Do your users create their own Personal Dashboards?
We do not use Personal Dashboards, but based on some recent user feedback, I'm thinking of opening these up. Do you use them at your organization, and if so, do you let users create their own?
One of the reasons we haven't used Personal Dashboards is that our user needs are so diverse, having a standard dashboard template for all users wouldn't be helpful to most. Same time, I have shied away from allowing users create their own dashboards because one of our challenges is user training--many of our users don't consider themselves "tech savvy" and need instruction for even the most basic of tasks. I've been hesitant to open up Personal Dashboards because I anticipate a HUGE need for training on how to set one up and how to manage one, and as a team of one, I am not sure I can be responsive to those needs.
But, admittedly, opening up Dashboards would solve some of the issues that my users are currently reporting, so I'm tempted.
If you have experience with Personal Dashboards and can speak to the process of training staff on them, I'd love to hear about your experience! I welcome any and all insight. Thank you!
12 Replies
As a customer of Igloo (we drink our own champagne!) we have personal dashboards enabled. It's one of those things that, as a user, we decide if we are going to go down that road and use it. I know a few Igloo-ites who absolutely love them and use them to focus in on the core elements they need for their jobs and to bring key content much closer to themselves. Almost like mini-DWP managers themselves.
I think it's something you *could* let people discover is available on their own and not actively display to the entire company. I agree with the need for someone to be slightly more mature when it comes to tech. As for being a department of 1 - I would start (if you haven't) using a tool like Loom, Wistia, or Vidyard to record instructional videos. That way you could tuck away a video on how to use personal dashboards and when that ticket or feedback comes in you have a multiplied workforce of Jocelyn's to attack them with!
The ever sage Jim Tigwell is probably the best personal dashboard user I have ever seen. Jim, would you be willing to give your two cents here?
Personal dashboards can be incredibly effective for managing diverse and idiosyncratic duties, and they let people assemble their own information using the drag and drop interface, so there's never a need to write code or design elements.
When training people on Personal Dashboards in the past, I tend to focus on introducing the widget interface. How to place widgets on a page, the basics of sources, and where to find the layout options. For most members, that interface is an entirely new side of Igloo, and it can be hard to look at a blank page and figure out what they need. I encourage people to make a list of their duties, and from that list, we assemble some dashboard configurations as examples.
We also have a Dashboard specific training video available in Igloo University, here: https://customercare.igloosoftware.com/university/training_video/video_library/configuring_dashboards
Jim Tigwell That video is helpful! Will my users be able to access or is that just for admins?
Also, do you have recommendations for creating a basic personal dashboard that everyone starts with? Or a template to follow?
Christina Peschong and Andrea Schilling - I thought this might an interesting discussion for you to follow as we were discussing personal dashboards on our last call!
Misty Cato
Jocelyn Flint - We understand the need for diversification in dashboards. Due to this, we'll be adding enhancements to dashboards in the upcoming releases:
As a workplace administrator, you will have the ability to create multiple digital workplace dashboards - allowing you to personalize each dashboard based on the team's needs & permission them as needed.
Hira Zahid Thanks! Very helpful. When is this due out, do you know?
Jocelyn Flint These enhancements are currently targeted to be out in the October release. Though we don’t foresee any concerns with this timeline at the moment, please note that timelines are subject to change pending future roadblocks and unforeseen circumstances.
Jocelyn Flint, we're in a similar boat as you. We don't use dashboards currently because we want everyone driven to the home page where the most important news is curated for them. I'm still after people to fill out their profiles, so enabling Dashboards isn't top of my list.
I held a brainstorm with employees who elected in to look at Dashboards and get their feedback. Most said they didn't see the value for our organization, and didn't have the time to create their own. Or, like you said, are not tech-savvy.
Most are using MS Teams; but I believe Dashboards could be extremely helpful - I'm still considering how best to implement for our purposes.
I do like Tom Ryan's suggestion to let people opt-in or not.
Chelsey Louzeiro Thanks so much for weighing in!
I'll keep you posted as I make my way through this issue. My sense is that most users won't want the headache of having to learn to create their own page. BUT, my guess is that there is a handful of users who would love this. The work now is to figure out who is in which group. ;-)
We have a default dashboard and allow users to create their own if they wish. We provide a help article on the topic. I have not gotten many questions about it and I have not tracked whether or not anyone uses the default and/or have created and use their own. This post has sparked me to look into that.
Jim Tigwell or Hira Zahid : I'm not sure whom to ask but I have a follow up q about personal dashboards:
If I set a template, can you explain to me what the user experience is like? In other words, is the template just a starting place for them from which they can add/delete/alter anything they want on their own user-controlled dashboard? Or can some of the dashboard template elements be locked down?
I guess I'm trying to understand what wiggle room there is between a full-on admin-controlled dashboard and a completely open user-controlled dashboard.
Thanks!