Piano Analytics Unveils Workspaces: Analysis and Breakdown

During the Piano Academy Live on November 15-16, 2022, Piano announced that it was working on a new reporting tool: Workspaces. Less than a year later, Converteo, a key partner, had the opportunity to test its beta version. The official launch of Workspaces is scheduled for late 2023. 

Kevin Larvor, Lead Analytics at Converteo within the Analytics & Conversion practice, shares his initial impressions and thoughts on the opportunities this new tool offers. 

Key Takeaways:

• With Workspaces, Piano aims to enhance solution adoption through the simplicity and speed of creating and sharing analytical data.
• The agility offered by Workspaces allows for better data access management (combining multiple boards, defining access to dimensions and metrics). It is now possible to restrict the data that is shared.
• Improved loading performance is observed, accompanied by an enhanced user experience.
• The synergy between Workspaces and Data Query enables deeper analysis and the ability to complement boards on the fly.
• The upcoming enrichment of the current version will include the addition of many features not yet available in the beta, such as Axon data (predictive analytics), the ability to filter and apply segments, and the potential for funnel visualizations as the tool continues to evolve.

Workspaces: A Reporting Tool that Combines Simplicity and Speed

Piano Analytics, renowned for its ethical approach, quality, and data democratization, has expanded its analytics platform with a reporting tool designed to be accessible for both standard and advanced use cases. 

With the launch of Workspaces, Piano Analytics aims to make the creation and sharing of reports more accessible by enhancing simplicity and speed, thereby boosting team productivity. By promoting accessibility, Workspaces also strengthens the data-driven dynamics within organizations.

Beta Test Feedback on Workspaces

Foreword: 

Workspaces is a reporting tool composed of one or more boards containing one or more tiles. 

A tile is defined by an analysis; it represents a dataset paired with a visual representation, such as a table on site performance, a bar chart on the most viewed pages, or a pie chart showing traffic distribution by source, for example.

A board can contain one or more analyses or tiles. For example, a board could include a tile on performance by acquisition sources, another tile on traffic generated by SEA campaigns, and yet another with the top 5 entry pages on the site. 

The workspace, in turn, can consist of one or more boards, such as a board on acquisition, a board on conversion funnel performance, or a board focused on mobile performance.

Our initial experience with the Workspaces beta allows us to outline a non-exhaustive list of the opportunities the interface offers:

The primary advantage of the tool is its execution speed. Although it requires using DataQuery to create and save templates, it’s important to note that these templates are pre-calculated overnight. As a result, the Workspaces module delivers better performance with minimal loading times, even for resource-intensive queries, allowing for quick access to data.

All saved DataQuery templates are stored in the library interface, and eventually, they can be easily filtered using a tagging system. 

The fluidity of Workspaces also extends to sharing Boards with other users, which can be done with a single click via a “public” or “private” toggle. Depending on the final user’s access rights, they may or may not access the board. Historically, with Piano’s data model shared across the entire organization, filtering and compartmentalizing data was challenging because access rights were managed by applications or level 1 sites. However, with Workspaces, it is now possible to create a workspace with multiple boards accompanied by specific dimensions and metrics, allowing certain users to access only the data relevant to them.

For instance, if you want to share specific data with a media agency partner but only on certain dimensions and metrics related to sources and visits, this is now possible.

It should be noted that this functionality is not yet available in the Beta version but will be very soon. 

The user experience is pleasant, with an intelligent layout of the tiles via a drag-and-drop system. Workspaces are easy to use, even for users who have never created a dashboard before.

One of the notable features is the ability to customize the interface on the fly, such as switching data visualizations from a table to a histogram with just one click, even in view mode. 

Additionally, users can add extra metrics and properties to a tile, provided these are included in the DataQuery report beforehand. This gives end-users more analytical flexibility while maintaining control over the available metrics and properties.

Workspaces: A Potential Yet to Be Fully Unveiled

Piano still has many surprises in store, as the beta version we’ve tested does not yet include all its functionalities. Among them, we can expect:

• The ability to create a dataset, segment, or apply a filter on the fly
• The configuration of a level 1 site or a fixed date for a tile to have a specific view on an indicator
• Board sharing tailored to an individual user rather than the entire organization
• Advanced customization of each tile, such as setting the default metric or desired visual representation
• Availability of all analyses present in Explorer, including predictive analyses like AXON
• The capability to perform breakdowns for more readable analyses

We can be reassured, as these features are planned by Piano and should arrive for the most part in 2023.

It should be noted that with Workspaces, Piano aims to move beyond traditional dashboards and Explorer interfaces. The solution provider intends to continuously enhance this new reporting tool throughout 2024 and likely beyond.

We can hope that, in the future, Workspaces will allow us to create annotations or comment areas, schedule board email deliveries, or designate co-editors or co-owners for both boards and workspaces.

In summary, with Workspaces, Piano offers new perspectives on the use of their analytics solution, both in terms of accessing information and in designing, maintaining, and sharing analytical data.

With contributions from Mirana Rakotoarivony and Ophélie Duhamel