Measuring satisfaction on your knowledge-sharing platform

A few months ago, you launched a knowledge-sharing platform in your organisation. It’s up and running — but how do you know whether it’s actually working for your people?

A well-designed satisfaction survey is one of the quickest ways to find out. It gets you real feedback from the people who matter — your users — and gives you the data you need to make targeted improvements.

This guide walks you through how to design one, from setting your objectives to choosing the right questions. We’ve drawn on feedback from Elium customers to build a question framework you can adapt to your own organisation.

Start with clear objectives

Before you write a single question, decide what you want to learn. A focused survey is always better than a long one — we recommend a maximum of two objectives. Here are some good starting points:

• Identify what’s driving satisfaction or dissatisfaction among your users.
• Check whether the platform meets your users’ expectations.
• Anticipate how your users’ needs are likely to evolve.
• Make better decisions based on real feedback.
• Increase active usage by fixing what’s frustrating people.

Once you’ve chosen your two objectives, every question in the survey should map back to at least one of them. If a question doesn’t connect, cut it.

How to get a good response rate

A satisfaction survey is only useful if enough people actually fill it out. Before you send it, run through these checks:

• Who’s the survey for? Make sure your recipients are the right audience.
• When are you sending it? Avoid end-of-day Fridays or particularly busy periods.
• Do your users understand why it matters? People respond better when they can see the point.
• Is it short enough? Aim for three to four minutes to complete.
• Does it work on mobile? A surprising number of people will abandon a survey that’s awkward on their phone.
• Does the invitation email motivate people to respond? Be clear about what you’ll do with the feedback.
• Have you thought about an incentive? Even a small prize draw can make a real difference to response rates.

The question framework

Now for the questions themselves. We’ve organised them into three groups, each building on the last. You don’t need to use every question — just the ones that connect to your objectives and that you can act on.

1. Understand your users

These questions help you segment respondents by role, experience, and usage. That matters — a user in customer success often has very different needs from someone in IT or HR. The answers here will also help you interpret everything that follows.

• Which department are you in?
• How often do you use the platform? (At least once a day / Several times a week / Once a week / Once a month / Less than once a month)
• How do you typically access the platform? (Bookmarks / Typing in the URL / Desktop shortcut / Company intranet / Browser home page / Email link)
• Have you received training on the platform? (Yes / No)
• What do you mainly use the platform for? (Select all that apply: Share articles or resources / Read company news / Search for a specific document or process / Collaborate on a project / Find a colleague’s contact details / Exchange private messages / Share reference documents / Communicate with my team / Informal chat with colleagues)
• How often do you share content on the platform? (Regularly / Occasionally / Never)

Why this matters: Users who haven’t had training often share very little. That doesn’t mean everyone needs a full training session — but a simple onboarding guide or checklist can make a real difference.

2. Rate overall satisfaction

Two questions here. On their own, they won’t tell you exactly what to fix — but the scores give you a clear baseline and a way to track improvement over time.

• On a scale of one to 10, how satisfied are you with the platform overall?
• How satisfied are you with each of the following? (Rate each one from one to five)
  • Training and support available to you
  • Relevance of the content and documents on the platform
  • How information is organised
  • Ease of sharing new content
  • The search experience
  • How easy it is to access the platform
  • Navigation

3. Dig into specific areas

This is where you get the detail — the answers that tell you what to do next. We’ve grouped them into five categories.

Understanding the platform’s role

• Do you see how this platform fits into your day-to-day work? (Yes / No)
• Do you understand what’s expected of you on the platform? (Yes / No)

Content and value

• What kind of content do you most want to find here?
• Are there specific documents or resources you’d like to see on the platform?

Structure and usability

• Can you usually find what you’re looking for without too much searching? (Yes / No)
• Is the platform’s structure clear enough to help you get around? (Yes / No)
• Does using the platform save you time in your work? (Yes / No)
• Is there something you’d like to use the platform for but currently can’t? If so, what’s getting in the way?

Support and training

• How easy is the platform to use? (Very easy / Fairly easy / Difficult / Very difficult)
• Would a user guide be helpful? If so, what would you want it to cover?

Open feedback

• What are the platform’s biggest strengths?
• What does the platform most need to improve?

Turn your results into action

A survey is only as good as what you do with the answers. Once the responses are in, look for patterns — not just one-off opinions. A single piece of negative feedback might be an outlier. The same feedback from 10 or more people is a signal worth acting on.

Cross-reference your results with how people actually use the platform. If users say they can’t find what they’re looking for, check whether the content they need is actually there and well organised. If they say the platform doesn’t save them time, look at where the friction is.

How to know if your knowledge-sharing efforts are working is a good next step for ongoing measurement. And if you want to keep your content relevant beyond survey time, knowledge curation during the age of information overload covers the fundamentals.

Beyond surveys: what your platform can tell you

A satisfaction survey tells you what people think. But your knowledge-sharing platform also generates data on what people do — and the combination is where the real insight lives.

Built-in analytics can show you things like search behaviour, content engagement, and where knowledge gaps are forming — without needing to ask a single question. That data is especially valuable now that the quality of your platform content directly affects how well your AI-powered features work. A well-maintained knowledge base doesn’t just serve your people — it makes your AI features perform better, too.

Use your survey results alongside your platform analytics, and you’ll have a much clearer picture of where things stand and what to work on next.

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