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Contributing to Zendesk as a 10KC Team Member

👤 This article is intended for 10KC team members.

In this Article we will take you through everything you need to know to contribute to Zendesk as a 10KC team member.

🧁This article is a cupcake and is being actively updated and maintained by Elise.

❓Questions? Check out the FAQs or ask Elise

Resources

Zendesk Help Center

The Zendesk Help Center is 10KC's Help Center for 10KC team members, clients and end users.

The End User sections of the Zendesk Help Center is managed by Francey and the Admin sections are managed by Elise.

The Zendesk Repository

The Zendesk Repository is a source of truth in Notion that 10KC uses to manage article prioritization and updates. It's available here. This was formerly referred to as the Self Serve Backlog; these are the same Notion databases being presented in different views.

There are a few key properties within the Zendesk Repository that contributors should be aware of:

Status

  1. To do

    • Not Started: this article needs to be written

  2. In Progress

    • In Progress: this article is actively being written

    • Requires Input: this article is being written and the writer needs support from another 10KC team

    • Ready to be Published: this article is complete and is ready to be published

    • Ready to be Finalized: this article required input from another team member who has contributed and is passing

  3. Complete

    • Requires Validation: this article has been published but needs to be validated

    • Published - Requires Update: this article has been published but needs to be updated

    • Published: this article has been published

    • Archived: this article was previously published and has been archived

    • De-scoped: this article has been de-scoped and does not need to be written

    • Duplicate: this article was a duplicate

Priority

  1. High

  2. Medium

  3. Low

  4. N/A

Assigned To

This is a contact field that lists who the article is currently assigned to. Use this property to assign an article to a 10KC team member, including yourself.

Modules

Modules in the Zendesk Repository are synonymous with Sections in Zendesk. The Sections in Zendesk are being audited, but generally speaking, all topics include:

  1. Overview

  2. Participating

  3. Set up

  4. Launching

  5. Matching

  6. Managing

  7. Data

  8. FAQs

    • FAQ articles should exist for each configuration or setting within 10KC. These articles include a description of how the configuration works and how to edit it. The Edit instructions are generally created as a Synced Content Block that would then appear on other articles that are linked to the customer journey. Here's an example.

Article URL

It's important that all articles have a URL in the Zendesk Repository, so we know which article is associated.

Contributing to Zendesk

As a 10KCer, you can contribute to Zendesk in a number of ways, and instructions for each are outlined on this page:

  1. Writing an article that you need

  2. Writing an article that's been prioritized by someone else

  3. Updating an existing article that requires updates

  4. Validating an article

  5. Making minor changes to an existing article (editing an article)

  6. Provide feedback for another team member to make

✅ Writing an Article that you need

  1. Check if the article exists

  2. Navigate to the Zendesk Repository Sprint section and to the Assigned to me tab
    ​

    • Click New

    • Provide article Title, Status, Priority, Module

      • The Module should be the section that the article lives within in Zendesk

    • The article should automatically be assigned to yourself

  3. Write the article in Google Docs, Notion or directly in Zendesk (⭐️) using 10KC's Tips and Tricks

  4. Update the Status in the Zendesk Repository and add the content hyperlink in the Article URL

    • If you published the article in Zendesk, View the article to get the Zendesk Article URL

    • If you drafted the article in zendesk, add the Edit URL

    • If you drafted the article elsewhere, add the URL to the content

  5. Add Next Steps if applicable

✅ Writing an article that's been prioritized by someone else

  1. Navigate to the Zendesk Repository Sprint section and to the To be picked up tab

  2. Review articles available and select one

    • Review the Team column; this may include a 10KC team that should take the next steps

  3. Assign it to yourself and update the Status

  4. Write the article in Google Docs, Notion or directly in Zendesk (⭐️) using 10KC's Tips and Tricks

  5. Update the Zendesk Repository with the article's URL and update Status

    • If you published the article in Zendesk, View the article to get the Zendesk Article URL

    • If you drafted the article in zendesk, add the Edit URL

    • If you drafted the article elsewhere, add the URL to the content

  6. Add Next Steps if applicable

✅ Validating an Article

  1. Navigate to the Zendesk Repository Sprint section and to the To be validated tab

  2. Assign the article to yourself and update the Status

  3. Navigate to the article in Zendesk

    • The Article URL should be available on the Notion card

  4. Review the article in Zendesk

    • The top priority here is to ensure the article accurately reflects product functionality, and that you're accounting for the Next Steps which are included on the Notion card

    • Confirm the article reflects 10KC's best practices for Zendesk Articles

  5. Ensure you make at least 1 change

    • Either make a grammatical change, or remove content, Save, re-add content to ensure your efforts are included in your OKR

  6. Click the arrow beside Save > Publish

✅ Update an Article

An article that requires update generally has substantial changes that have been identified by another 10KC team member.

  1. Navigate to the Zendesk Repository Sprint section and to the To be updated tab

  2. View the Next Steps

  3. Review the Team column; this may include a 10KC team that should take the next steps

  4. Assign the article to yourself

  5. Navigate to the article in Zendesk

  6. Click Edit Article in the upper left corner

    • If you don't see the option to edit the article, check out the FAQs here.

  7. Make edits

  8. Update Status

  9. Click the arrow beside Save > Publish

✅ Edit an Article

Article edits should be completed directly in Zendesk and can be done by any 10KC team member. Article edits are generally smaller changes that you identify as you go view an article. If the article requires more substantial changes that you are not able to make, proceed to Provide Feedback on an Article.

  1. Navigate to Zendesk Help Center

  2. In the upper left corner, click Edit article

  3. Make necessary changes

  4. Click the arrow beside Save > Publish

✅ Providing Feedback on an Article

Providing feedback on an article generally means that you don't feel enabled to make the edits yourself. If the edits are minor and you are able to make them, proceed to Edit an Article.

  1. Find the article in the Zendesk Repository

    1. Navigate to the Sprints section and the All Articles tab

    2. Clear any filters if applicable

  2. Update the Status and Priority of the article

  3. Add feedback in Next Steps

⭐️ Article Writing: Tips and Tricks

  1. Use Headings to organize your content

  2. Use Heading 2 to create a heading that appears in the article's Table of Contents

  3. Use Heading 2 to create a heading that can be linked in other articles:
    ​

    1. Navigate to the published article

    2. Hover over the Heading (it must be Heading 2)

    3. Right-click the blue hyperlink icon that appears > Copy Link Address

    4. Add this as a hyperlink in another article

  4. Link a heading in an existing article by adding a hyperlink and navigating to the Headings tab

  5. Allow an article to Open in a new tab by selecting this setting when creating the hyperlink

    • ⭐️ It's best practice to open an article in a new tab if you are using the hyperlink in a content block or if the article is linking to another article

  6. Consider adding a statement to let a member know how long the steps in the article will take

    • ⏳ The steps in this article are estimated to take 5 minutes to complete

  7. Ensure the article includes an Audience statement at the top

  8. Add Synced Content Blocks for repurposable content

  9. Ensure consistent phrasing of 10KC's Best Practices and FAQ Headers and that they are Heading 2

    • FAQ Headers should be listed as ❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

    • 10KC Best Practices should be listed as ⭐️ 10KC Best Practices

  10. Add references to 10KC Best Practices throughout

    • Add the ⭐️ icon and hyperlink to the 10KC Best Practices heading

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: How do I know if a Zendesk Article already Exists

A: Follow these steps:

  1. Log into Zendesk as an Admin

  2. Search for keywords in Zendesk

    • 10KC has not finished properly labelling all articles, so sometimes articles might not appear in your search results

  3. Navigate to the section of Zendesk that makes sense for this article to live in and see if it exists

  4. Still not sure? Ask Elise

Q: What if I can't edit a Help Center article?

A: The Article settings may be restricted to certain 10KC administrators. All Zendesk articles should be Managed by: 10KC team. If you can't edit an article it's likely that the Article Setting is set to Administrators only. Reach out to Elise or another Zendesk Administrator to have this updated.

Q: What are synced content blocks and how do I use them?

A: Content Blocks are a Zendesk functionality that allow you to repurpose the same content on multiple articles.

To see the existing content blocks that exist:

  1. Sign into Zendesk

  2. Click Guide Admin in the upper right corner

  3. In the left navigation bar, click Content Blocks

    • Here you can see all content blocks that exist and how many articles it's being used in

    • Click on a content block to see which articles it's being used in

Content Blocks that should be considered for every article are ones for Permissions and Next Steps. Examples:

⏭️ Visit the Next Article below to take the next step! ⬇️

👤 This article is for Hub or Tenant Administrators.

Related Articles
How to contribute to the 10KC Help Center (as a 10KC Customer Team member)
About: the Help Center Repository
10KC Welcome Page
Configuring Your 10KC Pathway
About: 10KC Member Profiles
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