Why knowledge transfer matters during exits
The strangest scenarios I have run into usually happen the day after someone leaves. There is a database login stored only in their personal notebook, or a workflow hidden in their browser bookmarks, and suddenly everyone in the office is staring at an error message on screen. When a key employee exits, knowledge does not disappear instantly, but it becomes inaccessible in the same way a locked laptop is inaccessible. This is why I started treating knowledge transfer as part of the exit process itself, not a separate thing that maybe gets done if we have time.
The practical part is simple enough in theory. You ask them to document what they do, what tools they log into, where credentials are stored, and any critical steps they repeat every week. But what really matters is breaking down the information into categories people can actually use later. For example, splitting their responsibilities into daily routines, recurring tasks, and emergency-specific knowledge (like how to restart a stalled Zap that does not trigger). That last one has saved me more than once.
Building a transfer checklist before someone leaves
I used to think meetings would cover everything. They don’t. People forget under pressure, or they summarize too loosely. A checklist with very specific prompts works better, like asking “What error messages do you see most often and how do you usually fix them” instead of just “Share your process.” Beginners never think to ask the detailed questions if you only phrase it broadly.
My current checklist breaks down like this:
| Area | Example questions |
|——|——————|
| Access and logins | Where is this password stored, who else needs this account, what happens if it is locked |
| Critical routines | Which actions must happen daily, what happens if they are delayed by one day |
| Tricky exceptions | Which tasks you would never remember until they go wrong, how to spot early warning signs |
| People connections | Who always calls you for help, what recurring requests show up more than once a month |
This format makes tricky gaps obvious. If someone says “I don’t think anything happens if I skip this,” then we can immediately test that by actually skipping it for one day before their last week. It is easier to fix workflows while the person is still available to explain than when they have already walked out the door 😛
Capturing technical processes without overcomplicating
Screen recordings can be a lifesaver, but only if you keep them short and clear. I once received a twenty minute video that showed someone clicking through three apps with no talking. Not useful at all. What works is short clips, each labeled with a step. For example, “Here is how I export the report in Tool X, watch starting at 01min mark to see where it breaks.”
Even more reliable for me than video are annotated screenshots. I throw them in a simple Word or Google Doc with arrows like “Click here first, then select Y, otherwise the wrong file type downloads.” These look ugly, but when you are panicking because something is due in ten minutes, ugly beats polished every time.
I pair the images with plain text instructions underneath. Not in a fancy blueprint tone, more like “If the dropdown is blank, refresh it once. If it is still blank, close and reopen the entire thing. Sometimes the dropdown never loads, and if so, email IT right away.” That way a total beginner can follow without calling three other people for help.
Involving teammates who will inherit tasks
It is tempting to let the departing employee do all the documenting alone. The problem is we never know if the notes actually make sense until somebody else tries them. So I started pairing them up. Whoever is getting their tasks next week has to follow their steps today, while the original person is still around to explain what is missing.
I have seen coworkers who thought they wrote the clearest step by step only to realize their successor misinterpreted half of it. Like someone wrote “Restart the app service once a week” with no context, and the new person just rebooted their laptop weekly thinking that was the instruction. Testing live is the only way to avoid those mismatches.
It can feel awkward asking someone to essentially shadow and fail in real time while the original employee is still around, but it beats panicked calls a week later. Plus sometimes this exposes tools no one realized were in use, like when we found out one person had built half their reports in a personal Airtable.
Storing and organizing collected knowledge
Collecting information is one thing, but if it sits in a random folder or inbox, it may as well not exist. I prefer a central digital notebook like Notion or Confluence, but even a shared Google Drive works fine. The key is labeling each file or note with what problem it solves instead of just naming it after the person who wrote it. “Invoice process steps” is clearer than “Mikes notes.”
I split them by task type rather than person. That way when someone leaves in the future, new tasks can slot into the same structure. Searching becomes easier too, since no one remembers a person’s name six months later, but everyone does remember “how to handle customer refund review.”
Consistency helps but do not overdo formatting. If you spend more time making each heading match fonts than recording the instructions, you will run out of time and leave gaps. It is better to have three rough looking documents that cover everything than one polished file that leaves out the hardest process entirely.
Handling sensitive or restricted knowledge securely
Some of the trickiest situations come up when you realize the departing employee has access others cannot directly inherit. For example, dealing with client confidential files or accounts with admin privileges. You cannot just dump passwords into a plain text note. The best balance I have found is using password managers like LastPass or 1Password for credential handoff, while the instructions about when and why to use each account go into the shared knowledge base separately.
If someone is leaving under less friendly circumstances, you may also want to immediately rotate credentials instead of waiting. I once saw a team that forgot to revoke access to an old Slack admin login and discovered weeks later that messages were seen by an account that should have been disabled. It is uncomfortable to think about, but better to set an automated deactivation date than hope everyone remembers manually.
Running a dry run before the last day
One of my favorite but often skipped steps is the practice run. Assign the replacement or another team member to take over a full day of the departing person’s normal workload before their exit date. Inevitably, this is when strange missing details appear. Last time we did this, the backup person could not figure out which email template to use, because the only place it was stored was in a draft folder under the original account.
Running this dry run sounds like an extra hassle, but it is literally the fastest way to surface unknown gaps. Even better, it catches assumptions. I once thought that sharing a Trello board was enough. Turned out the leaving employee used half her tasks only as memory cues and never actually checked them off, so the board looked unused to everyone else. That discovery only came up when the new person tried to follow the board exactly and got lost within an hour.
Making the process repeatable for future exits
Every organization eventually faces more exits, so I started treating the exit and transfer as its own repeatable workflow. I keep a generic template of the checklist, the categories for documentation, and the steps to test. When the next person leaves, I can clone it, assign tasks, and not rebuild it from scratch. It will not be perfect every time, but at least the base is there.
If you want tools to store checklists and workflows, products like Trello or Asana work well because you can replicate a process board instantly. If the team prefers an unstructured doc, a simple Google Doc link pinned in Slack is enough. What matters most is having a place everyone remembers to check when the word comes down that someone is leaving.
The trick is to resist overengineering it. I have been guilty of turning it into a Zapier automation, only to break it two days later because a Google Drive trigger did not fire ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. Simpler tools with human testing work more reliably than the fanciest automation in the middle of stressful handovers.
When things still fail despite preparation
Even if you do everything right, there will be a day when a process simply fails and no one knows why. The point is not perfection but reducing the number of panicked mysteries. If only one small task blows up instead of five big ones, that is still a win. I try to document those moments retroactively, adding them to the same shared space, so the next time someone leaves, fewer gaps exist.
The first time I built a knowledge transfer system, I thought once was enough. Then another exit happened, and suddenly I saw all kinds of blind spots. It feels never ending, but at least now I expect it to break and plan a little bit of wiggle room for it instead of being caught completely flat footed.
For reference, Atlassian has some solid notes about creating shared documentation systems on atlassian.com, though I still find human trial and error beats template examples every time. 🙂