At Knowledge Graph Forum 2022, Lulit Tesfaye and Sara Nash, Senior Consultant discuss the importance of establishing valuable and actionable use cases for knowledge graph efforts. The discussion draws on lessons learned from several knowledge graph development efforts to define how to diagnose a bad use case and outlined their impact on initiatives - including strained relationships with stakeholders, time spent reworking priorities, and team turnover. They also share guidance on how to navigate these scenarios and provide a checklist to assess a strong use case.

1. Knowledge Graphs are Worthless,
Knowledge Graph Use Cases are Priceless
Knowledge Graph Forum NYC
September 29, 2022

2. Expertise in knowledge graph design,
implementation, and scale.
Enterprise Knowledge
Lulit Tesfaye
Partner and Division Director,
Data and Information
Management
Sara Nash
Senior Consultant

3. “Just convert this to RDF”
“Let’s pilot a graph database”
“Let’s start with everything in this one system”
“We don’t have to know who is going to use it yet”

4. This leads to…
“Just convert this to RDF”
“Let’s pilot a graph database”
“Let’s start with everything in this one system”
“We don’t have to know who is going to use it yet”
Strained
Relationships
with
Stakeholders
360+ Hours
Spent
Reworking
Priorities
Team Turnover
and Internal
Frustration
50+ Hours Spent
on Workarounds
for Design &
Validation

5. ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE
Why Do Graph Efforts
Fail?
Many KG implementations fail because…
The business does not understand
the value and ROI
There is no clear product vision
Use case is not clearly defined or
scoped to be achievable
Source data and systems are not
accessible
The initiative is siloed from other
enterprise initiatives

6. ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE
What Use Cases
Allow Us to Do
Use cases drive successful knowledge
graph implementation by…
Providing a value statement that is
easy to communicate
Giving guidance to development
teams on priorities
Defining guardrails to scope
successful increments of
development
Aligning different efforts on the
team to a shared goal
Laying a foundation for scale

7. An Effective Use Case
Business
Content/
Data
Technical
Use
Case
Scope
Roles
● Persona development
● User stories
Rules
● Triggers
● Interactions
● Sample inputs
Resources
● Content
● Data
● Technical use case
Requirements
● Functionality
● Outputs
● Questions/Sample
queries
Purpose
● Metrics/KPI
● Business value
End User
Lead working in
risk management,
Action
identify the risks
derived from an
acquisition,
Outcome
I can generate the
W report required
by X regulator

8. Diagnosing a Bad Use
Case

9. Diagnosing a Bad Use Case
No
End User
Not
Actionable
It’s an
Initiative
Inability to
Scale

10. Diagnosing a Bad Use Case: No End User
Impact
● Too general
● Fail to account for different
experiences of novice vs. expert users
or those with otherwise different
backgrounds or skill sets
● Lack of relevant application
How to Navigate
● Work with stakeholders to
understand end users
● Prioritize 1-2 user groups per use case
● Engage with representatives from
user group to validate design and
development efforts
“I want to integrate data from 4 legacy systems to support advanced
analytics, automated reporting and data lineage”

11. Impact
● Misalignment from stakeholders on
the goals and capabilities of the
graph
● At release, may not meet the needs
of downstream systems
● Ontology design lacks direction
How to Navigate
● Define triggers and expected outputs
from the graph
● Use pseudo queries and questions to
establish requirements
● Develop the graph with downstream
application integration in mind
“I want to integrate all domain data to serve as the hub for all
research”
Diagnosing a Bad Use Case: Not Actionable

12. Impact
● Too broad
● Not achievable in a short timeframe,
risking showing no value for
engagement
● Leads to confusion on internal teams
on priorities
How to Navigate
● Break the initiative down into
achievable use cases, using personas
and actions as drivers
● Develop a roadmap that
communicates to stakeholders how
increments feed into initiative
● Prioritize showing value quickly
“I want to model all components of content management at the firm”
Diagnosing a Bad Use Case: It’s an Initiative

13. Impact
● Have no long-term value
● Quickly become obsolete
● Lead to lost investment and
frustration
How to Navigate
● Develop a strategy and roadmap that
captures future expansion
● Consider ongoing maintenance and
governance needs
“Let’s build this on static data”
Diagnosing a Bad Use Case: Inability to Scale

14. ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE
Approach to Designing a
Strong Use Case
Identify specific end users
Address a foundational business
problem
Garner high participant interest
Communicate specific outcomes
Result in a “clickable” product
Are not overly complex to
implement
Have the required resources readily
available
Provide a repeatable approach for
subsequent implementations
As a portfolio manager, I want to
see the most recent fact sheet
for a fund, so that I can quickly
decide on an investment.

15. How Use Cases Drive Knowledge Graph Efforts
ONTOLOGY ARCHITECTURE
EXECUTIVE
ALIGNMENT
● Collaborate with
SMEs who
represent personas
to design and
validate
● Leverage pseudo
queries to define
concept and
relationship needs
● Prioritize areas of
design by critical
concepts for the
use case
● Define integration
needs with
downstream
systems
● Establish key users
and access needs
● Determine and
prioritize needs
from source
systems
● Provide value
statement for
graph efforts
● Drive achievable,
visible progress
that can be
demoed to the
business
● Translate technical
efforts into
tangible actions

16. ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE
Landscape of Applications for Knowledge Graphs
Entity Resolution
Identification of Risks &
Opportunities
Data Governance and Quality Management
360 Views
Intelligent Reporting and Insights
Chatbots
Recommendations Engine
Case/Issue Routing
Advanced Reporting &
Decision-Making
Content Personalization
Expertise Locator
Learning and Badging
Auto-Tagging
Semantic Search
Reporting and Analytics
Discovery, Standardization &
Quality Control
Content Management
Navigation
Search and Faceting
Tagging
Ontology
and
Knowledge
Graph
Basic
Taxonomy
Advanced
Taxonomy
Use Case Level Use Case Business Value
Semantic
Formalization
&
Expressivity
Maintenance
Development
Cycle
Strategy

17. ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE
Any Questions?
Thank you for listening.
We are happy to take any
questions at this time.
Lulit Tesfaye
ltesfaye@enterprise-knowledge.com
www.linkedin.com/in/lulit-tesfaye/
Sara Nash
snash@enterprise-knowledge.com
www.linkedin.com/in/sara-g-nash/