Configuring a Metrics Widget - can it be done?

Bill in Ohio

Full disclosure - I have been using the PMO template and modifying it for our needs. It was a great starter, but needed some additional tweaks to suit our purposes.

I added a sheet that dynamically collects all the unique names to make it easier to dynamically display them on my dashboard: (a big thank you to @Cleversheet for getting me started in the right direction!)

The original widget was a Metric Widget, that wasn't really dynamic, but very nice looking:

I am trying to have the ability to dynamically populate the widget, but when I try to have it stacked, I end up with:

and side-by-side is even worse:

I understand I can delete the field name, and get something like this:

but I am losing the dynamic nature of the widget. I would like to simply list the Name and role as individuals get assigned to the project. Something like:

-----

PROJECT SPONSOR NAME

Project Sponsor

PROJECT MANAGER NAME

Project Manager

NAME A

NAME B

NAME C

Team Member

-----

Is something like this possible, or will this widget need to be populated and updated constantly? I am building out my project templates, trying to automate the project initiation as much as possible, and looking to have as much on the dashboard populate from data that I am already filling in elsewhere.

On a related note: since we can't point the data to columns, I already need to select the cells needed - is there a way to have it point to the columns, and use the filtering I have on the table? As I add tasks, the number of unique names will potentially change, requiring me to "touch" the widget source each time. I had thought about pointing the whole thing to the project metadata, and having fields with the project roles, but that seemed like it would be over-kill, and would potentially lead to a bunch of empty space in the widget for roles that weren't needed, or where one person might have several project roles.

Ryan Sides

Hey Bill, the metric widget will do what you want if you allow multiple contacts per cell. That way, you add multiple team members and they will all show up under the team members metric widget. To Auto fill the titles in the widget, just create new columns with those titles (instead of the "name" and "title" columns).

The unfortunate thing about the widget though is that if you tell it where to look for the value, it will always look there and will display blank if the cell is blank.

I've used both metric widgets and a sheet for contacts in the past. The contacts sheet just simply lists out the folks involved and their titles. Then I create a report from that, and show the report on the dashboard. I add a filter to the report to only show non-blanks. This way, if i don't have a title filled in, it doesn't show on the dashboard.

Does that help?

Bill in Ohio

Thank you @Ryan Sides , I think that if I use a separate sheet for the contacts that it will work. I was just looking to see if I could have it dynamically pull from the assignments in the tasks sheet. At least using a report back to the contacts sheet, filtering out the blanks would be one less step.

Ryan Sides

I've also been known to drop my contacts in the Project Summary at the top. you could use the same report to filter out the blanks and this way, you don't have to maintain multiple sheets. Plus, you can build your project tasks to look for the contact typically associated with that task and pull them in automatically into the rows.

Ryan Sides

Hey Bill, the metric widget will do what you want if you allow multiple contacts per cell. That way, you add multiple team members and they will all show up under the team members metric widget. To Auto fill the titles in the widget, just create new columns with those titles (instead of the "name" and "title" columns).

The unfortunate thing about the widget though is that if you tell it where to look for the value, it will always look there and will display blank if the cell is blank.

I've used both metric widgets and a sheet for contacts in the past. The contacts sheet just simply lists out the folks involved and their titles. Then I create a report from that, and show the report on the dashboard. I add a filter to the report to only show non-blanks. This way, if i don't have a title filled in, it doesn't show on the dashboard.

Does that help?

Bill in Ohio

Thank you @Ryan Sides , I think that if I use a separate sheet for the contacts that it will work. I was just looking to see if I could have it dynamically pull from the assignments in the tasks sheet. At least using a report back to the contacts sheet, filtering out the blanks would be one less step.

Ryan Sides

I've also been known to drop my contacts in the Project Summary at the top. you could use the same report to filter out the blanks and this way, you don't have to maintain multiple sheets. Plus, you can build your project tasks to look for the contact typically associated with that task and pull them in automatically into the rows.