Brick by Brick - How Kate Builds Knowledge Without Constraints
"I don't have to have a workflow to receive value."
When Kate dropped this insight during our conversation, it perfectly captured what makes her relationship with reconfigured so unique. In a world obsessed with productivity systems and rigid note-taking frameworks, Kate has found freedom in flexibility.
As someone navigating the complex world of data in an organization still building its infrastructure, Kate needs a tool that can adapt to her evolving needs – not one that forces her into a predefined structure. Let's dive into how she's making reconfigured work for her, one quest at a time.
P.S. This is a blog series highlighting the amazing people who use reconfigured for their notetaking needs. We always want to promote our people when possible, so if you'd like to be featured please drop me a message.
The Challenge: Finding Order in Chaos
Kate's work environment presents a fascinating challenge. As she puts it: "We know we want to make chocolate chip cookies, but we don't know if we have flour. We don't know if we have chocolate chips. We think we have butter, but it's two different kinds..."
At the time of writing this story, she works at a B2B SaaS company called Linnworks, based out of Louisville, Kentucky.
Her organization's data landscape is fragmented across silos, with inconsistent event tracking across platforms and limited centralized infrastructure. There's no data warehouse or data lake providing a combined view. Instead, Kate often finds herself extracting data from multiple systems and harmonizing it manually in Excel.
In this environment, traditional documentation approaches fall short. The analysis process isn't linear or consistent enough to fit neatly into structured templates. The work is exploratory, evolving, and often unpredictable.
Finding the Right Balance
Before discovering reconfigured, Kate had tried various note-taking systems. Paper notebooks offered freedom but made information hard to retrieve later. Obsidian and Notion provided structure but felt too rigid.
"What I don't like about things like Notion... you're forced into a very specific workflow," Kate explains. "Those tools feel like you have to have the workflow first to receive value."
This is where reconfigured's approach clicked for her – it offers just enough structure to keep information organized, without forcing a specific system on the user.
Kate's reconfigured Workflow
1. Meeting Notes in Real-Time
One of Kate's primary uses for reconfigured is capturing meeting notes directly in the app during calls. For example, she showed me a quest containing notes from a meeting where she needed to gather information for a PM who couldn't attend.
"This particular quest was a meeting that I got added into at the last minute for a user who's using something we just launched. I needed to pass this information to the PM who wasn't available because he's in the UK and the call was super late at night," Kate explains.
Rather than taking notes elsewhere and transferring them later, she simply opens the app during the meeting and types directly into her quest. This immediacy eliminates the friction of context switching between note-taking and documentation.
2. Capturing Data Challenges and Solutions
Kate has also found reconfigured valuable for documenting data challenges she encounters and how she resolves them. In one example she showed me, she used a trail to document a complex issue with duplicate identifiers in their payment processing system:
"The source data that I was working from had duplicate identifiers for each time the contract had canceled or when the payment fails or the card expires. It marks the tenant as canceled in their payment processing system, even though they're not actually canceled and the database is still allowing them to do their work."
She then documented how this discrepancy between systems created data integrity issues and how she resolved them. This creates a valuable record both for her future self and for colleagues who might encounter similar challenges.
3. Evolving Project Documentation
One of Kate's most active quests relates to a long-term data project she calls "TAG 2025." This quest has evolved considerably over time, reflecting her shifting approach to the problem.
"This has evolved from 'I need to figure out how to do this myself' to 'we actually need to be tighter on the definition of what we need to happen and then give it to other people,'" Kate explains.
She uses this quest to track her evolving understanding of requirements, document conversations with stakeholders, and outline next steps. Rather than creating a formal project plan that would likely need constant revision, she can let the documentation grow organically alongside the project itself.
4. Task Tracking Through Chapters
While the app's "chapters" feature was designed for organizing content, Kate has naturally adapted it to serve as a lightweight task-tracking system.
"I find myself using chapters like a to-do list. I don't know if that's how they're intended, but I find myself using them like a to-do list," she shares.
This allows her to maintain a list of next steps or items to investigate, without the overhead of a dedicated task management system. She can simply check items off as she completes them, maintaining a visible record of progress within the context of the project.
5. Visual Documentation with Diagrams
Kate also mentioned incorporating visual elements: "I diagram a lot... one thing I'm doing is putting my diagrams in here as well."
By including these diagrams alongside her written notes, she creates a more complete record of her thinking. This multi-modal approach allows her to capture concepts that are difficult to express in text alone, particularly when mapping out data relationships or system architectures.
What Makes reconfigured Different
When I asked Kate what keeps her coming back to reconfigured despite trying other tools, her answer was illuminating:
"What I really love about reconfigured is that I don't have to have a workflow right now. It's still valuable without the workflow. There are other pieces that feel like you have to have the workflow first to receive value. I don't have to have flow at the moment."
This freedom from imposed structure is particularly valuable in her current context: "I'm defining workflow as I go. If I had to have the workflow first, I feel like I wouldn't get anywhere."
Kate beautifully described this approach using a masonry metaphor: "It's not built in a day, but it's not built by not laying a brick. This allows me to lay bricks as I go, which I feel like is more organic. It's like organic note-taking as opposed to a structured documentation process."
The Minimalist Approach
One fascinating aspect of Kate's usage is how she gets tremendous value from what might seem like minimal content. Looking at some of her quests, you might see just a handful of brief notes or bullet points. But to her, this is precisely the point:
"What I love about this as it is, without anything else, is there's enough... I'm able to put the minimum amount of information in to recall what it is that I need from it. And it's just organized enough that it's easy for me to view in one window."
This hints at an important truth about note-taking – sometimes the most valuable notes aren't exhaustively detailed documentation, but rather the minimum information needed to rekindle your understanding and thinking.
Looking Forward: The Future Benefit Scenario
While Kate derives immediate value from reconfigured's flexibility, she's also drawn to the potential of its AI capabilities:
"It's the security in the back of my brain that says it's in here. And if I need to use the AI, it's there... I know I'm going to need it or want it later."
This represents an interesting psychological aspect of knowledge tools – the confidence that comes from knowing your information isn't just captured, but potentially explorable and analyzable in ways beyond simple retrieval.
As Kate puts it: "I would argue that I'm receiving benefit today" while still being sold on future capabilities.
The Balance of Structure and Freedom
What makes Kate's story particularly interesting is how she's found a middle ground between complete freedom and rigid structure:
"Somehow [reconfigured] balances the dumping ground of a paper notebook" with just enough organization to make information retrievable.
She navigates her quests visually rather than through search: "I look for it visually. I don't actually query anything to find it, or I don't engage with the AI agent to find it for me. I just look for it."
This works well for her current volume of notes, and she acknowledges that as her collection grows, she may need to leverage more advanced retrieval features. But for now, the visual organization provides sufficient structure.
Laying Bricks, Not Building Cathedrals
Kate's approach to knowledge management through reconfigured teaches us something important – sometimes the best productivity system is the one that gets out of your way and lets you think.
Rather than forcing users to adapt to its vision of organization, reconfigured allows Kate to capture information in a way that makes sense for her evolving work. It doesn't demand that she design the perfect system upfront or categorize everything perfectly from the start.
Instead, it lets her lay one brick at a time, gradually building something valuable without the pressure of architectural perfection. In her words: "This allows me to lay bricks as I go, which I feel like is more organic."
So if you are someone who relates to Kate's struggles with the rigidity of traditional note-taking systems, or feeling overwhelmed by the blank canvas of unstructured tools – give reconfigured a go. 😉
Want to try reconfigured's flexible approach to note-taking? Get started for free and discover how it might adapt to your unique workflow.