Taxonomy Design

Build a content taxonomy that scales without becoming a junk drawer

20 minutesManual: 1-2 days

Designs a taxonomy for organizing knowledge, content, or documentation. Analyzes existing content, identifies natural clustering patterns, defines categories with clear inclusion/exclusion criteria, and produces a governance plan to prevent taxonomy drift.

Workflow Steps

1

Content Audit

/synthesize-knowledge

Catalog existing content and identify current organizational patterns

2

Cluster Analysis

/synthesize-knowledge

Identify natural groupings based on content similarity and usage

3

Category Definition

/produce-content

Define categories with names, descriptions, and inclusion/exclusion criteria

4

Governance Plan

/deep-planning

Rules for adding new categories, handling edge cases, and preventing sprawl

Example

Taxonomy for a 200-document knowledge base. Content audit reveals 8 natural clusters, 40 miscategorized documents, and 15 that belong in multiple categories. Produces a 12-category taxonomy with clear rules, a "miscellaneous" kill policy, and a quarterly audit schedule.

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Built and maintained by Victor Sowers at STEEPWORKS