Search System for Tracking Implicit Work Relationships

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current search systems struggle to accurately reflect the work being done by individuals within a group or organization, especially when the individual is not identified as an author of content items, and fail to effectively track content items produced by group members.

Innovation Solution

The system uses a search query to identify relationships between individuals and content items, analyzing these relationships to surface relevant information about what individuals and groups are working on, even when the individual is not an author, and providing this information in a user interface visualization.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Loss of information

If traditional search systems are used to find content items, then content items authored by individuals can be found, but content items implicitly associated with individuals (where they are not authors) cannot be effectively tracked

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetracking of content items produced by group membersVSAvoidsearch system complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces an intermediary relationship layer between individuals and content items. Instead of directly linking authors to content, the system uses associations (collaborators, reviewers, supervisors) as intermediaries to connect individuals to content items they are not authors of. This resolves the contradiction by enabling comprehensive tracking through relational data without fundamentally redesigning the search architecture.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent adds a new dimension to the search query by incorporating relationship types (collaborator, reviewer, supervisor) as an additional filter dimension. This allows the search system to traverse multiple relationship paths from an individual to relevant content items, effectively tracking implicitly associated content without overwhelming complexity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Reliability

If search results are limited to content items where the individual is identified as author, then authorship information is accurate, but collaborative work and implicit associations are not captured

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaccuracy of individual-work associationVSAvoidshared knowledge and collaborative work

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges multiple search criteria into a unified query structure that combines direct authorship relationships with indirect relationship-based associations. By combining these search types in a single query execution, the system maintains accurate authorship information while simultaneously capturing collaborative work and implicit associations, resolving the contradiction between reliability and information completeness.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The search system is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: identifying authors, collaborators, reviewers, and supervisors all through the same search interface and data structure. This multi-functionality allows the system to provide accurate individual-work association while also capturing shared knowledge without requiring separate search mechanisms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Loss of information

If the search system analyzes relationships between individuals and content items, then comprehensive work tracking is achieved, but query processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of work trackingVSAvoidquery processing time

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements preliminary action by pre-establishing and storing relationship data between individuals and content items in the database structure. Relationship information (collaborators, reviewers, supervisors) is captured and stored in advance during content creation and editing processes, so that when search queries are executed, the system only needs to retrieve and process pre-organized relationship data rather than analyzing raw interaction logs in real-time, significantly reducing query processing time while maintaining comprehensive tracking.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

4Quantity of substance

If search results include content items from multiple relationship types, then comprehensive work overview is provided, but result relevance and precision decrease

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenumber of relevant content itemsVSAvoidsearch result relevance

Core Design Contradiction:

Quantity of substanceVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by allowing different weights or treatments for different relationship types in the search results. Instead of uniformly treating all relationships equally, the system can prioritize certain relationship types (e.g., direct authorship vs. supervisor relationships) based on the search context and user needs. This enables comprehensive result coverage while maintaining precision by locally optimizing the relevance scoring for different relationship categories.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentUS20250156412A1Using a Search to Determine What a Group of People are Working On

Publication Date: 2025.05.15 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Examples of the present disclosure describe systems and methods for determining relationships between content items to create a visualization associated with the various content items. The visualization may provide information regarding what various individuals in a group, team, or organization have been working on (e.g., content, documents, projects).