How it works: Sharktower usage reviews

How we use data to ensure you get the best value from Sharktower

Many of the organisations we work with have relatively immature change functions (their words, not ours!). It’s not a failing: it’s just inevitable when change ramps up quickly and becomes part of everyday work.

What it means is that those organisations have a lot of ‘accidental’ project managers, who find themselves taking on new responsibilities, managing ever larger and more varied teams, and operating at an increasingly demanding pace.

Sharktower’s simple, intuitive interface is designed to help anyone deliver successful outcomes, but there are certain practices or approaches you might not immediately think of if you aren’t a PM by trade.

That’s why our Customer Success team – and our monthly usage reports – are here to help.

It’s our job to:

• Ensure our customers are getting value from the product
• Ensure they have the best chance of successfully delivering their desired outcomes
• Make the best use possible of the data we have at our disposal to achieve this

So what do these magical usage reports actually tell you?

An example of a monthly usage review dashboard

Each review starts with a look at the overview of that month’s usage, including:

• The number of visitors, and the amount of time spent in the app, both compared to last month – these give an insight into the general engagement trend.
• The % of active users compared to last month – Sharktower adds the most value when the whole team is collaborating and using it as the source of the truth, so it’s important to increase this percentage as much as possible!
• The pattern of data creates/updates compared to last month – this gives insight into how they are using the tool, e.g. were lots of decisions being made last month, but fewer this month? Were there no risks last month but an increase this month? What does that mean?
• The most used features – we do this for a similar reason to the above but it also helps us understand any underused features – and then we can discuss options around training sessions or in-app nudges to encourage usage for these.
• A leaderboard – we rank users based on their contributions to Sharktower – this includes creating and updating work items but also commenting and collaborating with their team-mates (a lively discussion usually ensues after reviewing this!).

In-app nudges like this can encourage users to make the most of Sharktower’s features

Once we’ve looked at the high-level usage, we focus on specific projects.

Each project is given a score based on a series of indicators, which aim to highlight any lack of best practice. A project which fires more indicators is one that needs more support.

Each project is given a score based on a series of usage indicators

The follow-up actions range from training sessions (run by us) to interventions by the customer, or in-app nudges to encourage users to behave differently or update their data.

The indicators include things like:

• Projects where only the PM is contributing. We want the whole team logging in, collaborating and updating their actions, so nobody is wasting time chasing info that should be available in Sharktower.
• Projects with activities longer than a month. It’s usually best to segment work more than this – when work isn’t broken down properly, it’s a lot harder to get started or to know when you’ve achieved your goal.
• Projects that aren’t using features such as capturing meeting actions, mapping out phases of work or defining project milestones. These are key Sharktower features which are designed to improve communication and alignment.
• Projects with disconnected data. One of the benefits of Sharktower is being able to link all your project data together – the mitigating actions to the risks they relate to, the risks to the pieces of work, and the pieces of work to each other; highlighting key dependencies between teams.
• Projects with date mismatches. For example, is there work at the lower level which hasn’t yet been completed, yet those managing the higher-level pieces of work believe it has?
• Projects with out-of-date data. This is often a sign that usage in this project is dropping off – perhaps that people are reverting to spreadsheets or managing the whole project via email.
• Projects that aren’t planning ahead. For example, if work is defined and added to Sharktower a week at a time – suggesting a lack of clear aims or understanding.

To sum up…

Not everyone expects or even particularly wants to become a project manager, but armed with Sharktower – and supported by the Sharktower team – every team can deliver better project outcomes.

Let’s talk

If you’d like to talk about how Sharktower can improve the way your teams work, request a callback or start a live chat.