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Saying Goodbye to the Public Lab

Brooke_C
Retraité / Retired
Retraité / Retired

Hey Community,

 

Last week, the Public Mobile team had a really good discussion about the future of our Lab, based on feedback from @srlawren and @NDesai that it should be removed. We talked about the purpose of the Lab, benefits of having it, as well as the struggles we are currently experiencing. Ultimately, we agree that removing it is the best decision.

 

We realized that, when we launched the Lab, we were over-eager dreamers who wanted to be able to collect customer feedback in real time and then action it the next day. But, the reality of the situation is that implementing these changes can sometime take months (or years!) and can be millions of dollars. This has left us in a bind where we have lots of great ideas on our to-do list, but not enough team members, money, or time to allow us to act on those ideas. This feedback helped us recognize that, by keeping the Lab open, we are giving you false hope that we can implement your ideas in a short period of time, and that, when we don’t, it feels pretty crappy for you. And, truthfully, it feels pretty crappy for us too.

 

To change this feeling, we will be removing the Lab on February 1st, with the intent of collecting your feedback and ideas in more actionable ways. For example, whenever the team kicks off a new systems improvement or product launch, the Public Mobile team has collectively committed to ensuring that we gather feedback from you and other Community members throughout the development process. By doing this, we will not only build better products, but we will also make sure that you are giving us feedback on projects at times that can make a big difference. This has worked really well when we’ve done it before, so we’re committing to do this more consistently.

 

To finish off, I wanted to thank @srlawren and @NDesai for this feedback. You helped our team see an opportunity to do this better and we’re excited to collect the Community’s valuable feedback in a more actionable way.

 

-Public Mobile Community Team

53 REPLIES 53

pm-smayer97
Mayor / Maire

BTW, the threads for the Public Lab are not totaly gone, at least not for now...Only the link to the Lab is hidden in the main forum view. You can still access it here if you want to see the old topics.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Public-Lab/idb-p/Public_Lab

 

The only thing you cannot do is add new topics or replies. Just FYI.

SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

That's good.  Getting solutions means you're helping community members with their issues.  Keep it up.   Smiley Happy

LEGO
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@SD08 I’m into solutions myself!!! Smiley Wink Smiley Very Happy

SD08
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@LEGO wrote:

I was looking around, trying to figure out on how to get myself an Idea Badge… Sad news!

 

P.S. If you don’t need your Idea Badge, please donate! Smiley Wink


@LEGO

Yeah, those of us who earned idea badges before the Lab was shut down, have them grandfathered now, just like our 12GB promo plans.  Smiley Tongue

 

I'll trade you an idea badge for a pair of solutions.  I'm two solutions short of 200.  Robot LOL 

LEGO
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I was looking around, trying to figure out on how to get myself an Idea Badge… Sad news!

 

P.S. If you don’t need your Idea Badge, please donate! Smiley Wink

MoraMan
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Looking forward to what the next step is. As a new customer, I liked the idea of the lab.


wrote:

There are currently (as I last looked) 620 new ideas.  It's been this way for a number of weks now, but there have been atleast 1 new idea almost everyday.

 

It's clearly not a priority for updates, and as a result, I don't think we should continue the Public Lab.

 

There are so many great (and duplicated) ideas, and they're never acted on.

 

This is a dead horse that needs to be dealt with.


@stonechucker

The stats on top of the Public Lab post / tread list only reflect the ideas the PM employees have actually looked at / "sorted" / "prioritized" / given some kind of "feedback" on. (all categories together I'm adding up to 946). "Brand new" meaning: We have read this - we might consider what to do about it."

In my browser I see 20 posts per page and there are 65 pages, so there are between 1280 -1300 "ideas" in the lab. So that's roughly a quarter that no label has been given to. I assume that some of those are questions wrongly posted in the lab (that should have been moved to the appropriate section) or spam (that should be deleted).

 

I guess the lab worked reasonably well when it was first introduced - enthusiastic staff, small customer base and an even smaller number of people who embraced the opportunity to give their input and were heard at the Beta stage.

As time moved on, "every" new community member felt the obligation to get the "5 ideas" batch, ideas unread by PM staff just added up, and "glitches" persisted the remaining enthusiasm of the staff was needed elsewhere... It didn't help that oracle powers didn't extend to the lab.

 

Like others I think that the highest priority for Public Mobile should be to have all known problems in self serve fixed and some functions expanded (I still believe that, at this point, starting from scratch might be a better choice than putting a bandaid here and tweak that, just to find out that that fix messed up something else over there...) If the mods would only need to deal with a small percentage of the current volume of customer service requests, more resources could be put into optimizing the website and - hopefully - implementing some of the great ideas in the lab.

 

Unfortunately, I think it's not going to happen anytime soon... It feels a bit like the higher ups at Telus go along the lines of: "We are getting a reasonable amount of money out of PM, so it ain't broken, no need to throw money at it to fix it." Meanwhile the mods and back ground crew, who are doing their best every day, are scrambling to keep customers happy.

 

Once more just my two cents.

 

 

More_Chaos
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@danielj

Thanks for the link.

It's not that I don't understand the transactions, but it would be helpful if the "balance" isn't all listed as positive because they aren't. If it's negative, it should be reflected as such rather than showing numbers going up and down.

There are currently (as I last looked) 620 new ideas.  It's been this way for a number of weks now, but there have been atleast 1 new idea almost everyday.

 

It's clearly not a priority for updates, and as a result, I don't think we should continue the Public Lab.

 

There are so many great (and duplicated) ideas, and they're never acted on.

 

This is a dead horse that needs to be dealt with.

More_Chaos
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

Darn! I was just going to go to the lab to make a suggestion on making the transaction history clearer (I get confused every time I look...). Well, it's not Feb 1st yet, so I'll give it a browse to see if it's previously been mentioned...

More_Chaos
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@makkahn28 wrote:

Personally I think PM maybe in a Bit of a Haste, The Lab has Some Usefulness

 

What will happen then? How does PM know WHAT PPL want If Lab is No longer there?


I think we have plenty of vocal people who already let everyone know what they want (or don't want) regardless of whether or not the Lab is there (a lot of opinions float outside of the lab anyway, and there have been instances where I've either witnessed or suggested someone put their idea in the lab rather than in the middle of a non sequitor discussion thread).

More_Chaos
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

@nishufan wrote:

It means the idea badges will no longer available, and the last time chance you can get it is posting ideas before February 1st.


I never got the point of them anyway...it's not like they did anything, nor were they anything to brag about... 

Acekiller
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

well, if it is not doing anything, may as well remove it then.

jpar
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I think it did have value - even if a lot of suggestions would never be implemented - and I'm sad to see it go. 

mimmo
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Michael77 wrote:

At the Rogers forum, if there is a dublicate idea or question, there is an employee who reads it (usually within 10 to 30 minutes) and then sends you an email telling you that your post has been moved because there is a related topic and they provide you the link.

 


I agree that there needed to be some action taken on the PL.  but I think PM took the easy way out, close it down instead of cleaning it up. if it was even looked at on a weekly basis to remove dupliates, or give oracles access...

 

anyways my biggest issue  with the reasoning for closing the lab  was the line where "the ideas would take millions of dollars and years to complete" yes some ideas fell into that category but many were simple ideas like text changes, adding sticky posts, creating a proper FAQ, things that could be done in a week or two or even four. 

 

any new ideas from the community will now be lost in the abyss of new posts (same same but different). I guess we will just wait and see what the engineers dream up and then provide feedback. Isn't that the way not to develop a better widget. 

 

but enough waisting time discussing things that will go nowhere.   Someone else is probably postimg about how they cant reset their pasword or about an autopay failureand need to directed to contact the mods.

pakmode
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

Good night and good luck. 

Michael77
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@Wonder_why,

 

I guess I now have the Cadillac service. Smiley Happy Smiley Very Happy

Wonder_why
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@Michael77 wrote:

At the Rogers forum, if there is a dublicate idea or question, there is an employee who reads it (usually within 10 to 30 minutes) and then sends you an email telling you that your post has been moved because there is a related topic and they provide you the link.

 


@Michael77 how can you compare Rogers with PM Cat Happy

Michael77
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

At the Rogers forum, if there is a dublicate idea or question, there is an employee who reads it (usually within 10 to 30 minutes) and then sends you an email telling you that your post has been moved because there is a related topic and they provide you the link.

 

danielj
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Taking it away completely does not seem like the best way of dealing with this. Getting feedback and new ideas will always be important to companies. Public Mobile should be able to inform customers about the time frame of considering and implementing ideas takes time. Keeping the lines of communication open is important, if they keep customers informed of some sort of time frame, flow chart or to do list, customer expectations will be curved to more appropriate levels.

youbme
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@Luddite wrote:

Changed my mind about a rant. Just saddened to see PM moving away from it's original premises over the last 12 months; last nail in that coffin I guess. 💀


I fear this as well. 

It seems that scale often brings this on. As a company grows, it isn't easy to remain true to its original motivation. But let's be honest, the goal has always been to be profitable, everything else must fall in line with that.

youbme
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

During my time at PM, the Public Lab was once a vibrant forum for discussing and debating potential changes with PM. Even ideas that were ignored or rejected officially, allowed the public to properly critique the PM model and explore what could be. These spaces are of incredible value.

 

Today, I understand that the growth of PM means that the forums can often get flooded, duplicate ideas are very common and responses from moderators has declined in the Public Lab. Personally, I think that simply means a change needed to take place, rather than removing it entirely. I hope that PM is serious about getting feedback for new and potential system changes, and this is not a sign of a shift away from the original model PM started from.

koimr1
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I'm sorry to see it go.

 

Looking forward to whatever replaces it. 🙂

@Wonder_why You have a good idea what they are doing . Smiley Happy  Even they want, there are many simple bugs waiting to be fixed first. 

Wonder_why
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

@makkahn28 wrote:

Personally I think PM maybe in a Bit of a Haste, The Lab has Some Usefulness

 

What will happen then? How does PM know WHAT PPL want If Lab is No longer there?


@makkahn28 make no difference have it or not, PM don't bother to fixed it or improved it, plain and simple

Rabbi
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@Brooke_C wrote:

Hey Community,

 

Last week, the Public Mobile team had a really good discussion about the future of our Lab, based on feedback from @srlawren and @NDesai that it should be removed. We talked about the purpose of the Lab, benefits of having it, as well as the struggles we are currently experiencing. Ultimately, we agree that removing it is the best decision.

 

We realized that, when we launched the Lab, we were over-eager dreamers who wanted to be able to collect customer feedback in real time and then action it the next day. But, the reality of the situation is that implementing these changes can sometime take months (or years!) and can be millions of dollars. This has left us in a bind where we have lots of great ideas on our to-do list, but not enough team members, money, or time to allow us to act on those ideas. This feedback helped us recognize that, by keeping the Lab open, we are giving you false hope that we can implement your ideas in a short period of time, and that, when we don’t, it feels pretty crappy for you. And, truthfully, it feels pretty crappy for us too.

 

To change this feeling, we will be removing the Lab on February 1st, with the intent of collecting your feedback and ideas in more actionable ways. For example, whenever the team kicks off a new systems improvement or product launch, the Public Mobile team has collectively committed to ensuring that we gather feedback from you and other Community members throughout the development process. By doing this, we will not only build better products, but we will also make sure that you are giving us feedback on projects at times that can make a big difference. This has worked really well when we’ve done it before, so we’re committing to do this more consistently.

 

To finish off, I wanted to thank @srlawren and @NDesai for this feedback. You helped our team see an opportunity to do this better and we’re excited to collect the Community’s valuable feedback in a more actionable way.

 

-Public Mobile Community Team


hi @Brooke_C once the lab will be closed

i think in order to keep the coomunty more organised that evry new topic should have the option

1) if its for need help & wating for a solution

or 2) something to discuss in the coomunty

Taekgun
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I couldn't agree more with the removal of this.  Definitely bitter-sweet but all the more it is just the right thing to do.  We've all seen great ideas that have lead to good change, and ideas that weren't even worth the words used to describe them.  Thanks @Brooke_C for making this change, which is the right move IMHO.


@mimmo wrote:

@makkahn28 sure they will. Pm will monitor the forums every day to see new ideas and what people are complaining about. Before the post is lost in the abyss of the next new posts.

 

They mught possibly go old school and keep a manual track of suggestions and issues ....

 

 

 


Robot LOL


>>> ALERT: I am not a CSA. Je ne suis pas un Agent du soutien à la clientèle.
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