These product updates are a result of external client feedback and internal feedback from employees at IdeaScale. Thanks to ideas.ideascale.com, user interviews, testing, and ongoing design and development, these changes will improve the overall Member, Moderator, and Administrator experience. The areas of focus in this release: Quality Assurance, Labels and Project Management.
As always - your feedback fuels our direction, please let us know what you think.
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Usability Updates
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Actionable + Custom Labels
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IdeaScale > Project Management Integrations: Jira, Trello, YouTrack and Azure DevOps
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Private Campaign Lock
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User Instructions
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Bulk Set Fund Target Amount
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Moderator Access to Reporting & Analysis
Usability Updates
We have intentionally spent the entire first quarter of the year improving our software quality and making the user experience outstanding.
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We have spent 1,000 hours fixing bugs so that they don’t get in your way of using the product.
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We have spent 1,300 hours fixing user interface usability issues to make the software friendlier, easier to understand, and easier to get things done.
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We have invested 750 hours upgrading our underlying infrastructure to boost performance and avoid bugs in the future.
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We are committed to providing you the best software user experience in the industry.
Actionable + Custom Labels
We are excited to announce a brand new means to communicate to your members via Labels. Labels are the small virtual post-it notes that appear at the end of idea titles and comments. While we already have System labels such as Private, Duplicate, Pending, Implemented, Selected, etc., we are adding the means to add completely configurable text and rules. Labels are visible in all views of an idea: Grid, List or Idea Details, along with moderator panels: Incoming and Idea Portfolio.
Why is this important?
We are allowing Moderators complete freedom to communicate updates to their members on individual ideas.
How Does it work?
Labels that are available to a member or moderator are found under the label button. Administrators have the ability to configure who and where the labels can be used.
All labels are available to add to ideas in all views of an idea, plus Incoming and Idea Portfolio. Some labels can also be applied during idea submission or commenting.
What is the value/why did we make this change?
We understand that adding Stages to a robust funnel can sometimes be cumbersome. This new method will allow Moderators to communicate status updates to their members without having to add additional stages.
What do they look like?
What do I need to do to make this work in my community today/when it is released?
Custom labels are available in your community now.
More about Labels here: Labels FAQ
IdeaScale > Project Management Integrations: Jira, Trello, YouTrack and Azure DevOps
We have a new means to integrate with Jira, Trello, YouTrack and Azure DevOps. Ideas that reach a certain level of maturity can be automatically sent from IdeaScale to any of these project management tools.
Why is this important?
It's important that ideas that originate in IdeaScale can be further tracked in whatever other outlets you employ.
How does it work?
In App Directory, configure your Project Management tool of choice. Administrators can select which campaigns should be directed to which tool's project. This means that in my New Feature campaign, I can send ideas to my Jira project called New Development, and in my Iterative Feature campaign, I can send ideas to my Jira project called Existing Features. Key updates that happen in Jira, Trello, YouTrack and Azure DevOPs will be dynamically changed within the Idea detail page.
What is the value/why did we make this change?
We know our clients are using these tools extensively to track projects and project manage. We want IdeaScale to be the means to synthesize those ideas and send over to your tool of choice. We also want IdeaScale to be the home base for your innovation portfolio, which is why we're sending updates from those tools back to IdeaScale.
What does it look like?
What do I need to do to make this work in my community today/when it is released?
All integrations are available now, with the exception of Azure DevOps, which will be available later in April.
Private Campaign Lock
Now when viewing a list of campaigns on the frontend, you'll notice that there is a tiny lock icon next to the campaign title.
Why is this important?
We've heard from members that they have confusion about whether they are submitting their ideas to a private group or to a wide audience.
How does it work?
Basically, any campaign that is restricted to one (or many) groups gets the private lock icon. If a member doesn't have access to the campaign, then they won't see the campaign name (or lock).
What is the value/why did we make this change?
We're hoping this helps communicate which campaigns have a limited audience and which are open to all members of a community. Globally we know that public campaigns out-number private campaigns by a whopping 2 to 1, so this is designed to call out those exceptions.
What does it look like?
What do I need to do to make this work in my community today/when it is released?
This is fully available in your community. Simply start a private campaign to see the little blue lock in action. More on Private Campaigns
User Instructions
There's a new means to add User Instructions to any Idea Submission custom field (or Title or Description).
Why is this important?
This will allow our Administrators to better communicate with their users about the intent of the respective Custom Fields.
How does it work?
In the Idea Submission Tool, you can click on any Custom Field (or Title or Description) and add any instructions you would like to convey to your members.
What does it look like?
What do I need to do to make this work in my community today/when it is released?
This is fully released. To add custom instructions simply Edit any Custom Field in the Idea Submission Tool. More on User Instructions: https://help.ideascale.com/knowledge/idea-submission-tool
Bulk Set Fund Target Amount
Now when setting up your Fund Stage, you can set a default target amount for all ideas in the stage. Regardless of the currency type, we will allow for all ideas to start with a default target amount.
Why is this important?
This change is primarily for ease of use for Administrators. The change will allow all ideas to start with a specific target amount.
How does it work?
When configuring the Fund Stage, simply Set the Target Amount you would like for all ideas in that stage. If you leave this amount blank/null, targets will be set by individuals (as they had previously).
What does it look like?
What do I need to do to make this work in my community today/when it is released?
There is nothing to activate; this feature is available now in your Fund Stage setup.
Moderator Access to Reporting & Analysis
We've opened up our Reporting & Analysis Dashboards to Moderators.
Why is this important?
This will allow Moderators to keep a close watch over the engagement within their campaigns, as well as other reports that are crucial in running a campaign.
How does it work?
Moderators can now view the Reporting & Analysis from their top right dropdown. Global Moderators will be able to see all campaigns, Campaign Moderators will be able to access their own campaigns.
Global Moderators can view:
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Engage and Outcomes
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Community Infographics
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Population Breakdown
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Campaign Report
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Member Report
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Idea Report
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Email Report
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IdeaCloud
Campaign Moderators, Group Based Moderators and Custom Field Moderators can view:
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Engage and Outcomes
What is the value/why did we make this change?
We think Moderators, those most active in their communities, will benefit from being able to access this information (not to mention it removes a burden from Administrators).
What do I need to do to make this work in my community today/when it is released?
Nothing to activate this feature is fully available now in your community.
Coming Soon
Compact View
Dynamic Custom Fields
New Field types: Integer and Currency
Teams Integration