Be a Part of What’s Next for Geocaching GC blog entry

[+L0ne.R]

http://www.geocachin...for-geocaching/

 

"Throughout 2015, we'll be releasing a series of geocacher-inspired features."

 

I'm not seeing anything on the Users Insight Thread. Anyone know what new features are planned?

[Keystone]

From the article:

 

To start, Geocaching Premium members will get a sneak peek at the new Advanced Search tool. It’s been completely retooled, revamped and streamlined based on geocaching community feedback. Now you’ll be able to find the exact adventure you want, easier. Keep an eye out for an email with more details.

[+L0ne.R]

From the article:

 

To start, Geocaching Premium members will get a sneak peek at the new Advanced Search tool. It's been completely retooled, revamped and streamlined based on geocaching community feedback. Now you'll be able to find the exact adventure you want, easier. Keep an eye out for an email with more details.

 

Oh...didn't fully grasp that part of the blog post.

 

I just had a look at Advanced Search http://www.geocachin...k/nearest.aspx. Is there something new on the page, or in the drop menu? I don't see anything new but I haven't looked closely at the drop menu in many months.

 

Any other new features planned in the near future? Will they be posted on the User Insight thread?

Edited January 19, 2015 by L0ne.R

[Keystone]

The new Advanced Search feature hasn't been released yet, so you are still seeing the old version.

 

The User Insights forum is one of several community feedback tools used by Geocaching HQ. The feedback process for the new Advanced Search was extensive, and is continuing.

 

Like the article says, Premium Members will receive an email notifying them of the new feature's sneak preview period. I would not look for anything in the User Insights forum, but as always, I recommend putting a forum notification watch for new threads in the Release Notes and Announcements forum sections.

 

Finally, please understand that Moderators, Reviewers and Play Testers cannot reveal more than what Geocaching HQ has authorized us to reveal, or which has been made public (like in the blog post you saw). One reason for this is because features under development are still being tweaked in response to all the feedback. I apologize if I sound cryptic in my answers, but that's why.

Edited January 19, 2015 by Keystone

[+tozainamboku]

People from the forum would be the last place Groundspeak would go to get input. They probably care more about Facebook post or comments on the blog. Or you have to know Jayme. Fortunately I know Jayme, and her husband Ben, from when they lived in the LA area. So I have a way to get my input heard. The rest of you are out of luck.

[+L0ne.R]

The new Advanced Search feature hasn't been released yet, so you are still seeing the old version.

 

The User Insights forum is one of several community feedback tools used by Geocaching HQ. The feedback process for the new Advanced Search was extensive, and is continuing.

 

Like the article says, Premium Members will receive an email notifying them of the new feature's sneak preview period. I would not look for anything in the User Insights forum, but as always, I recommend putting a forum notification watch for new threads in the Release Notes and Announcements forum sections.

 

Finally, please understand that Moderators, Reviewers and Play Testers cannot reveal more than what Geocaching HQ has authorized us to reveal, or which has been made public (like in the blog post you saw). One reason for this is because features under development are still being tweaked in response to all the feedback. I apologize if I sound cryptic in my answers, but that's why.

 

My apologies. Guess I got too excited. Assumed this blog post was an announcement of actual changes that were happening. Where is the feedback coming from - is GS responding to suggestions/requests that have been discussed in the forums over the years. Or was there a different way of soliciting feedback that I missed?

[+L0ne.R]

People from the forum would be the last place Groundspeak would go to get input. They probably care more about Facebook post or comments on the blog. Or you have to know Jayme. Fortunately I know Jayme, and her husband Ben, from when they lived in the LA area. So I have a way to get my input heard. The rest of you are out of luck.

 

Thanks Toz. I never use Facebook and I don't know Jayme. And I've never been to any mega events in Seattle, so never had contact with management. Would love to know what the buzz is about new features. My hopes were so raised by the blog post. Now I'm confused about the pseudo-announcement.

[Jayme H]

Hey Toz! That may have been true at one point, kind sir. BUT everyone should know that we are developing a brand new process at HQ where we have found that there are many ways (besides a personal connection to a Lackey) to get feedback from the community.

 

Here is a summary of some of the places we are finding great success in gathering insight from geocachers:

 

• User Insights Forum: The Product Development Team hosts product specific discussions on tools and features that we are in the process of working on. This forum hosts sporadic discussions on product related features to help start the brainstorming process rolling. We usually leave the discussion open for around 2 weeks or so, then we close it so I can collect the data and bring it into development meetings. Because the discussions are quicker than a typical forum thread, it is important for everyone to place a watch on that forum to be alerted when a new discussion has been added.
   
  
• Worldwide Surveys: Once we gather the results from the conversation that happened in the User Insights thread we come up with a list of more close-ended questions relating to the requests that were brought up in the thread for a survey. We send the surveys to a random selection of new and advanced users worldwide to see what a wider swath of community members think of the idea. Once we get that information back we start to scope out the project based on what the community has said so far.
   
  
• Innovation Games: We believe in gathering in-person feedback, as well as written opinions. It's way more fun for the community AND for us....and it's incredibly effective. We use a process of brainstorming called Innovation Games that bring community members together in a collaborative process to help define pain points within the game and let us know what priorities they would like to see for tools within certain features. We play these games at HQ Block Party and at various Mega-Events that members of the Product Team travel to - last year we played games with the community in Ulm, Germany and Catalonia, Spain. When we play with a group of people from different parts of the world it helps open peoples' eyes to see the game from a whole new perspective - every state, region, country plays the game so differently and we have to make sure that we are thinking of that when we design our website/apps.
   
  
• Beta Testing: Now that we have heard a WIDE range of requests and gathered lots of information on how people use the various tools that we are improving on we go to work and figure out how to make it happen. When we get a good chunk of work done and feel good about a first take on a feature we let a few people, called Beta Testers, play with it. We do Beta releases to the Community Volunteers and a small group of worldwide Play Testers. They give us lots of fantastic international feedback on what they think is missing and what seems to be working great.
   
  
• In-Person User Testing: After receiving such helpful feedback from the Beta Testers we like to bring local community members into the office to watch them use the new tool. We check for understanding and ease of use. If we see that something isn't quite coming across as expected we make some changes and see if the next round improves things for people.
   
  
• Premium Member Pre-Release: This entire process is brand new and we are just coming up to this particular step for the very first time in a few weeks! When we feel pretty confident in the functionality and ease of understanding for a new tool we are going to release it to Premium Members. Once they get a chance to play with it they can let us know what they think via a survey that we'll send out afterwards. To get the Premium Member sneak peek email invite be sure to "opt in" to the "Tips & Tricks" emails on your Account Settings page.
  

 

Whew! That was a lot of information. Hopefully this helps to explain this brand new process a bit more. We started this new process around June, 2014...so like everything, new processes take time for everyone to adjust to, but we hope that this will be a change that the community really enjoys.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

.

• To get the Premium Member sneak peek email invite be sure to "opt in" to the "Tips & Tricks" emails on your Account Settings page.

 

I thought this should be highlighted. I imagine that a lot of premium members don't visit their account settings page very often and would be unaware that they could opt-in for the sneak peek invite.

 

 

Whew! That was a lot of information. Hopefully this helps to explain this brand new process a bit more. We started this new process around June, 2014...so like everything, new processes take time for everyone to adjust to, but we hope that this will be a change that the community really enjoys.

 

Frankly, I don't care about new processes. I care about results. IMHO, all these new processes are worthless if we don't see some of the many requests for features and improvements actually getting implemented. Will we get a search engine that actually allows us to search by cache names? Will we be able to search for caches with corrected coordinates, or are we just going to see yet another process for gathering feedback?

 

[+cheech gang]

 

Frankly, I don't care about new processes. I care about results. IMHO, all these new processes are worthless if we don't see some of the many requests for features and improvements actually getting implemented. Will we get a search engine that actually allows us to search by cache names? Will we be able to search for caches with corrected coordinates, or are we just going to see yet another process for gathering feedback?

 

Were those things you hope for addressed in one of the processes delineated above?

 

Notably missing from the listed process inputs was any mention of consideration being given to discussions of issues in any of the forums other than in the limited "User Insight" forum.

 

Here we whine for naught?

[+cerberus1]

 

Frankly, I don't care about new processes. I care about results. IMHO, all these new processes are worthless if we don't see some of the many requests for features and improvements actually getting implemented. Will we get a search engine that actually allows us to search by cache names? Will we be able to search for caches with corrected coordinates, or are we just going to see yet another process for gathering feedback?

 

Were those things you hope for addressed in one of the processes delineated above?

 

Notably missing from the listed process inputs was any mention of consideration being given to discussions of issues in any of the forums other than in the limited "User Insight" forum.

 

Here we whine for naught?

+1

I was kinda surprised that the Website discussion forums wasn't included.

"Discussions about features, bugs, and ways to improve Geocaching.com."

- Guess "ways to improve..." could be removed.

[+L0ne.R]

.

• To get the Premium Member sneak peek email invite be sure to "opt in" to the "Tips & Tricks" emails on your Account Settings page.

 

I thought this should be highlighted. I imagine that a lot of premium members don't visit their account settings page very often and would be unaware that they could opt-in for the sneak peek invite.

 

 

I didn't know about it. Went to my account settings and was surprised to see that I had a Tips & Tricks section and it is already checked off. I don't recall ever getting any Tips & Tricks email. But maybe I didn't notice the difference between Tips & Tricks and the newsletter.

[Moun10Bike]

Frankly, I don't care about new processes. I care about results. IMHO, all these new processes are worthless if we don't see some of the many requests for features and improvements actually getting implemented. Will we get a search engine that actually allows us to search by cache names? Will we be able to search for caches with corrected coordinates, or are we just going to see yet another process for gathering feedback?

 

Were those things you hope for addressed in one of the processes delineated above?

 

Notably missing from the listed process inputs was any mention of consideration being given to discussions of issues in any of the forums other than in the limited "User Insight" forum.

 

Here we whine for naught?

+1

I was kinda surprised that the Website discussion forums wasn't included.

"Discussions about features, bugs, and ways to improve Geocaching.com."

- Guess "ways to improve..." could be removed.

 

We have spent many man-hours cultivating lists of suggestions from the forums into an internal database. This has been used to flesh out the initial frameworks of all of the features we have in the pipeline. So yes, the forums have been an indispensable part of our process. What the basic forums do not provide is a good, interactive way of obtaining targeted, constructive intercourse on features. That's where the other processes that Jayme mentioned come into play.

[+cheech gang]

We have spent many man-hours cultivating lists of suggestions from the forums into an internal database. This has been used to flesh out the initial frameworks of all of the features we have in the pipeline. So yes, the forums have been an indispensable part of our process. What the basic forums do not provide is a good, interactive way of obtaining targeted, constructive intercourse on features. That's where the other processes that Jayme mentioned come into play.

 

Thanks for the clarification.

[+NYPaddleCacher]

Frankly, I don't care about new processes. I care about results. IMHO, all these new processes are worthless if we don't see some of the many requests for features and improvements actually getting implemented. Will we get a search engine that actually allows us to search by cache names? Will we be able to search for caches with corrected coordinates, or are we just going to see yet another process for gathering feedback?

 

Were those things you hope for addressed in one of the processes delineated above?

 

Notably missing from the listed process inputs was any mention of consideration being given to discussions of issues in any of the forums other than in the limited "User Insight" forum.

 

Here we whine for naught?

 

Jayme's post talks about the processes in use to identify issues, not the issues themselves.

 

I *did* participate in the User Insight forum when it was active but I have no idea if any of my suggestions were considered.

 

I haven't been asked to participate in one of the Worldwide surveys.

 

I've never been to the HQ Block Party nor have I attended a mega-event so I haven't participated in the "Innovation Games"

 

I've never been asked to be a Beta Tester and because I'm not part of the local community so haven't been involved in the "in-person testing" either.

 

There was a thread called "What is the 'User Insights' forum"? started last July. In that thread, I wrote:

 

"It seems to me you're spending time looking for new ways to engage with the community when there is a user forum right here full of people in the community trying to engage with Groundspeak."

 

It never got a response.