Takeaways from the First Knowledge-Centered Success 2027 Practices Workshop

There’s a new version of KCS! No longer Knowledge-Centered Support or Knowledge-Centered Service, the Consortium for Service Innovation released Knowledge-Centered Success. “Success” highlights all the business functions in which KCS can deliver business value. Years, starting with 2027, take the place of version numbers.  This reflects the reality that the methodology is evolving all the time as members of the Consortium use it.

We shared this new release at the Service Innovation Summit at the end of April 2026.  It’s the result of several years of focused work by a small team of Consortium staff and members. It’s the first major release of KCS since v6, which shipped almost 10 years before.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of facilitating what I think was the first Knowledge-Centered Success Practices workshop. Since I don’t think people are talking enough about all the good things in KCS 2027, I wanted to share my experience.

Lessons from a KCS 2027 Workshop

Here’s what I learned helping a company put KCS 2027 into action.

• The language is easier to learn and to explain. As a KCS community, we like to use our own distinctive language.  Of course, it all sounds natural to those of us who have grown up with it. We know what we’re talking about! But as a trainer and consultant, I found that our language could be a barrier.  Substituting “Capture in the Moment” for “Capture in the Workflow,” “Impact Map” for “Strategic Framework,” and “Knowledge Optimization” for “Knowledge Domain Analysis” may seem small, but together all the clearer phrases made the whole workshop smoother.  Visually, the new KCS model (pictured at the top of this post) is a vast improvement from previous versions.
• The Solve Loop simply makes more sense this way.  If I had a nickel for every time I heard, “But we don’t have time to create a knowledge base article for every case!” I’d have a lot of nickels.  Honestly, we brought that on ourselves because previous versions started the Solve Loop with Capture and Structure. Instead, the current version starts with Reuse, which is what we do most of the time and where we get the most benefit.  Improve, which is an essential and sometimes elusive practice, follows immediately.
• Materials are better organized and the Practices Guide is less intimidating.  A version of the v6 Practices Guide from 2025 weighed in at a hefty 224 pages.  Although I’m unable to find a PDF version of the KCS 2027 Practices Guide, the new version streamlines it substantially. It does this by moving more extensive discussions of specific techniques to their own guides. This makes the Practices Guide much easier to skim and absorb while providing all the important details for those who need them.
• We are building on the improvements we made to KCS v6 over the last decade.  Evolving from the Article Quality Index to the Content Standard checklist, implementing improvements in the Process Alignment Review (PAR 2.0), and providing more details on coaching were big upgrades we’ve made to the methodology.  KCS 2027 keeps all these and adds more.
• Nothing you liked about KCS V6 is missing. All the important principles and core concepts are preserved!

How Did It Work?

The client hit the ground running immediately after the workshop and is quickly checking off their Plan and Design activities.  It doesn’t hurt that they have a program manager who is a force of nature (in the best possible way!) and a committed executive sponsor who spearheaded two highly successful KCS programs in the past. This client would have been successful no matter what, but I’m convinced KCS 2027 made it easier.

A Caveat on Certification

A quick note for people who are looking to become KCS Practices Certified: as of today, the Consortium for Service Innovation only provides certification for KCS v6.  If KCS Practices Certification is important to you in the near term, hold off on even looking at the KCS 2027 materials.  They, and their new language, would just set you up for trouble with the current exam.  Once you pass, then enjoy the KCS 2027 materials.  You’ll be able to take a short bridge exam to upgrade your v6 certification to 2027 when that’s available, likely early 2027.