Data Variables - Answering 'What if?'

You look at your dashboard that shows your sales numbers for last month and think to yourself, what if I had closed one more deal? Variables allow you to adjust a value on that dashboard as the number of deals closed and update charts and graphs to show what could be.

An insight that kept coming up in our interviews and research with customers was that people, generally, are not very good at taking the right action based on data. Everyone wants to know how their numbers were last quarter, and then throw a dart at the wall and see if what sticks changes the numbers they want next quarter. We set out to change that narrative - no more guessing about what needs doing.

A dashboard with variable controls on the left side

Mar 2020 - August 2021

Timeline

Most Lauded Feature

Key Metric

Lead Designer, Researcher

Role

Mar 2020 - August 2021

Timeline

Most Lauded Feature

Key Metric

Lead Designer, Researcher

Role

TL;DR

Executive Summary

Through a vast, substantial collaborative effort spanning six development teams and three designers, I lead the vision and design for this game-changing feature. The result was the most lauded feature that Domo had ever shipped to our technical users, which was the determining factor that excitedly led seven large customers to renew their Domo contracts.

Variables creation modal

Goals

Use data to influence the right actions

How do you engage someone with a medium usually kept at arm's length? You wouldn't go to a museum and add paint to a painting or chisel more from a sculpture. Data is often treated the same way. "That's what the numbers were; let's try to do better next quarter." What could happen if people could paint and sculpt their quarterly numbers?

Use data to influence the right actions

Keep it simple

With the taboo above around data, how can we engage and have everyone painting and sculpting to their heart's content? It has to be so simple to interact with that the newest intern to CEO should feel comfortable with their newfound artistic abilities.

Keep it simple

Bring dashboards into the modern age

Charts, analytics, and dashboards are all very 'new' concepts in the enterprise world. However, for the average consumer, those things are long dead. Apps reign king in the digital world. If average consumers work at enterprise companies, requiring people to use outdated and old software practices, like dashboards and charts, will hamper enterprise growth because the people need to get used to working that way. If there was a way to convert a dashboard into an app, what would that look like?

Bring dashboards into the modern age

Variable control options for different data types

Solutions

Promote action and decision

If we go back to algebra, a variable signifies something unknown in an equation, 5 + X = ?. By taking existing customer data queries and adding a widget or control to adjust the value of a variable, the new output gives you more insight than you had before. With that insight, you can take action. We chose to put variable control widgets in line with charts and graphs. As you adjust a variable widget, your data updates in real-time right next to it, giving you immediate feedback and insight.

Promote action and decision

Keep the experience the same

By introducing a new feature, we wanted to ensure that people could find and use it easily. By putting variables into Beastmodes, it made sense to put variable configurations inside of the same place that Beastmodes were. **If this didn't make sense, no worries. I can explain better in person.

Keep the experience the same

Match customers desired look and feel

Variables wouldn't provide a user value if they never interacted with the variable. We created a large swath of variable widgets, utilizing standard interaction components and methods, that live alongside charts and graphs, prompting the users to toggle, slide, and select a new outcome for their data. And we have made it so you can use the type of widget you want to use. Want a shorter list of multi-select choices? Use a drop-down multi-item selector.

Match customers desired look and feel

Put it everywhere

The value of variables is using them. If they only existed on the web, that would be needed to engage those on mobile. By working closely with the mobile designer, we devised a way to integrate variables seamlessly into the mobile version of Domo.

Put it everywhere

Conclusion

A lot of my joy as a designer is hearing that someone is happy with my work. In this case, I was floored by the response from customers and internal stakeholders. There are quotes of customers saying that variables have opened thousands of doors to explore data and make better business decisions. Others have said that it is the sole reason they continue resigning their contract.

In the month following the public release of Variables, we closed a deal that resulted in $10m in revenue. We also saw that more dashboards than ever were being created as users began to build a dashboard with a job to be done, not just data to be seen and forgotten. And we saw an uptick in daily active users as more and more people were able to interact with their data.

They say surround yourself with people smarter than you - when working under Josh, I saw how good this advice really was. I was lucky enough to land Josh as my manager at the beginning of my internship. From day one he treated me as a friend, and equal, and as someone who had something unique to bring to the table. Josh's critical thinking skills, big picture ideas, and eye for design make him a key player on any team.