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  3. Enhanced Filtering

Enhanced Filtering Strategies for Success

This feature is available to the following product editions: 
  • Starter
  • Standard
  • Premium

With the introduction of new, dynamic flex filters you may be wondering what the best way is to implement these new features into your org.   With these new features comes a new way of looking at and planning filter implementation.  

So how do your existing filters work with enhanced filtering? The answer is simple - classic and enhanced filtering are two separate mechanisms, with their own sets of filters. In other words - you’ll get the opportunity to start fresh with renewed focus. 

When you begin thinking about how to address your users unique needs, there are a few best practices to keep in mind:

Less Board Filters = More Flexibility

Board filters will be broad and distinct buckets of data. What this means is that you should think of board filters as large umbrellas that contain data that can be used by a majority of use cases. Because of this, you will have less board filters each containing larger groups of data. Then, drill down capability will come from the Flex Filters your users now have access to. 

Applying this to your implementation:

If you have several custom board filters that are nearly identical, differing only by 1 or 2 criteria, this is a good place to start streamlining. Design your enhanced filtering strategy to deliver just one broad board filter to meet that use case, knowing that users can apply a flex filter to address that slight criteria difference. For example, if you currently have 7 board filters that are pulling in projects with the same set of data and the only differing criteria is the Owner ID, this can be made into 1 board filter and the users can now flex filter on that Owner ID. It takes the boards from 7 down to 1... leaving you room to create other buckets of data. 

Less Board Filters Too Many Board Filters
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Custom board filters list should be shorter

You will now have access to new Standard board filters out of the box. Commons filters such as 'All Projects’, ‘In-Flight Projects’, 'Projects I Own' and ‘Completed Projects’ allows you to fully utilize these larger buckets of data and flex the data output using flex filters. Gone are the days of having to create custom board filters for every person on your team or each department if only 1 or 2 fields are different. This keeps the board filters list simple and usable for a majority of your users. 

Applying this to your implementation:

Similar to before, take a look at all of your board filters including the new standard ones. What data are they pulling? What data sets do your different users need outside of the ones you have already set up? Are there some board filters that have almost identical data with 1 or 2 different criteria? Step back and take stock of what you have set up and anywhere that you can simplify and combine, this is the time to do so. The list of board filters should not be a mile long. 

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Create Impactful Flex Filters

Flex Filters are where you are going to drive simplicity. Flex Filters will act as key data points that users apply to drill into their broad buckets of data. Fields on or related to the TaskRay Project and Task objects become powerful refinement mechanisms. Each Flex Filter set should hold ~5 fields that are of interest to the assigned group of users. 

Applying this to your implementation:

Choose your heavy hitters, your most commonly used fields for these filters. What 5-7 fields will be most impactful to your users that work in conjunction with the board filters you have created? Remember, the goal is to minimize the number of board filters by providing the most impactful flex filters. 

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Be strategic about filter assignment

If you are thoughtful and strategic about how you set up and assign filters, there should not be a large amount of maintenance on the backend to keep filters working optimally, nor should there be maintenance when new employees start. Think of filter assignment as a top-down inheritance. Apply filters to the biggest groups, like the entire org, first, and then assign more specific filters to progressively more distinct groups, like users in a particular role & subordinate. So when do you use individual assignments? This is an assignment that should be used sparingly and only in very specific scenarios. For example, you may have a Finance Director that is going out on maternity leave and their backup needs access to those specific filters. Or maybe you have an individual that manages three distinct teams within the company and they need to be assigned individually the filters they need in order to have access to the data for all 3 teams. This should be the exception, though, and not the rule.  

Applying this to your implementation:

While creating Board Filters and Flex Filters it is important to think about who will be using those filters. What groups of users? If you keep finding that you are creating filters based on 1 or 2 individuals then the strategy on how you are using the Board Filters and Flex Filters needs to change. If you have your big buckets of data set up with board filters and your high value fields setup with Flex Filters then assigning at org level and in groups should be easy. If you find you are continually assigning Flex Filters to individuals then you need to go back and look at the filters you are creating and open those up to larger audiences.

SIMPLICITY ALERT: What if you have a super simple use case and you want to streamline the experience? You can assign 1 board filter that will show by default (no drop down to choose from) and assign a blank flex filter set. This will give the user a very streamlined experience in the left sidebar from which they can work. 

 

Rolling Out Enhanced Filtering 

You’re ready to roll-out the new filtering strategy - congrats! This is something to be proud of! Your users are going to love it!

With all good rollouts come a good rollout strategy. This is very individual and unique to your business. Some companies will choose to rollout to the entire TaskRay user base all at once - this allows you to streamline training, have a clear and consistent message, and makes troubleshooting any issues easier, since all users are on the same filtering style. If you choose this path, there is one button to activate enhanced filtering - under Tools & Settings --> Enhanced Filtering Assistant --> click the 'Activate Org-wide Enhanced Filtering' button. 

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Other companies might find that a phased rollout approach is best - this allows you to strategically address each teams' needs one at a time, while not disrupting other teams at suboptimal times, and also helps to work out any kinks in the strategy and implementation. Win!  To use a phased approach, hierarchical global custom settings are the best path forward.

  1. From Setup, navigate to:
  • Lightning: Custom Code | Custom Settings.
  • Classic: Develop | Custom Settings.
  • Click Manage next to TaskRay Global Settings.
  • Scroll to the bottom of the custom setting to the 'New' button. Create a new custom setting for the profile or user you want to roll-out to.
  • Set the 'Enhanced Filter Mode' checkbox to TRUE. 
  • Since this will be a “blank slate” of the TaskRay Global Settings for the selected profile or user, you might need to update additional settings according to your overall requirements, so that they apply to the specified profile or user. To do this, you will need to fill out the applicable fields on the page to match the TaskRay Global Settings that you have for your internal view (e.g. enable dependencies, cloning settings, etc.). For this purpose, we recommend referencing the internal/original TaskRay Global Settings to make sure the right things are filled out.
  • Save!
    • Note: If you already have hierarchical custom settings configured for the users/profiles that apply to your rollout phases, you can modify those. Do not create more than one custom setting for a single user or profile. 

     

    Other Useful Resources for Filtering Strategy & Rollout