Search still needs work.
Updated September 29, 2023

Search still needs work.

Mark Franklin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Guru

Our company uses Guru for standard operating procedures, defining technical terminology, and general how-tos for company processes. The whole company uses Guru, although my department makes up ~1/4 of the cards in our company Guru. My department regularly updates our standard operating procedures and adds new ones as new products/projects are added.
  • Linking to other cards.
  • Browsing cards.
  • The card manager is so helpful for keeping things up to date.
  • Regular search.
  • AI answers to questions.
  • Nothing else comes to mind
  • Collections keep information organized by department but still accessible. This prevents silos.
  • Having an assigned verifier makes it easy to keep cards up to date.
  • Being able to see the edit history of cards is great for seeing changes over time.
  • Guru has made it easier for my department to create SOPs for our processes. We've increased the number of cards we have in our collection from ~100 to >500.
  • Guru makes it easier for my department to provide definitions of technical terms to non-subject matter experts like our sales team
  • Sometimes other departments will review a card containing non-public information and get it confused with the public information. But they come to us for clarification rather than trusting the AI search results
Guru is easier to update. Employees prefer reviewing shorter, more focused Guru cards over reading an entire Google doc for the relevant information. Google Drive has far better search capabilities, but is not as fast as Guru. Our sales department especially appreciates our Guru Encyclopedia collection that provides short definitions rather than reading out an entire Google Doc or Wikipedia entry

Do you think Guru delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Guru's feature set?

No

Did Guru live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Guru go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Guru again?

Yes

I have recommended Guru to friends who work in similar or very different industries. It's a great tool for managing institutional knowledge. Especially for smaller companies just starting to grow. A friend of mine works for an arts organization, where all the senior employees keep information about processes in their heads instead of on paper. It makes it very difficult for new team members to get onboarded in a consistent way. Guru is great at DrugBank for sharing knowledge across departments. We built an encyclopedia of technical terms for our sales team to refer to during calls. This way they can get a quick definition mid-call without losing track of the conversation or reading 10 pages of Wikipedia to find a 1 sentence answer. The AI generated answers are my least favorite feature. Because it can't distinguish between external and internal data, it has provided multiple answers that would be inappropriate for teams that are customer facing to provide to our users. I have recommended that those departments avoid that feature.

Using Guru

It's incredibly easy to use, manage cards, keep them updated, and review changes to cards. The search and AI generated answers features still need work. The AI generated answers seem like an attempt at bolstering the search function, but it feels like trading one problem for another. The search function has weaknesses in how relevant the results are, while the AI generated answers have weaknesses in how true/accurate the answers are. We have certain data that is only available internally, or for specific customer segments, but the AI generated answers can't distinguish between them. That lack of context leads to answers that aren't correct or appropriate for certain users. I have recommended that the customer facing teams avoid using that feature.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • verifying cards
  • The card manager
  • assigning a verifier to cards
  • seeing the edit history of cards
  • comparing old versions of cards
  • search
  • AI generated answers