INSANITY or EMPLOYEE EGO or MANAGEMENT INATTENTION??

Jack Russell
Jack Russell ✭✭
edited 12/09/19 in Smartsheet Basics

 I have seen some of these head-in-the-clouds people at Microsoft do some really stupid "improvements" but this tab thing takes the cake. I am a shareholder in this company and am considering selling due to management's inattention to their business. Good management would never let a thing like this happen. 

Comments

  • I would suggest finding the person responsible for this and firing them and anyone higher that approved it. It is that bad.

  • Jim Hook
    Jim Hook ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    I have to agree with Jack. Why take something that has worked fine, millions of people are used to using and is often documented by admins for others to use and change it? The old navigation worked like the Chrome bookmarks bar, the most used browser in the world, and was so easy to manage (like changing the order). Now if you want to pin a new sheet near the top of the pinned list it's a major hassle involving unpinning and repinning everything (you can only pin a new sheet to the top of the list).

    This is not the first time things like this have happened. Whoever runs UX at Smartsheet doesn't seem to care what the users think and it's hurting the company.

  • Jim, I found a workaround. Google Chrome Canary! it is basically a second instance of Chrome. I opened a new tab for my primary sheets and have them open when I open Canary. I do or have any other tabs open on Canary. We have several employees on the smart sheet system we designed from scratch, it took many many hours to get it right. Now the problem is training and installing Canary. I will now always be apprehensive of Smartsheet pulling another boner.

  • The blame does not lie with MSFT.

  • Michael R.
    Michael R. ✭✭
    edited 12/17/18

    I agree with the sentiments! There are already enough comments about this inept update, so that aside: HOW ARE SMART DECISIONS BEING MADE AT SMARTSHEET?? IT'S ON IT'S WAY TO BEING DUBBED "STUPIDSHEET!"

    I've been with SmartSheet for years (referred it to clients and even do consulting using it) but it's now obvious that SS is only focused on sales (to unsuspecting clients) rather than product quality, valuable features and responsive service that doesn't placate. If you increase your sales but your user base CONSTANTLY cries about bugs, issues and practical features requests (many of which could be easily implemented) then your sales and users will eventually leave in droves because they aren't listened too!!! Then all your sales efforts won't matter because your ONLINE REPUTATION will suuuuuuck! Then class, your stock goes down!

    I've been with StupidSheet for years and I know that your feature request boards are effectively ignored and you have NOT implemented any significant features or community suggested (and begged) for a while. You "improve" and update your software like it was still the 1980's!! It's almost 2019!! I get dozens of weekly/monthly updates from every other app I have. Here is an example of how a truly SMART online company rolls out frequent, VERY usable features and services and HEARS their community: https://elementor.com/blog/

    Since I HIGHLY doubt ANY of my post will matter to your pacifying methods, I will now be looking around again at the dozens of project and workflow management tools out there, selling my SS shares, ending my recommendation of SS, and advise clients on how SmartSheet became "StupidSheet." 

    PLEASE, SURPRISE ME!!!!

  • "I'm now waiting for the "We've logged your vote" responses to begin and have these complaints languish and go nowhere like a multitude of VERY useful requests that are 2, 3, 4 or more years old with zero traction." 

    Perfectly stated! I actually bet its in their CUSTOMER SERVICE MANUAL under "How to Placate (and piss-off) Your Users." This is the most inattentive app company I pay for. Whomever the development team is made up of, has to got to have some directors from the '80's when you'd be lucky if you got even one buggy update. Hey, SmartSheet it's almost 2019!!! Here is how it's done: Listen to your users, communicate, listen, interact, update, communicate, listen, update, interact...LISTEN!!! PAY ATTENTION!!! 

  • Um...thank you! This "update" is AWFUL! My employees use SmartSheet to track the progress of our door installation jobs from inception to completion, meaning we have a bunch of SS tabs open at once. It was very easy and convenient having them open in one Chrome tab, considering that the employees need to have other things open in Chrome, as well. Now, it's a mess. And I love that SmartSheet has tried to defend this change by saying it creates more space to work in. Huh? You took away a row of tabs. Wow! Incredible!! Amazing!!!

  • Thanks Jack for the post. I just downloaded Canary but still have the same challenges. I am our sysadmin as well for our company and my challenge is missing the old default behavior of a new tab being opened with each click on a sheet. Not to mention, the great thing about the old platform was that the app remembered where I left off. Were you able to alleviate this somehow with Canary? 

     

    Thanks in advance.

  • Richard Rymill SBP
    Richard Rymill SBP ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Sad to say that the above comments reflect my disappointment and that of my colleagues and clients.

    My immediate issue is... when using Tabs in Chrome to hop from sheet to sheet as we do our work, the Auto save used to work well. However not in that scenario which is really annoying. 

    I can only hope for Smartsheet's own sake there is a Back Button and they use it! Mark Mader, we love what you have done in the past, but this is a mistake, please reverse it?

    We can probably manage with the new system if we have no choice and we will find workarounds, but just to prove you care about us all, Reverse it? 

    Richard Rymill 

    Lead Consultant at Smarter Business Processes who make our living helping Smartsheet users get the best from it.  

  • Brad Jones
    Brad Jones ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    We do not have any added value from the new UI.  It has made our work harder to do, and made the platform less efficient.

    Echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo... echo...

    - The sound of our dissatisfaction as we bounce it off of Smartsheet.

    sad7 of the top 10 user issues in the forum are 3years old and unsolvedsad

  • Best post yet! I've seriously been thinking to repost this entire thread (or similar) each day at the top of the community to possibly get SmartSheet's attention and warn others of how lax their service is to features of value. SmartSheet acts like it's the 80's and 90's with software development timelines.

    They COULD release many features that ARE NOT that difficult to implement. But maybe part of their game plan IS to service the large companies privately? I know they do that with a calendar plugin I was looking at on their 3rd Party apps. I called and the guy said it was like a $4500 setup fee. Geesh. So rather than just make cool things available to everyone, I'm betting their revenue model is to keep the cool things private and pricey with a large setup fee and tie it with additional user licenses to use it for the larger client's teams.