Changes in Notes and Actions

I'm noticing that when entering a Note or Action the template is different. There used to be icons of action types at the top, now they're in a drop down box. Time fields are missing and I'm not sure what else. I must have missed a notice that went out, an update or something. I follow 'what's new' but didn't see this. I'm about 6 weeks into NXT. Do I need to do anything specific to be notified of updates? I checked my subscriptions and have bookmarked areas of interest to try to stay current.  Thoughts? Thanks.

 

Comments

  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management
    I missed this notice as well, but I think I like it.  Primarily because of the removal of those unnecessary past/future buttons.  They just kind of aggravated me much more than I realized.  Especially since there was already a required date field.


    But it makes sense, and lines up more with the database view action fields.  And you can see more of the action without scrolling.  
  • We just noticed this change as well. I am frustrated because I just had several months of training everyone to use the Inbound/Outbound buttons in both NXT and database view and they have disappeared. Has anyone found anything on the What's New site that explains the change?

     

  • Thanks Dariel
    and Corbett. At least I wasn't losing my mind! I agree that some
    fields were not necessary. 



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    Leslie McGeady

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  • Add a new action from the "+" button at the top of a List (still) gives the old layout (at least for us).
  • I'm frustrated too - all of my training documents had screenshots from the old setup and now they'll have to be redone.


    Having said that the one benefit I can definitely see to this is that now we can create additional categories that aren't so explicitly tied to the UI of the original version. I want to be able to add "Social media" and "Text message" as additional options - I've asked our DOs to track those as email actions but being able to break them out will be great as a means of understanding how many people really do prefer those methods of communication.


    Still, it would have been super great to have a heads up on this. Blackbaud, are you listening?

  • Rachael -



    I agree that the
    flexibility with categories will be beneficial. I like what you
    suggest.  Many thanks!



    --







    Leslie McGeady

    Development Database
    Coordinator


    uc?export=download&id=0BxHzDLTc4deHSmtfd

    505 South Ludlow Street

    Dayton, OH 45402


    (937) 461-3740
    x212








  • There is nothing more frustrating than multiple users (in this case, front-line Advancement Officers) coming to me or my staff asking what happened or why something changed, and we were not even aware of the change. What is the purpose of the Roadmap webinars if they are not educating users of actual changes that are going to happen? Why are we so often caught off guard with changes and not included in discussions about the value (or lack of) of those changes? I echo the previous comment of Rachel Walker, are you listening Blackbaud?
  • Another negative to the new format, gift officers are reporting that their fundraiser/solicitor information is no longer auto-populating in the new action template.  That means a lot more clean up required on the back-end before reports can be accurately generated :(

    Not happy with the new format or the lack of notice to the change.
  • I agree with all of you...I HATE this new layout.  There was no warning or explanation about this.  I too have to re-do my training and documentation around this.  It is much less intuitive for all of my users and adds a layer of confusion that wasn't necessary.  I really hope that BB is seeing this and listening to the users about this!
  • The change is reverted in my NXT today. Which is even more confusing for the development officers I just warned of the changes.


    Blackbaud, seriously. I would love to have some kind of a statement on this.
  • Blackbaud, time to wake up. Hire actual users of Raiser's Edge who live and breath this stuff everyday.  You are out of touch with your customers.
  • BB - I already changed a lot of my documentation when we saw this new view. Will you be rolling the new version out soon? If so, I want to proceed with the continued revisions. Otherwise, I will revert back to the old revisions. Knowing what direction you are going is extremely helpful.
  • Anthony Gallo
    Anthony Gallo Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Commented in Discussion First Reply
    Hey Everyone,


    Sorry to rattle everyone's cage on a Friday.  We did just roll this back based on the overwhelming feedback received from multiple outlets.  This update is still coming but we want to make sure we get it properly documented before pushing it back out.  We also want to make sure that there is no lost functionality which we heard about from a couple users.  I don't think we lost anything but we definitely changed the feel significantly here and things might just be juggled to a different spot.  We did this in effort to get more in line with our SKY UX standards.  That was definitely the driving force for the change and the reason we will still be making it.


    Again, sorry if this caused any issues for you and we will look to streamline this process moving forward.  


    Anthony
  • Thanks Anthony. Good to know.
  • Hi,


    Very frustrating, my fundraiser brought this to my attention this morning!  After searching everywhere for an update I finally checked with the community!  Thanks for this post.   FYI - the previous view is still active on the Action Lists if that's any help to anyone.


    Rita

  • Ok, I'm just now
    looking at actions in NXT and sure enough, it's back to the old
    format! What's up? Receiving timely notification of changes,
    updates and modifications is imperative. How can I prepare my team
    for efficient data entry when I have no notion of what's
    occurring? And since our whole team is new to NXT it impacts
    the user's trust of the system and interest in learning when
    changes occur such as this.

    What's the plan
    Blackbaud?



    --







    Leslie McGeady

    Development Database
    Coordinator


    uc?export=download&id=0BxHzDLTc4deHSmtfd

    505 South Ludlow Street

    Dayton, OH 45402


    (937) 461-3740
    x212








  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management
    You know...I'm quite frustrated with this situation.  It was bad enough to roll out a change without notice.  Then the worse thing you could have done was to roll it back without notice again.  Then mention that it may be pushed out at a later notice.  *sigh*


    I don't know why or what caused these decisions.  Rolling it back seemed like not owning the process.  I don't know if there was a general dislike of the old view, or of the new view.  It's clear that this was a planned change, but somewhere along the lines the way the method of communicating these changes feels like it's been lost.  I don't know what is gained by making this change twice.

     
  • Anthony Gallo
    Anthony Gallo Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Commented in Discussion First Reply
    Dariel,

    Thank you for the reply and I don't disagree with anything you posted here.  Ideally, none of this wouldn't have happened and we would have made this change with enough notice that everyone could have planned accordingly.  When that did not occur and the update hit, we had a flood of responses and some of those dealt with lost functionality which we cannot obviously have.  We could have moved to fix any of those areas quickly if they were identified or roll it back and reset to a more expected rollout workflow.  Given the fact that we are coming up on the weekend and disruptions to workflow would be increased due to the fact that everyone is probably working from home, we made the decision to pull it back and get back to a known state.  


    We are definitely owning this release and it isn't a question of if, it is just a question of when this release gets pushed out again.  That will be sooner rather than later.  Change is hard, and if we can soften that blow then I felt that it was the right thing to do.
  • Dariel Dixon
    Dariel Dixon Community All-Star
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply PowerUp Challenge #3 Gift Management

    Anthony Gallo:

    Dariel,

    Thank you for the reply and I don't disagree with anything you posted here.  Ideally, none of this wouldn't have happened and we would have made this change with enough notice that everyone could have planned accordingly.  When that did not occur and the update hit, we had a flood of responses and some of those dealt with lost functionality which we cannot obviously have.  We could have moved to fix any of those areas quickly if they were identified or roll it back and reset to a more expected rollout workflow.  Given the fact that we are coming up on the weekend and disruptions to workflow would be increased due to the fact that everyone is probably working from home, we made the decision to pull it back and get back to a known state.  


    We are definitely owning this release and it isn't a question of if, it is just a question of when this release gets pushed out again.  That will be sooner rather than later.  Change is hard, and if we can soften that blow then I felt that it was the right thing to do.

    Change is hard, but it is constant.  As the current climate shows, we have to adapt.  I understand that there was a loss of functionality, but it also appeared to be by design.  I know that some of the lost fields had no counterpart in the database view, therefore they were NXT only fields.  But lost functionality is difficult for people.  Having the change being thrown upon them was a hard pill, and as we are under abnormal circumstances, it would have seemed that this planned change would have been placed on hold (This assumes other changes are on hold as well under the situation improves).  


    I'm under no illusions about the state of NXT.  As it is an ever-evolving state, we will see changes like this regularly.  Hopefully, these changes will happen in a timely fashion and with proper notification and documentation.  I also recognize that once this update hit Anthony Gallo‍, you were in a no-win situation.  Pulling it back mitigates (some) losses, but it also undoes some of the hard work your team put in to a deliverable.  Keeping it allows more people to be impacted by a change they didn't know was coming and weren't expected.  


    Hopefully though, this feedback will allow you to make some changes in the update to address the functionality issues.  I'll be waiting to see what you have coming forward.

  • Anthony Gallo
    Anthony Gallo Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 Commented in Discussion First Reply
    Hey Everyone,


    We are getting ready to roll this update back out.  The plan for our SKY UX updates has always been to recreate existing forms the best we can.  This action form was one that proved difficult because the icons were created before we had our standard design practices in place.  The previous update did change too much and we heard that feedback and made the call to pull it back and re-evaluate.  Some of the changes are staying and some are being changed back to the what the form previously looked like.  In the end, we feel it is a great compromise and it meets all the accessibility and design standards we were aiming for. 

    2426a85b4c1fb83a055dac81760e3d63-huge-an



    Returned:

    The icons are back but they are new SKY icons and the size is a bit smaller.

    The overall layout of the form is back, this is mainly seen with the date, time and location areas some of those fields (not all) were previously moved to a separate Appointment tab. 


    Changes:

    The Past and Future buttons are gone.  All options for the form now show and can be selected whenever without having to select past for previous actions and future for upcoming ones.  

    The Attachments and Custom fields areas are now in a tabbed/sectioned form view instead of being buried at the bottom


    This form will be pushed to all sites this week and we will have our documentation updated accordingly.  


    If anyone has questions or concerns please feel free to let me know.


    Thanks,

    Anthony
  • Elizabeth Johnson
    Elizabeth Johnson Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply All-Star Challenge: End of Year Fundraising Toolkit
    Thanks Anthony Gallo‍! and to all that voiced their concerns. I love seeing this collaborative work and will remember this for the next BB survey I fill out as to why I recommend this company ? 

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