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Seeking feedback on a possible new feature

Meaghan Metke
$organization

Hello all! My name is Meaghan and I'm a Business Analyst with the Tessitura Network.

We received a great suggestion to create some sample lists and output sets to include as standard features in Tessitura, similar to what we do with sample HTML templates. We believe this would help new or less experienced users get a feel for how to pull a list, as well as possibly saving time by pre-building some basic lists/output sets that are commonly used - for example, current subscribers/members/donors, un-renewed subscribers/members, ticket holders for tomorrow, subscriber/member info for renewals, membership/subscription info for general communication, membership/subscription info for welcome communication, etc. This also seems like a great way to make the output set recipe book more accessible, as we could build out those recipes as sample output sets, rather than making you all build them from scratch.

As we contemplate adding these sample lists and output sets, I'd love to get some feedback on the following questions:

  1. It seems to make sense to add these sample lists into a new "Sample" category, so they are easy to find. However, output sets don't have the concept of a category. Would it be helpful to add categories to output sets so they could be bundled or grouped similar to lists?

  2. If we move forward with this, what sample lists and/or output sets would you find most helpful? Don't forget that these could be lists referenced by reports, utilities, pricing rules, etc. or output sets used with an extraction (re-named to segmentations in v16).

  3. Do you think sample extractions/segmentations could be valuable as well? Because of all the data nuances that are so personal to each org, this begins to feel maybe one step too complicated to me...unless we do something like generic sample sets that include commonly used segments for import. For example, basic suppression segments, some of the lists I called out above, etc.
    1. If yes, what sample sets or segments would you find most helpful?

Thank you in advance for your feedback! It is incredibly helpful to us as we keep working to make Tessitura the best tool it can be.

Meaghan

  • $organization

    Hi Meaghan, we think this is a great idea

    I've put the questions to our Tessitura Team, and have a couple of thoughts:

    1. We'd find it extremely useful to have criteria to identify new to venue / new to genre / first time booker 

    2. I’m not certain that many organisations use Categories effectively when it comes to Lists. We certainly don’t, and neither have the other venues I’ve worked at! That said, I’m confident that they have value, and it’s just perhaps something we should be better at. As to whether Output sets should have their own categories, that feels a little excessive to me – but I’d support the ability to add Output Sets to the same Categories that people create for Lists – that is, categories can be shared across both Lists and Output Sets.

    3. Sample stuff… I usually create a ‘performance quick contact sheet’: that will export all e-mail addresses and phone numbers for anyone in a given performance, which we can then use to get in touch with people ASAP in the event of cancellations, etc. – so something like that, maybe?

    Best,

    Rosie

  • $organization

    Hi Meaghan - 

    1) Yes to groupings.

    My brain goes in two directions to reach a Yes answer. First, I think if there are going to be Samples handy, it only makes sense for them to be called out as a folder of all of them to browse--basically, mirroring what we're getting used to as a learning tool in Analytics. Second, while I can't say that our org really uses categories like I think they're probably intended (can't say there's consistent technique), I personally find them very helpful as a way to help my eyes identify what I'm searching for by just having a little less in front of me--filtering, basically. In fact, I save all our email lists (aka data saved out of extractions, where you see the real work product) into a dedicated folder just as one way of getting them out of they way.

    2) Examples....Queries related to:

    - email/mail suppressions

    - contact point preferences etc and interests (ie show that you need to select both the interest and the status of checkbox etc)

    - some basics of using Ticket History

    - some basics of using contribution history

    - things related to pre-visit or post-visit messaging (dynamic and relative concepts); within this, some clear indications of what's standard and what's easy to custom build via recipe books; also, have the examples represent some of what can be funky, like <= and >= for Ticket History Perf Date.

    3) Yes. 

    Mostly a yes because I like the idea that it's standard that all the things you build in "regular" Tessitura (aka not wading into SQL and intense Tables) have a consistent section of Examples That You Can Run. But, I also agree that the slope gets slippery faster here, so starting small with the sample set sounds smart--maybe just one for email and one for mail or so on.

  • $organization

    Hi Meaghan, 

    I love this idea and think it would be a valuable resource.

    1. I think output set categories would be great! 
    2. Sample lists/output sets that would be useful:
    -contribution history with date range/campaign/fund output filters
    -membership history and status
    -ticket history with date range/season/production filters
    -email communication preferences with primary email address
    3. I agree that since extractions are more nuanced than lists, samples could be more difficult to craft. But I think a sample that could be helpful are samples for general email blasts or mailings with some common suppressions segments (like no mail, no contact, inactive and deceased records, etc.) and common segments like ticket history and giving history.

    Thanks,
    Michelle

  • $organization

    Hi Meaghan
    Sorry - have only just seen this.

    Categories for output sets would be very helpful.    We use categories widely for lists, and it would help us be able to separate output sets by team.

    Sample lists:   mailing lists;  membership expiries;  quantity of.....(people on mailing lists;  ticket bookers;  active members)
    Output sets:   some basic sets for people to pick up and tweak would be very helpful.   Address mailing data (with relationships);  Membership renewals;  Pre visit data for sending to email providers.

    best wishes

    Alison