Choosing the right content for Fin
Choose the right content for Fin based on your deployment scope.
No one knows your content better than you do: what lives in your help center, what’s on your website, what’s in documents, and what your team repeats every day in conversations.
Because of that, there isn’t one “best” content source. Some will naturally fit your setup better than others. So before choosing any content to add, you need to think about this from your deployment scope perspective: the specific problem Fin is being introduced to solve for your business and customers.
We can do this by asking one question first: What should Fin handle first?
This lesson is part of the Launch Fin course.
Video transcript
One of the most common misunderstandings people make when setting up Fin is thinking content volume equals good results. And sure, Fin can instantly learn from everything you give it. That's not the issue. But we need to train with a purpose and then use content that fits that purpose. That way, when we set Fin live, we get good results from day one. If we want Fin to handle our frequently asked questions, then we need to give it content that answers those FAQs. If we wanted to handle questions for a specific audience or region, then we need to give it content written for that segment. It's important to note though that the quality of content really matters. You've probably heard this with AI. You get out what you put in. So the clearer and better structured our content is, the more accurate answers will be. The great news is Fin can learn from pretty much any content, whether it lives inside Intercom, like a help center or snippets, or outside Intercom, like another help center we manage, external apps, documents, or even our websites. Say our goal is to have deflect a high volume of frequently asked questions. In practice, we use a combination of these sources. Training Fin on our help center content will get us most of the way there. Our website or specific URLs might answer things like pricing or policies. And for one off updates or announcements, we might use documents or snippets to get us all the way through. Now all of these sources can live in different places, but they're all working toward the same goal: helping Fin answer frequently asked questions well. So get clear on what you want Fin to handle first, give it high quality content, and you'll get better answers from day one.
Choosing content based on your deployment scope
Before you start uploading content, decide what Fin is being introduced to solve and keep it specific. For example, Fin’s first job might be to answer questions:
- About refunds and returns
- From trial customers
- From EU-based customers
- About your top 10 FAQs
Once you’ve defined that first job, you can look at any piece of content and ask: “Does this directly support our goal?” If it does, you can add it now. If it doesn’t, it can wait.
You can always expand Fin’s scope later, but starting narrow makes it easier to measure what’s working and improve it intentionally.
Types of content sources you can train Fin with
Once you decide what Fin is responsible for answering first, you can decide where that knowledge should come from.
Most teams start with public help center articles and expand from there. Other sources are useful depending on where your knowledge already lives.
| Content type | When to use it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Public help center articles | Your primary knowledge source. Use these for FAQs, processes, and repeatable questions Fin should handle at scale. | “How to request a refund” “How to change your subscription plan” |
| Internal articles | When the information exists but isn’t public-facing, and you still want Fin to use it in answers. | Internal troubleshooting steps for a known issue |
| Website pages / public URLs | When key information lives on your website rather than in your help center. | Pricing page / Shipping policy page |
| Synced external knowledge (Zendesk, Notion, Confluence, etc.) | If your documentation is managed outside Intercom and you don’t want to migrate it. | Product documentation hosted in Zendesk or Notion |
| Snippets | For short, controlled pieces of information that don’t need a full article. | A short explanation of holiday support hours |
| Uploaded documents (PDF, DOCX) | For structured content that doesn’t live online but still needs to be referenced. | Release notes PDF / Temporary product announcement document |
Apply this to your content
If you’d like a structured way to think this through, you can use the Fin content planning sheet. It’s not mandatory, but it’s useful if you’re working with teammates or want a more structured approach.
Here’s how to use it:
- Start with Fin’s first job in the first cell. Write one clear sentence defining what Fin should handle first and keep it specific. Then add the audience you’re rolling this out to, and who you’re not targeting, to keep your scope clear.
- In the Deployment scope section, list the content you’re considering adding and check whether each item directly supports that goal. If it does, include it. If it doesn’t, leave it out for now.
If you prefer to do this in your own doc or spreadsheet, that’s completely fine. The important part is defining the scope before you upload anything.
