post to cleanup as it captured a lot of background. It didn’t sound bad… but it didn’t sound good either.

Now I film at my desk with a boom mic (much less background) and a dedicated lighting rig that handles most of the lighting issues. The change in lighting alone makes me much happier - no more random shadows on me, and since I switched to smart bulbs I have much better control over the color temperature (which makes editing a bit easier.

Way I improved #3 - Editing

Editing a talking head can be a pain. Any cut is almost immediately obvious, and I didn't know how to cover those up the first time I shot the course. (Now I know to either zoom in or out slightly, or use b-roll to cover it up...). I also made editing harder on myself when I was shooting by not giving enough time/space between words or sections. This resulted in some very tight cuts that sometimes distorted the message.

Now when I record I know to back up and restart an entire slide, or leave space between them. This makes it a lot easier to edit together and hide any mistakes. I also switched to using Davinci - a free editing tool (that is insanely complex and I only barely scratch the surface of). Davinci gives me a lot more flexibility in what I want to include (no more limits to the number of video tracks!), and has allowed me to create better content in post.

Way I improved #4 On-screen content

When I first filmed the course I was using iMovie (which is great... to a point!). I found it incredibly challenging to add on-screen content, and quickly ran into limitations. I frequently went into Canva to make a single on-screen element, download it, then upload into iMovie. This took a LOT of time (and frustration!). This resulted in a final product that lacked on-screen information. iMovie is also limited in what it can display in terms of text and other images. This made it hard to create something that fit my needs.

Now I just build out a slide deck for a lecture which has all the onscreen content I need and record from that. This greatly reduces the amount of post production work... and saves me a lot of frustration. I can create exactly the image I want, and when I record I don’t have to worry about what I’ll need to add in post.

ACA-920 Confluence Essentials Certification

I recently took (and passed) the newest Atlassian Confluence certification, ACA-920 Confluence Essentials. I’ve been using Confluence for almost a decade, but have never made time to take any formal training or certification on it, so when I heard a new one was available I decided to give it a shot.

Who it’s for

Unlike many certifications that are geared towards admins or super-users, this certification is geared towards anyone who uses Confluence. It covers topics around creating and editing content, navigating the system and general knowledge of how Confluence works (and what it’s for).

The certification is valid for 2 years, which seems fair given Confluence is constantly changing. You can also renew it by earning 50 continuing education credits.

How to prepare

Since Team ‘24 (Atlassian’s yearly conference) all training has been free (which I think is great!). They have an entire learning path that will prepare you for the ACA-920. Even if you’re not looking to sit the exam, this is a great resource to get a handle on everything you need to know about Confluence. The learning path is intended for someone who has zero background in Confluence, making it a great place for someone to begin their learning journey.

Other than the learning path the best way to prepare is to just use Confluence. If your organization has one jump in and start using it. If you don’t have access to one you can get a free one (instructions here). If you go the free route, however, you won’t have access to some of the features that will appear on the exam (notably no Atlassian Intelligence, and no Page Restrictions - both important topics!).

About 70% of the exam is focused around creating and maintaining pages, so be sure you spend time practicing creating content and working with others on maintaining it.

There is also an Atlassian-hosted session on the ACA-920 on July 17th where someone from Atlassian will go over the certification.

What’s on it?

The exam has 25 questions and you get 60 minutes to answer them all (more than 2 minutes per question!). I assume the questions rotate, but they are broken down into the following areas (full details here):

1. Intro to Confluence terms and navigation ~ 12%

2. Creating pages and basic editing ~ 35%

3. Advanced editing ~ 15%

4. Working with pages ~ 35%

5. Advanced features ~ 8%

Since 70% of the exam is taken up by creating, editing and working with pages make sure you spend a lot of time doing those tasks. Many of the questions related to it were easy to answer since it’s something I’ve been doing on an (almost) daily basis for years. Understanding the layout of toolbars and menu bars is another important area to learn (Honestly this was a bit more challenging for me since I tend to ignore a lot of the options).

The questions are all multiple choice, and fortunately many of the options could easily be ruled out as being the correct answer, so if you don’t immediately know the answer take time to exclude ones you know are wrong.

Tips on getting it done

If you’ve ever taken a certification before the same tips apply here:

1. Take time to read and understand the question - I sometimes miss questions because I don’t read the whole thing or really understand it… don’t be like me! You’ve got 60 minutes (over 2 minutes per question), so take time to make sure you understand it.. And if you don’t see tip #2

2. Don’t be afraid to flag a question and come back later - Reading it, then coming back later to read it again can help jog your memory. I do this A LOT when I’m not 100% certain of an answer.

3. Eliminate incorrect answers - If you can’t find the correct answer, begin to eliminate incorrect ones. At the very least this improves your odds if you have to guess, but many times most of the answers will be obviously wrong.

My thoughts

Atlassian claims that this certification is for anyone who uses Confluence, and they’re not wrong. It does require folks to understand the basics of using Confluence, which does impact anyone in an organization. Selfishly I’d love for more folks to understand these background concepts and ideas as it would make for a better system overall (and less headaches for me!). That said, I can’t really tell why someone would want to pursue it other than just wanting to earn it (like me). 

Other Atlassian certifications, like their Professional series, are clearly targeted toward admins, a group that does need to prove their skills. This certification, however, isn’t one I can easily see an employer needing someone to have as a job requisite. We do see Confluence listed on job reqs, but using it is never a core part of a job.

So if you’re looking to add something else to your resume and are excited about it - go for it. Otherwise, you will get almost as much out of the free training and invest the $100 elsewhere.

Confluence Content Manager

The Challenge

A big part of managing a confluence space (or any type of knowledge base) is keeping an eye on how fresh information is. Over time content builds up - which is great since you may need it in the future… unfortunately it’s also a challenge as much of that content may not be immediately useful as time goes on. Old versions of policies, information related to completed projects and even old product updates all fall into this category. They’re all very useful when they’re first created and shared, and then lose their usefulness as time goes on. 

It can be challenging to figure out what content falls into that category. The best way I’ve discovered is to open up the page analytics for any given page and see when it was last viewed. This, however, doesn’t work on a bigger scale as you have to repeat it for every page you want to examine. Another method I’d used is to just look at my content every 6 months and archive anything older than a year old and then hope no one needed it. This is dangerous as I’m likely to archive something that folks actually use or need (not the end of the world, but annoying to fix and disruptive to work).

The Solution

A recent feature update called Content Manager (for premium and enterprise customers), however, is making managing content a lot easier. It provides a single place to go to to see everything in the space, including when it was last viewed and how many times it’s been accessed in the past year. This alone makes it valuable as you can see everything in a space all at once (instead of going through page by page). Even better, you can perform bulk archiving or deleting on as many pages as you like, giving you the ability to update entire sections of your space at the same time.

I’ve been having a lot of success using this on a regular basis (currently monthly) to see what content is actually being used, and then taking action to update, or archive, older things. This process used to take a very long time since I had to look at individual pages, so having something like the content manager is a huge time saver.

Where to find it

The content manager is available to premium and enterprise customers and shows up both under space settings and in the sidebar. 

What can you do with it

The content manager shows you your space’s structure, including all parent/child relationships. Any content, including whiteboards and databases appear in it, giving you a complete picture of what’s in the space. 

You can select multiple pieces of content by checking the box next to them, or use the more actions menu to action on a specific piece of content.  Selecting a parent will select all of it’s children making it very easy to act on entire branches at a time.

Most importantly it shows you when it was last updated, last viewed and total views over a year. This makes it incredibly easy to identify content that is stale, and either a good candidate for being updated.

There are also two filters currently available to speed you up even more:

1. Inactive pages - any page that hasn’t been visited, commented on or updated (you can select the time period). This makes it incredibly easy to find stale content and take action.

2. Pages without active owners - Any page where the page owner’s account is inactive (e.g. left the organization). Since the page owner is typically who folks go to asking for updates or with questions, being able to easily get a list of all the pages missing active owners is a great tool.

Confluence Headers

Creating good content for a knowledge base or similar system is challenging. You have to determine what your audience needs, find experts who know those topics and ensure content is regularly maintained. There is, however, a very simple thing that can be done to improve almost every page in Confluence (and in many other similar systems) - use headers.

Headers are essentially just bigger text on a page, but despite their seemingly simple design they serve a number of important functions in Confluence.

Visually breaking up space

Before you keep reading, scroll to the bottom of this post, I’ve copied all the content, but left out the headers…. It’s a bit hard to read, no?

The first, and arguable most important feature, or a header is to visually break up space on a page. I’ve lost track of the number of times I find really good content, but find it hard to read because it’s all just one gigantic wall of text. Paragraphs can (and do!) help with this, however, when all the text is the same size it makes it very hard to browse and find information.

To get around missing headers I frequently find myself using a find command (CMD+F) to locate specific words or phrases. This can help, however, sometimes I have to guess at the keyword or topic I”m looking for - and it’s not always there.

This is where headers are useful. They give the writer a way to clearly signal where specific content lives on a page, or, if they use multiple sizes of headers, how various pieces of content could relate to others. They’re a bit similar to Confluence’s page tree - they let creators structure pieces of your content, both for themselves as a creator, but also for folks consuming that content.

As the example below shows, without headers pages quickly turn into word soup.

Anchors (links)

Another important feature of headers - and one that more people need to know about - is their ability to act as “Anchors”. Anchors are just another way of saying “hyperlinkable text”, and while you can add an anchor anywhere on a page you like (and link to it), headers are, by default, anchors themselves.

This means every header on your page has its own unique hyperlink. While it’s not immediately obvious, this means that you can link anyone directly to a specific header on a page. This greatly reduces the need for someone to scroll or CMD+F for content since you can send them directly to what they need instead of the top of the page.

Personally I find myself using this feature quite a bit - especially if I’m using Confluence to host a FAQ (I tend to make each question its own size 5 header, this makes it look like regular text, but function as an anchor). It’s also a great trick for bigger pages, or for ones with lots of headers.

Macros (Specifically Table of Contents)

The third major reason I like headers is because they interact with various macros - specifically “Table of Contents”. This macros automagically created a hyperlinked, nested, table of contents wherever you want. The macro uses the header size to build a nested list of headers, and does it in real-time as you’re editing so you can easily see what it looks like.

It also has some options that allow you to specify which levels of header should be used - for example you could exclude header level 1 if you wanted, which would allow you to use that for things like “background” or “table of contents”, while leaving the table of contents a bit more organized.

While you can get the same effect by manually typing out a table of contents and linking things, this is incredibly time-consuming and requires you to go and change it as the page is updated. I’ve been including this in all of my templates (and most of my pages!) as it helps with navigation (even with shorter pages). Setting the expectation that it will be at the top also helps my team more easily use content as they’ll know there’s always links to follow.

The Wrap Up

Headers are a great, simple, way to greatly improve the look, usefulness and ability of your pages. At the very least they’ll help you break up your content so it’s easier for readers to digest it, but they also offer some great additional features.  Even better, they’re incredibly simple and easy to add!

Same text - without headers

Creating good content for a knowledge base or similar system is challenging. You have to determine what your audience needs, find experts who know those topics and ensure content is regularly maintained. There is, however, a very simple thing that can be done to improve almost every page in Confluence (and in many other similar systems) - use headers.

Headers are essentially just bigger text on a page, but despite their seemingly simple design they serve a number of important functions in Confluence.

Before you keep reading, scroll to the bottom of this post, I’ve copied all the content, but left out the headers…. It’s a bit hard to read, no?

The first, and arguable most important feature, or a header is to visually break up space on a page. I’ve lost track of the number of times I find really good content, but find it hard to read because it’s all just one gigantic wall of text. Paragraphs can (and do!) help with this, however, when all the text is the same size it makes it very hard to browse and find information.

To get around missing headers I frequently find myself using a find command (CMD+F) to locate specific words or phrases. This can help, however, sometimes I have to guess at the keyword or topic I”m looking for - and it’s not always there.

This is where headers are useful. They give the writer a way to clearly signal where specific content lives on a page, or, if they use multiple sizes of headers, how various pieces of content could relate to others. They’re a bit similar to Confluence’s page tree - they let creators structure pieces of your content, both for themselves as a creator, but also for folks consuming that content.

As the example below shows, without headers pages quickly turn into word soup.

Another important feature of headers - and one that more people need to know about - is their ability to act as “Anchors”. Anchors are just another way of saying “hyperlinkable text”, and while you can add an anchor anywhere on a page you like (and link to it), headers are, by default, anchors themselves.

This means every header on your page has its own unique hyperlink. While it’s not immediately obvious, this means that you can link anyone directly to a specific header on a page. This greatly reduces the need for someone to scroll or CMD+F for content since you can send them directly to what they need instead of the top of the page.

Personally I find myself using this feature quite a bit - especially if I’m using Confluence to host a FAQ (I tend to make each question its own size 5 header, this makes it look like regular text, but function as an anchor). It’s also a great trick for bigger pages, or for ones with lots of headers.

The third major reason I like headers is because they interact with various macros - specifically “Table of Contents”. This macros automagically created a hyperlinked, nested, table of contents wherever you want. The macro uses the header size to build a nested list of headers, and does it in real-time as you’re editing so you can easily see what it looks like.

It also has some options that allow you to specify which levels of header should be used - for example you could exclude header level 1 if you wanted, which would allow you to use that for things like “background” or “table of contents”, while leaving the table of contents a bit more organized.

While you can get the same effect by manually typing out a table of contents and linking things, this is incredibly time-consuming and requires you to go and change it as the page is updated. I’ve been including this in all of my templates (and most of my pages!) as it helps with navigation (even with shorter pages). Setting the expectation that it will be at the top also helps my team more easily use content as they’ll know there’s always links to follow.

Headers are a great, simple, way to greatly improve the look, usefulness and ability of your pages. At the very least they’ll help you break up your content so it’s easier for readers to digest it, but they also offer some great additional features.  Even better, they’re incredibly simple and easy to add!

The burden of being a system administrator

I became a system admin early in my career during a large system install.  It was great! I got all kinds of new permissions, could do (almost) anything and it felt great.

What I didn't realize is that being a sys admin is more than getting extra permissions or access to new areas. Sure that's part of it's but being made a sys admin for any system is massive responsibility, and one that needs to be taken seriously.

This is doubly true if the system you administer handles any kind of sensitive data.. things like personally identifiable info, compensation data and the like. This information needs.to be carefully guarded and managed as it cause cause massive headaches if it gets out. 

Even if you aren't the sys admin for a sensitive system, however, you still take on a lot of responsibilities. 

Appropriate access

You will likely need to manage access to your system. This could involve adding new users changing existing access or revoking it as needed. You shouldn't also be the person who can approve access, so you'll need to follow a process and work with your approvers.

You should be very proactive with this part of being an admin. After all, you're being trusted to ensure only folks who should have access have it.  This means you should be doing things like :

• Regular audits - review who has what type of access andnget.it reapproved on a regular basis (quarertly, half-year).

• Taking prompt action - This is especially true when a request to revoke access comes in. Make sure the person requesting it is authorized (e.g. a system owner, HR rep, legal etc), and then don't wait.  'This, however, also applies to other requests. Quick action both helps ensure the system is managed properly and helps build your credibility. 

• Be proactive - Be on the lookout for things that seem out of place, updates that are needed, 

Troubleshooting

Since you have a ton of additional system access (frequently including the ability to see access log, or even log in as someone else) you will find yourself frequently having to troubleshoot issues. You also likely have a much deeper set of exoerienxes with ehateber system you're the admin for - both as a result of being and admin, but also because you interact with a wide range of system users.

This puts you in a strong position to help others learn to use the system or overcome challenges they find in it. These could be small questions, to massive disruptions. Regardless of the size, however, it is your job is to help solve it.

This could mean building documentation that folks can refer to, running training sessions, recording demonstrations and more. While each of these on their own may be a small thing, they add up over time, and help others more effective use the system. 

Best practices

Typically being a sys admin goes beyond just pushing buttons to do things and moves into providing guidance and ideas on best practice. What is the best way to use the tool? What should it not be used for? What should we do now so we can do X in the future?

This area goes beyond technical knowledge of the system and gets into how the tool can be used. As an admin you likely are exposed to more ways a system can be utilized - this gives you a good perspective on how your team should use it. 

Advising on best practices shows up in two main places - during planning and on an ongoing basis.  Both involve you offering your expertise and knowledge, and both will require you to partner with whomever is looking to modify or use the system. 

Wrap up

Being a sys admin can be a very fulfilling job. You'll learn a ton about the tech, and about the busiess. And even better, you'll help others do better at their jobs by removing friction and helping knock down blockers.