Add field/dimension not yet available in a dataset

I hope this doesn't sound like a stupid question, because we understand WHY it's happening, but it's something we've struggled with for some time now when trying to keep filters updated and cards accurate - it's been a very painful, time-consuming manual process thus far.

 

So, we add a dataset & card, and set filters for the specific department that we want to track, in this case a call center group. We import the data to be used in a dataset and update as best we can available fields to ensure all agents are included. Obviously, environments such as these tend to experience high turnover rates that result in new hires on a pretty frequent basis, as well as promotions from within to another department causing another issue with retaining historical data for the right department.

 

The main issue above that we'd like to see if a work-around exists for would be:

* a way to manually add an employees name for filtering purposes even when there is no data available? At this time, we udpate cards (MANY of them!) as a new employee begins to show up in reports, and we're able to do so in 70-80% of cards on the first attempt but always end up having to go back in several times over a period of weeks to ensure they've been added to all cards once they're included in other reports where they previously did not show up, i.e. late, called out/absence, specific status not previously used, etc.

 

 

Internally, development has started on a solution that should allow us to retain historical data by department and we're hopeful that it might even be able to address the issue above, but that's likely a ways off and figured it was worth asking in the event something could help limit the amount of manual updates to cards/filters that are needed at this time!

 

Thank you in advance for your time, and any information that might be helpful with this.

Best Answer

  • Valiant
    Valiant Coach
    Answer ✓

    So we have a similar situation that sometimes arises where people may not have metrics for a specific time period but we want to show them regardless.

     

    What we end up doing is pulling the list of 'Active' users from our HR system of record and then left join that to whatever data source we want to summarize. We end up creating 2 datasets. A summary dataset with all users and a detail version with the row level data.

     

    The top card (with filters) ends up using the summary view and then we enable drill-downs so that the lower levels return the detail view. 

     

    This way whether the users are actually doing work or not, they still show up (but would obviously have 0's next to the metrics being tracked for their name).

     

    Maybe your development team is working on something similar, but hopefully that helps.

     

    Sincerely,

    ValiantSpur

Answers

  • Valiant
    Valiant Coach
    Answer ✓

    So we have a similar situation that sometimes arises where people may not have metrics for a specific time period but we want to show them regardless.

     

    What we end up doing is pulling the list of 'Active' users from our HR system of record and then left join that to whatever data source we want to summarize. We end up creating 2 datasets. A summary dataset with all users and a detail version with the row level data.

     

    The top card (with filters) ends up using the summary view and then we enable drill-downs so that the lower levels return the detail view. 

     

    This way whether the users are actually doing work or not, they still show up (but would obviously have 0's next to the metrics being tracked for their name).

     

    Maybe your development team is working on something similar, but hopefully that helps.

     

    Sincerely,

    ValiantSpur

  • Thanks so much, @Valiant, forwarding this along to leadership for review in the hopes that we can escalate to our Engineering Team if it's feasible for us! Really appreciate all the help that we get here in the Dojo, and I've been able to learn so much from all the responses to our many questions. Have an awesome day!  Smiley Happy

  • Thank you @John-Peddle and @Valiant.

     

    It's the Domo customers, like you, who make this place a great place to learn and share best practices.

     

    Cheers!

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