Jonathan Taylor -
Version 1.4 of Klipfolio Dashboard is live and the newest feature to be added, annotations, is now available for use in your Klips. If you've seen the annotations' video, then you probably agree this feature is about as user-friendly as you can get. Just click on the annotation menu, type your note, and save it. The annotation is visible to any colleague who was access to the Klip. Whenever a new annotation is attached to a Klip, you will be notified by a yellow indicator icon.
Annotations keep you socially connected so you can converse with the right people in your organization to get the most out of your KPIs. Anyone with access to a Klip can make an annotation, and you will be amazed at what your colleagues contribute. To give you an idea of what you can accomplish with annotations, I've put together 3 scenarios showing how you can use this feature to get more out of your business dashboard.
1. Add context to your KPIs
Annotations make it easy to share your business expertise and add context to any KPI. Let's say you are a call center manager and you notice a sudden drop in current service level. Your insight from working on the floor can quickly clarify why that drop occurred (high absenteeism, higher than normal call volume, etc). By attaching an annotation to that call center KPI, anyone can view the note on their dashboard, including your boss who might hire the additional staff you've been asking for.
2. Get the answers you need
Annotations can simplify how you investigate what's going on with your KPIs. Let's say you are monitoring an online marketing metric and you notice that conversions for one of your main pages is down, way down. Your instincts take over and you go to Google Analytics and create a custom report to get the whole picture. While you can create a Klip to show this information, it is only really applicable to this problem. Instead, you can add an annotation with a link to your report so that your colleagues can see what's going on, too. Just remember, they will need to be signed in to Google Analytics to view the report.
3. Coordinate actions, deliver results
Annotations can take your KPI monitoring to the next level, and help you act on what you are seeing. Let's say you are monitoring the performance of multiple restaurants using several categories that provide an overall score or rating for each establishment. The ranking of one restaurant is sending off warning flags, and it's not enough to interrogate the data -- you need to act on what the data is telling you. By adding an annotation, you can coordinate actions with colleagues and deliver results when you need them most.
Have any ideas on how you'd like to use an annotation? How do you share insights with your colleagues? Comment below or join the conversation on Twitter - we're @Klipfolio.