What's New in 2021?

The Ambition team works to improve our platform every day. These updates include everything from major improvements, feature requests from our customers, and bug fixes.

 

December 14th, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Gong Integration - Filters: The call filters within the Gong integration have been improved to prevent users from selecting end dates that precede the start date. Additionally, the filter chips have been improved for usability & readability.

🐛  Bugs:

• Ambition Input Icon Centering: Icons within the Scorecard editor (ex: %) had become misaligned; they have been re-centered at variable height.

 

November 30th, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Gong Call Tab Empty States: This tab view will now differentiate between two use cases
  • No Calls Yet - This user doesn't have any calls saved to their Gong account yet.
  • No Calls Found - Try adjusting the filters to broaden your search.

🐛  Bugs:

• Metrics Display Trailing Zeros: Metrics with trailing decimal zeros on the leaderboard will now show those zeros instead of dropping them (example: 64.0).
• Truncate Favicon To Zero Decimal Places: The browser favicon activity score value has been shortened to show no decimal places.
• Accolades Last-Update Time: Last Update Time is now displayed on Accolade Card's details section. Additionally, this is shown in the Manage Accolades page.
• Update Goal Value Precision: The step value of the goal's value field was changed from home numbers to "0.01" in the update form as it is in the create form.

 

November 16th, 2021

🎁 New:

• Public Coaching Data API: The new coaching data API allows customers to pull their Ambition coaching data into their 3rd part business intelligence platform. Endpoints include check-ins, programs, templates, and action plan data. Click here to learn more about the Public API and how to create an access token.

• Gong Call Metrics: Ambition's Gong integration now pulls in Gong's Interaction and Activity data for each call recording. This data includes Talk Ratio, Longest Monologue, Longest Customer Story, Interactivity, and Patience.

 

🛠️  Improvements:

• Gong Call List Pagination: If a user has more than 25 Gong recordings within a certain time frame, the interface now offers pagination alongside filtering.

• Coaching Note Styling: This update improves the UI/UX of the coaching note creation process & viewing historical notes across the check-in and note page views.
  
  
• Coaching Agenda Styling: This update improves UI of coaching agendas (check-ins & action plans) by removing the agenda item type icons and bolding each agenda item for increased readability.

🐛  Bugs:

• Coaching Note Insert Link Modal: From the Notes page, users were unable to insert a link into the coaching note's modal. This has been fixed.

 

November 2nd, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• New Email Subject Lines & CTAs: Ambition's platform emails have been updated to provide clearer subject lines and improved redirects in-app.
  
  
• Action Plan Name Column: In the Manage>Action Plans page, a new column has been added called “Action Plan”. This will redirect the user to that action plan's page (same redirect as the view button within the ellipsis).

• Note Preview Column: In the Manage > Notes page of Coaching, a new column has been added to provide context of each note’s contents without having to click into it. This also provides consistent navigation throughout all of our “manage” pages. The "Content" button to view the note's body has been replaced by this clickable preview.

• Modal Improvements: Ambition's modals are being improved to provide a consistent experience, including modal headers, streamlined action buttons, and close buttons.
  • This phase addresses modals for Dashboard Metric Selector, Metric Reprocessing, & View Metric IDs for Scorecard Uploads.

• Editable Attribution Metrics - Program Templates: A Program Template’s attribution metrics were permanently locked after creation. Now template creators can update (add or remove) attribution metrics on a program template.

🐛  Bugs:

• Salesforce Multi-Currency Support: Added multi currency support for the salesforce puller, enabled in the spot checker and audit pages.
• Coaching Analytics: “Employees Without 1 Completed Check-In” has been updated to reflect the filter's End Date.
• Salesforce Scorecard Widget: Expanded the size of the scorecard's circle in the Salesforce widget.
• Gong Calls Filtering: Within the Gong tab of a check-in, the Date filters are now localized to reflect the user's local timezone.
• Advanced Metrics Better Reprocess Logic: Cosmetic changes (like a name update) made to a formula builder metric will no longer result in reprocess.
• TVs Ignore Trigger Events When Feature Is Off: Ambition TV ticker's will no longer show historical Trigger events if the Trigger feature is turned "Off". Features can be enabled/disabled from the Manage Features page within the Administration settings (/feature/manage/features/).

 

October 19th, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Modal Improvements: Ambition's modals are being improved to provide a consistent experience, including modal headers, streamlined action buttons, and close buttons.
  • This initial phase addresses modals for accolades, permissions, analytics, and saved filters for leaderboards.

• Manage Check-Ins Page: The Manage all Check-Ins page has a new column A to include the check-in's title. This will allow users to easily access the check-in directly from the check-in's name.

• Scorecard Truncating & Decimals: Ambition's scorecard totals will now show a decimal place, truncating the scorecard's value. This will provide a more accurate score as opposed to a rounded score value.
  • For example, a 99.93333 will be displayed as a "99.9" instead of a "100".
    • In this example, the user's dashboard would show a 100 score, but their metric-based workflows would not trigger, due to the rounding in the interface.

October 6th, 2021

🎁 New:

• Initial Setup Page Redesign: The Initial Setup page has been redesigned to better support Ambition's onboarding process and to provide a task list to our admin users. Administrators can access this page from the left-hand navigation, Administration > Initial Setup.

 

🛠️  Improvements:

• Microsoft Teams - Filter Private Teams and Channels: By default, Ambition will no longer show private Teams or private Channels when creating a Microsoft Teams Workflow action. In order to add a Workflow to a private Team, you'll first need to install the app to that specific Team in Microsoft Teams.
  
  
• Poll Agenda Item & Follow-Up Questions: The Poll agenda item for coaching has been improved to provide a better user experience. Additionally, it provides coaches with the ability to ask a follow-up question. This agenda item can be used in check-ins, recurring programs, coaching templates, and in action plans.

• Gong Integration - Searching and Filtering: The Gong tab within a coaching check-in has been updated to include a search option and time frame filters. This will help users narrow down their search results. Click here to learn more about the Gong integration for Coaching.

🐛  Bugs:

• Question Agenda Items Placeholder Text: When using a template for a coaching check-in or program, the agenda item's placeholder text has been fixed so that it now matches the item's content. It was incorrectly showing "What is holding you back" as the default placeholder text.
  
• Analytics Time Series Weekend Columns: Weekend columns (Saturday & Sunday) are no longer displayed for Time Series reports when 'Day' is selected and 'Include Weekends' is 'Off'.

• Gong Integration - Empty State: When a user doesn't have any Gong calls to display within their check-in, the improved empty state will direct the employee/manager to their Gong account.

September 22nd, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• TV Display Name: The TV form now offers a Display Name in addition to the URL name. This new field is used in the TV management page and within the Workflow creation form (actions step). Pre-existing TVs will inherit a Display Name matching their URL name, but these can be edited.

• Salesforce Accounts Import Error - CSV Download: When mass uploading Salesforce users, if Salesforce usernames on the spreadsheet do not match the actual Salesforce usernames, the error message will now provide a full list of usernames and the option to download the list as a CSV file.
• Add Titles to Asks Cards: Employee Asks found on Coaching Timelines will now have a summary title, matching the style of coaching Notes.

• Accessing SAML Settings: The organization's SAML settings can now be accessed through the left-hand navigation only (Administration > People > Single Sign-On). This will no longer be found on the Active Integrations page.

🐛  Bugs:

• Managerial Dashboard - Competitions Tab: If any direct report is participating in a competition, that competition will now appear on the corresponding managerial dashboard. Previously, only competitions build for the manager group were shown here. 
  
  
• Do Not Auto Select Field Options On User Upload: During the user creation upload process (via CSV) the form would incorrectly auto-select username as the field type for all Ambition fields. This has been resolved.

August 24th, 2021

🎁 New:

• Microsoft Teams Integration: Through Ambition's Microsoft Teams Integration you can send Workflow notifications directly to your Teams and Channels to drive employee engagement and recognition. Enabling the Microsoft Teams integration will also allow users to share Leaderboards on the fly. Click here to learn more.

• Gong Integration for Coaching (Beta Program): Supercharge your coaching 1:1s with the ability to review your reps’ Gong call recordings and data right in Ambition's coaching platform. This integration centralizes the insights you need to foster good conversation habits. Click here to learn more.

• New Agenda Items - Multiple Choice & Checkboxes: These new agenda items allow teams to track new types of qualitative data alongside their coaching initiatives. Multiple-Choice is a great for for creating Yes/No or True/False type questions. And Checkboxes allow users to select all that apply. These can be used in all agendas (check-ins, programs, action plans, & templates).

• New Button Styling: A new system that simplifies all the button variations and colors, improving readability and WCAG compliance.

🛠️  Improvements:

• Improved Coaching Card Styling: All coaching events (check-ins, action plans, and notes) found on the user's dashboard have been updated to allow check-ins, notes, and action plans

• Workflows - Page Navigation and Breadcrumbs: The Workflow creation and edit forms now have page titles and breadcrumbs for easier navigation.

• Check-In Create Form Improvements: The first step of the check-in creation form has been slightly updated to increase readability, and easier designation of the three check-in types: Now, Later, and Updates.
  
  
• TV Slides - Ability to Drag & Drop to Arrange: Previously to rearrange tv slides users had to use the up and down buttons on each slide card to move them to the desired location. Now users can click and drag to the intended spot.

 

August 10th, 2021

🎁 New:

• Saved Filers for Leaderboards: The Leaderboard app now support saved filters for return visits! Each user can set their filters, give them a title and description, and can easily access them from the Saved Filters menu. Click here to learn more.

 

 

July 28th, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Managing TV Workflows: The Manage TVs page has been updated to show the Workflow count for each unique TV. Additionally, those Workflows can be viewed within each TV editor, via the "Workflow" tab.
• User Management Page Updates: Removed the sub-navigation panel and added "Single Sign-On" to the primary navigation under Administration>People.
• TV Branding Assignments: The tv mass branding selector now as a "select all" button.

🐛  Bugs:

• Check In Filter Due Date Range: The Check-In Due Date filter now considers the user's timezone so that so that an accurate query can be completed.
• Combined Multi Selector Initial Selected Tab: The "Selector" will no longer display the SELECTED tab when there are no options selected.
• Quick Actions Create Notification: The quick actions 'Create a Notification' option will now direct users according to their organization's feature status. For example, if Workflows is enabled, they will be directed there instead of the Triggers page.

 

July 13th, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Descriptions for Analytics Saved Reports: A new Description field has been added to the Saved Report modal. This description will appear in the saved report selector.

• Workflow Form Improvements: The Workflow creation form has been improved with new styling and buttons.

 

June 29th, 2021

🎁 New:

• Export Summary Data for 1,000 Check-Ins at a Time: Admin users can now export summary data for up to 1,000 check-ins at a time from the Manage>Check-Ins page. To help facilitate this export, a Check-In Due Date time frame filter has been added.
  
  • This allows teams to export any check-ins that were due this week, this month, etc..
  • The report includes employee, manager, co-coaches, program name, template name, status, start date, due date, completed date, and the average rating for the check-in.
    

🛠️  Improvements:

• Analytics Permissions: The previous Reporting permission setting has been split up into two separate permission categories: Analytics Reporting and Workflows. Click here to learn more about permissions.
  

🐛  Bugs:

• Group Goals Missing from User Dashboards: Goals that are created for a Group will now show on a User's dashboard if that user is a member of the group entity (applies to all groups, including Organization).

 

June 15th, 2021

🎁 New:

• Lower-is-Better Metrics for Scorecards: Ambition's Scorecards provide teams with the ability to have blended metric types, supporting both Higher-is-Better (traditional metrics) and Lower-is-Better. Examples include: Average Response Time, Transfer Rate, and Ticket Response Time. Click here to learn more.

 

🛠️  Improvements:

• New Goal Entity Filters: In addition to the recent Goal Exports, both the My Goals page and Manage Goals page now offer improved filtering. Users can narrow down their search results using advanced filtering for Associations and Owner Hierarchy Levels.

• Trigger To Workflow Conversion: Ambition's Triggers can now be converted to Workflows, individually or in bulk.

 

🐛  Bugs:

• Metric Snapshot Agenda Item for Coaching: Activity Score, Objective Score, and Advanced Metrics were incorrectly pulling in a zero for a coaching agenda's Metric Snapshot agenda item. This has been fixed to show the current value for the selected time frame.
  
  

June 2nd, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Audit Logs for Coaching: These changes track and display audit logs for Check-In Templates, Programs, Program Templates, & Rating Categories. These can be seen in the Manage > Coaching page and display "Last Modified By" and "Last Modified Time."

• Changed Default Filters For Check-Ins Action Plans: The default status for Check-In & Action Plan pages has been changed from "Pending" to "Open." Open includes agendas that are both pending answers and pending review. This allows Managers to see all open check-ins and action items upon load.

🐛  Bugs:

• Productivity Quadrant Labels: The Points on a Quadrant are now rendered in front of the Input/Output labels, so that they are always clickable even if they overlap with the graph's labels.

 

May 5th, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Hide Weekends on Scorecard Line Graphs: For Daily Activities, a new toggle has been added to include or exclude weekends (defined as Saturday & Sunday) from the line graph. By default, weekends are now hidden from the line graph. Click the Include Weekends toggle to show weekend activity.

• New Styling in the Scorecard Builder: The Scorecard builder (and advanced options) have new styling and help text.
  • Min & Max have been retitled to Start & Stop values.
  • Smart Benchmark Tools have been improved for usability.
  • Scoring Weight Text has been improved to highlight points for unit increase.

• Ambition Email Footer - Notification Settings: Emails sent from the Ambition platform (coaching, goal, competition notifications, etc.) have been updated to include a link to the user's notification settings. There the user can turn on or off any notification types.
  • Users without the "Users: Edit" permission will now be able to see a read-only "User Settings" "Details" & "Notifications" with a message that directs the user to contact their company administrator or the Ambition support team.

• Sending Email Address: Emails sent from Ambition are now sent from donotreply@ambition.com. 
  
  
• Ability to Filter Check-Ins by Template Name: The Check-Ins page (and Manage Check-ins view) now offer a Template filter. This allows users to look for check-ins that used a specific template.

• Check-In Title Changes: When a Check-In Template is used for a check-in's agenda, the corresponding notification email & check-in card will display the template's name as the title/subject line. This adds additional context to the coaching event's content & purpose.
  • Ex: A Check-In Template named "Call Coaching" was used for the agenda, so the check-in is named Call Coaching.
  • When a template is not used, the title will fall back to "Employee <> Manager Check-In".

 

🐛  Bugs:

• Co-Coach Note Creation: Fixed logic that prevented a Check-In Co-Coach from being able to create a Note associated with the Check-In.
  
  

April 20, 2021

🎁 New:

• Goal Exports: Goals can now be exported individually or in bulk (up to 1000 at a time).
  • Individual Goal Exports include all goal details, including user contribution.
  • Goals can be exported on the Manage Goals page or from the Dashboard.

• Competition Exports: Competitions (challenges & fantasy) can now be exported. These export include:
  • Individual Challenge Export Includes: 
    • Challenge Details (start, end, number of competitors, last processed time, etc.)
    • Score Configuration
    • Scores & Prizes
    • Scheduled Time Off
    • Comments
  • Fantasy Season Export Includes:
    • Challenge Details (start, end, number of competitors, last processed time, etc.)
    • Score Configuration
    • Final Results (win/loss record, points for, points against, streak)
    • Scores (including regular season and playoff matchups)

• Account Last Active Date: Within the user directory page (Administration > Users), a new column has been added to show when a user last logged in to their Ambition account. 

🛠️  Improvements:

• Time Frame Filter for Managing Goal: The Manage Goals page now has a Time Frame filter, which allows users to find goals that were in progress during a specific time period. This filter includes presets like Today, This Week, etc., but can also be customized to search for custom time frames via a calendar selector.

• Account Last Active Date: A new column as been added to the User Directory page (Administration > Users) which shows when each Ambition user logged into their account. 
  • If no date is present for a user, the user hasn't logged in since April 21st. Last active dates were not backfilled.
    

 

April 6, 2021

🎁 New:

• Automate Metric Snapshots in Coaching: With Ambition Coaching, you can automatically embed and review employee performance metrics directly in your check-ins! This new agenda item allows Managers to pre-select a Metric, Time Frame, and supporting question to review during each coaching session.

🐛  Bugs:

• Goal Navigation: In the primary navigation, Goal>Create is now shown for users that have the ability to create a goal for all, subordinates, and themselves. Goal, Manage is now shown for users that can edit a goal for all and subordinates.

 

March 9, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Export Questions & Answers from a Coaching Program: The Program CSV download has been improved to include all related rating categories and agenda items from the corresponding check-ins. This CSV includes each check-in's:
  • Each Individual Rating Categories
  • Total Average Rating
  • Attribution Metrics
  • Each Agenda Item & the Corresponding Response

From the Manage Coaching page, click Programs, Options, then Export CSV.

 

February 23, 2021

🛠️  Improvements:

• Coaching Program Due Dates: When creating a new coaching Program, the form allows managers to specify when subsequent Check-Ins are due. Choices are When the Next Check-In Begins (the previous, hardcoded choice), and After [1-30] Days. 
  • Example Use Case: I want our monthly recurring check-in to be due within the first 7 days of the month, not the end of the month.
  • The default due date for a program's check-in will remain as "before the next scheduled check-in." 
  • Current programs can be edited to configure a custom due date.

• TV Branding - Accent Color Selector: The TV Branding supports an accent color. The HEX color code input field now has a dynamic color selector. This input is supported by Chrome, Safari, & Edge but not Internet Explorer.

• Accolade Audit Logs: The Manage Accolade page now displays audit logs, including Created By, Last Modified Time, and Last Modified By fields.

• Goal Audit Logs: The Manage Goals page now displays audit logs, including: Created By, Last Modified Time, and Last Modified By fields.

• Goal Creation - Redirect Flow: A snackbar is presented on Goal creation that gives the user links to view the Goal (if a single Goal was created) and to manage all Goals. If the creator remains on the page, they can create a new goal based on the previous goal's inputs.

• Notification Email Toggle: A toggle for "All" has been added to the User Settings > Notifications page to assist in managing the list notifications. A save button has been added at the top to "Update Subscriptions."

 

February 9, 2021

🎁  New:

• Slack Command for Coaching Notes: Invoking the /ambition note slash command will allow a Manager to create a coaching note from a Slack channel or direct message.
  • The Shared note will be posted to the Recipient's coaching timeline (on their personal dashboard) and will alert the user via email.
  • A Private note will only be visible by the creator of the note, and will not notify the Recipient.

Click here to learn more.

 

🛠️  Improvements:

• Improved Styling for Check-ins & Action Plans: This update unifies the styling across check-ins & action plans. These new headers are both represented in a coaching timeline view and in the card view. This update provides:
  • Insight into the next check-in event date (Meeting: Tuesday, Sep. 15 @ 4:00PM EDT)
  • Profile photos of all participants (Manager, Co-Coaches, & Employee)
  • Visibility into the current status (Pending Approval)

• Date Field Filters: The metric builder within an integration now supports the ability to filter date fields as “is blank” or “is not blank”.
  

 

🐛  Bugs:

• One-Off Check-Ins are now shown in Program Exports: Check-Ins manually linked to a Program will now be included in a Program export without session attribution data. A "Scheduled" column has been added to the export.
  
  
• Coaching Overview - Employees Without 1 Completed Check-In: The Coaching Overview page provides the ability to select a time frame to view any Employees who have not completed a check-in. The query's filters have been updated to exclude any completed check-ins that either started or were completed during the selected time frame.
  
  
• Goals Creation - User Dropdown Selector: When creating a goal, the user selector has been updated to only display users who the Manager has the ability to create a goal for. Previously, all users were being shown.

 

January 26, 2021

🎁  New:

• Coaching Rating Categories: Ambition's newest version of Rating Categories allows teams to highlight specific rating categories per coaching initiative. These can be customized at the Program, Check-in, & Template level. Click here to learn more.

• Slack Slash Command for Competitions: The new Slackbot Slash Command for Ambition allows users to share the competitor standings in active or recently ended Ambition Challenges. To invoke the command in a Slack channel, type and enter /ambition competition. Click here to learn more about Slash Commands.

 

🐛  Bugs:

• Weekly Digest Competition Counts: Weekly Digests were counting competitions by their last processed date, which is dependent on incoming data. Digest logic has been changed to count by start and end dates to decouple data processing from counting.

 

January 12, 2021

🐛  Bugs:

• Goal Creation Form:
  • Hierarchy Selector: When creating a new Goal, the hierarchy selector dropdown would previously show all user entities, regardless of the individual's permissions. If an invalid entity was selected the goal form would present an error. This hierarchy selector has been improved to be permission aware, filtering out any invalid choices.
  • Manager Teams: When Managers attempted to make a goal for their "manager" hierarchy, they were being declined with the error "One or more goal owners is required". This has been fixed to ensure that Managers can create goals for any hierarchy level that they oversee.

• Editing Slack Triggers: When editing a pre-existing trigger that included a Slack notification, the Slack channel field would appear blank. This has been fixed to show all pre-selected Slack channels when editing a Trigger's notifications.