Technology Manager Feature Ideas

[aebrown]

I happen to be in the same Stake with an individual with input to the TM tool. Rather than just giving him my own ideas I thought it would be nice to get some community input. Your post effectively tells everyone don't bother posting here, as it won't be heard.

That's not how I read it. He simply very kindly helped people to know that there was no guarantee that a Church employee would see it here, and suggested an alternate way to give feedback that will go to a Church employee.

In fact, the message had the very clear proviso "If your intent in posting your feature requests is to provide feedback for the tool/site,..." Logically, that means that for every other possible intent, he said nothing about whether people should post here.

If people are posting here to have a discussion among their peers, this is an entirely appropriate place to post. No one said anything to the contrary. And if there is someone you know who has "input to the TM tool" and will be looking at this topic, then that's certainly good to know. No one had any way of knowing that until now.

[clingmann]

Both good points, the "request" would seem to set an expectation. How do we rename the thread to "ideas" instead.

[aebrown]

ow do we rename the thread to "ideas" instead.

Ask, and ye shall receive. Done. (Note that individual posts aren't automatically renamed, but the thread has now been renamed.)

[spencerto]

Just to let you know, we do monitor these forums and acknowledge the feature ideas that you are posting. Some things we can accommodate, others we cannot, but we take feature suggestions seriously. I am one of the developers who is assigned to work on Technology Manager and it has been a very rewarding project. We hope you find it a valuable tool in your calling and appreciate your service to your local areas. The feedback tool is an appropriate way to make formal suggestions for feature ideas, but feel free to discuss those ideas in this forum and know that we are listening.

Thanks
Tony

[johnshaw]

Tony,

The forum moderators and members are trained to point everyone to the feedback links on the pages... mostly because the forum just represents a 'hope' that someone out there is listening. Most of us who have used the feedback forms can testify that they are at least viewed somewhere by someone... I've even had interaction from one or two of my requests.

Here's the ticker... I've given feedback on multiple systems, across the spectrum of solutions and pages at lds.org. There is NO way to get feedback about what is being developed. There is no way to affect change or to see if 100 other people have suggested the same thing vs 1 or 2. We have no way to know whether the team thinks an idea is 'bad' for the team at CHQ so they don't want to implement it vs an idea that is a good idea, but is just difficult to implement, or whether an idea is good, but that 14 other ideas are better.

One thing about the crowdsourcing ideas that the Church has, at times, lauded in the past, is that they quickly die out because of the frustrations of experts like us and the 'boots on the ground' dealing with the on-going questions.

Just some things to think about when people are putting out ideas... a perspective they might be coming from.

[Mikerowaved]

Just to let you know, we do monitor these forums and acknowledge the feature ideas that you are posting. Some things we can accommodate, others we cannot, but we take feature suggestions seriously.

Tony, we sure appreciate you folks keeping an eye on the forum. The TM product is making great strides forward, so I'm sure you'll discover some valuable feedback posted here by the many STS's who use it.

The feedback tool is an appropriate way to make formal suggestions for feature ideas, but feel free to discuss those ideas in this forum and know that we are listening.

I think a valuable suggestion I see posted frequently here would be when a new TM feature is rolled out that it would be wonderful if one of your team could post a quick note in the forum with a brief overview of the new features. We are often surprised (and occasionally confused) by new sections added to the TM site and are left to figure out their usage and purpose on our own.

[spencerto]

We have a new feature ready to release, remote reboot of a firewall, but I'm a bit gun shy to turn this feature on without a formal announcement going out. I received a fair amount of feedback about releasing new features without some type of an announcement. Can this suffice as an announcement? Thoughts?

I'll turn this feature on as soon as I get some feedback from the forums that it is ok to do so.

Thanks,
Tony

[clingmann]

Will something show up on the https://tm.lds.org/ launch page, similar to what was done for the "usage statistics", it was title as "New Feature".

[spencerto]

Yes. We will use the built-in annoucement feature in TM similar to "usage statistics" to announce it as well. I have posted a more in-depth announcement on its own thread in this forum as well.

[Mikerowaved]

Can this suffice as an announcement? Thoughts?

I would think sending the information out in the MHTech Newsletter would be a better way of reaching the various STS's throughout the world. Isn't that what it was designed for?