Cataloging Core Information Systems
Where truth resides across your organization
Most organizations have a variety of systems—vendor products, homegrown tools, older systems of record, and specialized operational tools—that contain important information. These systems often reflect different eras, different leaders, and different assumptions about “how the work works.”
For this activity, the goal is to catalog these systems, understand the information that lives there, and describe how people interact with them. We are not trying to redesign anything or decide whether the system is “good” or “bad.” The goal is simply to surface the systems, understand their role, and capture what information is stored where.
Approach
- List the systems — All systems that hold meaningful information—vendor products (Salesforce, Jira, Asana, Workday, Tableau), internal tools, dashboards, custom apps, operational systems, etc.
- Fill in the information for each system — Use the structured table below to describe what information lives there, who uses it, and how it flows.
- Move quickly — The goal is not perfection. The goal is to surface what's actually happening.
Information System Catalog
| Field | Description | Example Responses |
|---|---|---|
| System Name | Name of the system, tool, or product. | "Salesforce", "Jira", "Amplitude", "Workday", "Homegrown OKR Tool" |
| Purpose | High-level description of what the system does and why it exists. | "Tracks customer accounts and pipeline." / "Houses product analytics data." |
| Information That Lives There | The types of information stored in the system. | "Customer account data", "Experiment metadata", "OKRs", "Release plans" |
| How the Information Is Structured | Organization of information: objects, records, schemas, workflows. | "Accounts → Opportunities → Activities", "Tickets with issue types + custom fields" |
| Who Uses It | The teams or roles that interact with the system. | "Sales reps, CS, Finance", "PMs + Engineers", "Data Science" |
| What the Information Is Used For | Decisions, reporting, compliance, rituals, planning. | "Used in QBRs", "Daily standups", "Monthly financial reporting" |
| Who Owns the System | Operational owner—who is responsible for uptime, schema, permissions. | "RevOps", "IT", "Data Platform", "Engineering Productivity" |
| Who Updates the Information | Who updates which parts of the information. | "Sales updates opportunity stages", "PM updates OKRs", "Finance updates billing" |
| Copy/Paste Behavior | Does information get copied into decks, spreadsheets, rituals? | "Pipeline pasted into QBR deck", "Metrics exported into spreadsheets weekly" |
| Native Views Used as Artifacts? | Do dashboards or reports serve as artifacts without being copied? | "The Amplitude KPI Dashboard is the artifact used in weekly metrics review." |
General Exploratory Questions
As you map out your systems, it helps to ask some very practical questions about where information actually exists today. Think of this as a lightweight scavenger hunt. For each question, simply document where you would go right now to find the answer.
Where would I go right now to:
- Reacquaint myself with the high-level corporate, product, and technology strategy?
- View details about a particular team: their mission, team members, current roadmap, the metrics they move, their sphere of ownership?
- Learn more about the background, rationale, and intended outcomes of a specific initiative?
- Understand which teams are collaborating on a specific initiative?
- See the goals of a particular team for the current quarter, and their progress?
- See KPIs for a specific group?
- Find a clear definition of “done” for a major piece of work?
- See which risks or blockers are currently affecting the business or product?
- See the current staffing or resourcing plan for teams?
- Find a map of system dependencies or service ownership?
- Find the current set of “top priorities” for executives or the company?
- See a current snapshot of active dependencies between teams?
- See the most recent customer research, surveys, usability sessions, or insights?
- See how teams are tracking progress against annual or multi-quarter goals?
Note: Many companies will answer these questions with something like, “Well… lots of places.” That's normal, and that's part of the point. The more honest and concrete the answers, the better the foundation we can build together.
You're Done When
- You've listed all systems of record, dashboards, tools, and internal platforms.
- You've captured what information lives where and who uses it.
- You've noted system owners and update responsibilities.
- You've documented copy-paste behavior and native views used as artifacts.
- You've answered the “where would I go to find X?” set of questions.