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SmartSheet Adoption

kmingain
kmingain
edited 12/09/19 in Archived 2017 Posts

I am sharing with approximately 80 users and about 15% actually login and look at the dashboard, click on issues, risks and attachments - never mind download the attachments.

Has anyone experienced this resistance to adoption before and if so, how did you overcome it? 

Thanks,



Karen

Comments

  • Karen:

    We do not use dashboards but wish we did, so I am not sure whether my input will be helpful. You may already be using the top helps I reference, but I thought I would chime in.

    Since I am not allowed to write up users for not cooperating, I have done the following to get my very non-project minded managers to view and update their project sheets:

    [Assumption: Your users are assigned to tasks across multiple sheets.]

    1. Use recurring update requests - be sure to include attachments. You will be able to see attachments and users can add attachments. (Cumbersome because update requests must be created by sheet and recreated when new tasks/action items/issues/risks are assigned to users. Ahem Smartsheet!)

    2. Use a web form for adding new items - again include attachments option if applicable if users will not use a sheet. (I get it that sheets are overwhelming when you open them.)

    3. Include a "Parent" column (where you can join ancestors) which will help in the update requests web form to orient users to which sheet they are responding to - if you have users assigned across multiple sheets. Formula for Row 1: =[Task Name]$1. Formula for subsequent rows: =JOIN(ANCESTORS([Task Name]2), " > ").

    4. While not conventional "PMI" practice or PM process, I include the following subsections (where applicable) in each phase on my projects (where "for..." is the task name of the phase): Action Items Log for...; Activity Log for...; Lessons Learned for...; Issues For...

    5. From my "Type" droplist I use use the following options for each of the above subsections so that I can then filter update requests, reports, or my sheets by the type for monitoring and update requests.

    Activity Log = Note, Email, Phone Call, Working Session

    Action Items = Action Item

    Lessons Learned = Note

    Issues = Action Items (as someone needs to address the issues and risks)

    6. Assignees get their own reports across all sheets using their contact name and these types: Action Item, Task, Issue, Risk. Reports have only Parent, Task Name, Notes, Start, Due, Finish Dates, % Complete, Attachments, Alert.

    7. Project owners get an all-inclusive report  for their direct reports across all sheets using same filters: Action Item, Task, Issue, Risk. Same columns included.

    8. Project Sponsor gets an all-inclusive report across all sheets regardless of the project owner or assignee when a line item has an alert. Same columns included + "Project Owner" "Assigned To #1" "Assigned To #2" and "Assigned To #3"

    If we had the business plan, my not so project-minded managers would be all over a dashboard. 

    Reach out to me if you are interested in commiserating or collaborating.

    Good Luck!

    Sandy

  • Brad Jones
    Brad Jones ✭✭✭✭✭✭

    Your people don't like it because they have to login to a platform to see it, and on top of that it doesn't even have live graphs/charts for the data.  Who actually enjoys reading a dashboard like that?

    Text=boring and slow, Live Graphs = interesting and contextual.

    I've built dozens of graphs through SS using their SS Labs Charts, and had to build about 8 new graphs per project that were identical to the last 8 graphs of the last 12 projects.  Hours of work, and you can't share them in one place.

    With PowerBI, you can create a dashboard with interactive graphs, then copy/paste it to a new tab, and with about 10 clicks re-create it for another project workspace.  It's really that simple.  Then just embed the iframe into a webpage and your users can access the data without logging in to anything new.

    Plus, every time I show our PowerBI dashboards to people the universal reaction is "wow".  That will get you some points, and get people engaged in your dashboards.

    Good luck.

  • Andrée Starå
    Andrée Starå ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    edited 09/27/17

    Hi,

    I'm very excited about this update that the SS team is working on.

    Will probably make it a lot easier to get everyone interested in the dashboards and more. 

    Look here:

    Best,

    Andrée

    SMARTSHEET EXPERT CONSULTANT & PARTNER

    Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

    W: www.workbold.com | E:andree@workbold.com | P: +46 (0) - 72 - 510 99 35

    Feel free to contact me for help with Smartsheet, integrations, general workflow advice, or anything else.

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