Knowledge Work

A "knowledge worker" is one who thinks for a living and includes such professions as doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, designers, and, yes, even lowly innovation consultants.

How do you know you're working on a knowledge work project? Well, they may have the following characteristics in common:

• The work is "invisible", or intangible
• There are lots of changes, including to the working environment
• Unstructured
• Lots of questions and assumptions, especially at the beginning of the project
• The project is value-driven and autonomy-driven
• Involves learning and/or teaching
• Knowledge workers are considered an asset, not a cost
• Something new is created (i.e. innovated!)

Knowledge projects are excellent candidates for an agile or adaptive approach to project management, due to their uncertainty. You can expect a high degree of change, complexity and risk with knowledge work projects. 

Consider using an agile approach on knowledge work projects, such as scrum or kanban.