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Make Gantt Chart created and end dates more flexible

Related products:CS C360 & R360 & P360
ky_powell
  • ky_powell
    ky_powell
spencer_engel
First off, I love the Gantt Chart feature and think it will be immensely helpful. I also know that feature is in Beta right now, so if my request is already on the roadmap, that's fine. 

However, I noticed the following issue when trying to load a success template. What I want to do is be able to load a 4-week success plan template that contains one objective CTA per week. Each objective CTA would then have a playbook attached so that the template would essentially be a project plan with four objectives and about 20 total tasks. 

The issue is that when I apply that template, it automatically makes my start date in the Gantt Chart equal to the created date of the CTA. I can't edit that created date in the CTA or in the Gantt Chart, so I'm stuck with a project plan this.



What I want to be able to do is stagger the start dates for Weeks 2-4 so that the bar is only a few days long rather than all of them starting on the day I create the CTA. 

Are there any plans on the roadmap to make this editable, or better yet, is there a good alternative solution to accomplish what I'm looking for?

    nitisha_rathi
    Hi Spencer,

    As you must be aware, currently we use CTA/ task created date as the bar start date. Is there any other CTA attribute based on which we should decide the start date or do you want it to be manually customizable?

    Thanks,
    Nitisha
    spencer_engel
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    Good question, Nitisha. The issue is that the Created Date field on the CTA is not editable and since the Gantt Chart is read-only, that means I'm stuck with the start dates.

    So to answer your question, I'd just prefer to have the tasks be manually customizable.
    faust_belarmino
    miguel_rodriguez
    ian_turner_997cbf
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    samantha_braastad
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    • samantha_braastad
    • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • September 27, 2017
    This is an ask of our team as well. We would like two options for setting the created date: 
    1. Manually set by the CSM
    2. Set based on a previous task due date or close date
    #2 would be very helpful to allow proceeding Objectives to move out if the start of one objective is dependant on the completion of another. Similar to how CTA's and original due dates are tracked, it would be helpful to have an original start date tracked and the gantt chart line a different color if the start date is earlier or is pushed out to have a visual representation of the change.
    jennifer_kirkland
    ana_rita_santos
    kate_green
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      faust_belarmino
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      elaine_cleary
    • heather_landgraf
      heather_landgraf
    • ian_turner_997cbf
      ian_turner_997cbf
    ian_turner_997cbf
    Agreed! I have a Success Plan with an Objective, and all of my tasks to achieve that Objective all start on the day I created the Objective. I want to have dependent tasks (based on a prior task being finished).
    miguel_rodriguez
    jeffrey_coleman
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    • jeffrey_coleman
      jeffrey_coleman
    jeffrey_coleman
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    Absolutely! This isn't a Gantt chart right now, it's a bar chart!
    miguel_rodriguez
    spencer_engel
    brittany
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    elaine_cleary
    I was just speaking with another Gainsight customer today who shares the same views expressed here.  They really need to be able to adjust or set the objective CTA "start date" to something besides the 'created date' (which provides no value).  @nitisha Is this on the Gainsight roadmap?  Thank you!
    faust_belarmino
    miguel_rodriguez
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      faust_belarmino
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      miguel_rodriguez
    nitisha_rathi
    Hi Elaine,

    Yes, this is on the roadmap and we will try to implement it soon. I will post updates here once I have more clarity on ETA.

    Thanks,
    Nitisha
    faust_belarmino
    joyce_wren
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    adam_szakacs
    Hi Nitisha,

    We're running into a similar issue at our company - we're built an objective for each meeting (Q1 Business Review, Q2 Business Review, etc.) and we're hoping to share the Gantt chart with our customers. The start date for each of these should of course be different, and not the date the plan was created.

    Do you have any update around timing for this? It's pressing on our side for annual planning with customers.

    Thank you.

    Adam
    miguel_rodriguez
    elaine_cleary
    joyce_wren
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      miguel_rodriguez
    • elaine_cleary
      elaine_cleary
    • joyce_wren
      joyce_wren
    elaine_cleary
    Thanks for resurfacing, Adam.  I'm working with another Gainsight customer that really needs the objective start dates to be actual start dates and not the date the plan was created.  @Nitisha -- any new information?  Thank you!
    ana_rita_santos
    joyce_wren
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    joyce_wren
    • joyce_wren
    • Contributor ⭐️⭐️
    • February 2, 2018
    Our company has the same issue, the gnatts chart is just a bar chart of tasks to be completed and not useful. Could it be as simple as allow the start date to be edited or the ability to change the color of the bar when it changes to "in progress" 
    elaine_cleary
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    • elaine_cleary
      elaine_cleary
    jahnavi
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    • jahnavi
    • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • February 13, 2018
    Hello Team,

    Any updates on the ETA for making the start date flexible? This would be very helpful as the customers would like to see a plan of next 12 months 18 months etc. 

    Regards,
    Jahnavi
    elaine_cleary
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    • elaine_cleary
      elaine_cleary
    aditya_marla
    • aditya_marla
    • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • February 15, 2018
    Hi All,

    Thanks for sharing this. We are planning to introduce the concept of "Start Date" in objectives (Currently, we use the Created Date & it would not be correct to make it editable).This is there on our roadmap but there is no ETA as of today. Will keep you updated on any progress.

    A couple of question I had regarding the same:

    - Do you want the CSM’s to manually the start dates manually or does the Admin want to define them at the template level? (Would just having the CSM edit the start date of objectives be useful - since it might increase the overhead if there are too many Objectives/Tasks? ) 
    - Do you need the same ability for tasks as well? (Changing start date of tasks etc.)
    - If they can be defined at a template level, how might you would they want to determine the start dates? (Some of them might be: Based on due date of another objective, Based on closed date of an objective. Based on success plan dates (date SP became active?))
    - From a UI perspective, do you want the objectives/tasks that have not started to be hidden/ distinguished in some form?

    Regards
    ana_rita_santos
    faust_belarmino
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    adam_szakacs
    • adam_szakacs
    • Contributor ⭐️
    • February 15, 2018
    Hi Aditya,

    - I think ability to manually set start dates, as well as dependent on completion of a prior objective/task (eg. "Finish date of QBR + 3 days")
    --- Any measure of days should be business days
    - CSM would be able to manually set these dates, but ability to include dependencies like the above so tasks automatically waterfall would be extremely helpful. 
    - Yes tasks should be set independently of objectives
    - I think all objectives/tasks should be visible

    My 2 cents to make this a very simplified Gantt charting tool (some of the key functionality of Microsoft Project and others).

    Thanks.

    Adam
    jennifer_kirkland
    aditya_marla
    faust_belarmino
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    • elaine_cleary
      elaine_cleary
    • brittany
      brittany
    ana_rita_santos
    Hi Aditya,

    These are great news! Only the "no ETA" is concerning me for now. We are really missing this feature.
    We are starting with Gainsight at my company and this was a big no no for us. It is really important for our CSMs to be able to have a visual representation of the success plan. We could achieve this with the Gantt chart, if there was a start date editable in the CTA.
    Some thoughts on your questions:
    • Agree that the created date should not be editable, a separate field will be more appropriate;
    • The CSMs should be able to adjust the start dates. They can come pre-filled from the template, based on the start date of the success plan (not the created date). This way, we would reduce the overhead of manually setting all the dates.
    • Tasks could inherit the start dates from the Objectives (or not). But yes, the start date should be editable for tasks also.
    • It would be great if we could have that kind of intelligence available, for setting the start dates based on a set of conditions. All the ones you refer are very useful.
    • For us it would be really important to have the tasks that didn’t start yet distinguished from the ones that are ongoing and the ones that are completed. 
    We are really missing some visuals on the representation and current status of the Success Plans. It is much easier to communicate with customer when you have a visual representation of the current status of the Success Plan.

    Thanks!
    H
    aditya_marla
    andr_raposo
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      hitesh_sharma
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    ian_turner_997cbf
    Yes I think there is a strong need for task management and visualisation for CSMs and internal/external stakeholders. There should not be a need to drop in to MS Project or other SaaS tools to do lightweight task management (CTAs etc.).   I know this could be a big step up in terms of functionality for Gainsight and "customer success", but there are strong competitors (Wrike etc.) that have very compelling solutions in this area.... and they support templated activities that can be instantiated etc. 😞
    aditya_marla
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    • aditya_marla
      aditya_marla
    faust_belarmino
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    Our team was just talking about this! It would be great to edit some of those start dates according to needs. 🙂
    ana_rita_santos
    elaine_cleary
    britton_walker
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    jennifer_kirkland
    I wish I could double vote and follow!

    We need task and CTA start dates to be based on the due date/completion date (once completed) of another task/CTA and we need the ability for CSMs to edit start dates as well. 
    ana_rita_santos
    kyle_s
    andr_raposo
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      elaine_cleary
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      spencer_engel
    andrew_mcallister
    Couldn't agree more.....in fact: the Gantt chart feature is useless without it, and I won't be telling my team to pay it much attention until this gets rectified.
    ana_rita_santos
    aditya_marla
    andr_raposo
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    brittany
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    • brittany
    • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • March 21, 2018
    The objectives/tasks not yet started should still be visible, but differentiated based on color of the bar in the gantt. There should be different colors for the different statuses (in progress, completed, upcoming)

    The Start Date should be a different field from Created Date. 

    The Task Start Date should be different from the Objective Start Date

    The Start Date should be manually editable by the CSM as well as able to be set during Template configuration.

    To start, these should be options to set the date:
    *Custom (Calendar drop down)
    *Previous task closed date
    *Previous objective closed date

    Ideally, there would eventually be the above with the below add ons
    *Previous task closed date + __ days
    *Previous objective closed date  + __ days
    *(Drop down to choose a specific task) closed date + __ days
    *(Drop down to choose a specific objective) closed date + __ days
    aditya_marla
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    • aditya_marla
      aditya_marla
    brittany
    Forum|alt.badge.img
    • brittany
    • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • March 21, 2018
    The objectives/tasks not yet started should still be visible, but differentiated based on color of the bar in the gantt. There should be different colors for the different statuses (in progress, completed, upcoming)

    The Start Date should be a different field from Created Date. 

    The Task Start Date should be different from the Objective Start Date

    The Start Date should be manually editable by the CSM as well as able to be set during Template configuration.

    To start, these should be options to set the date:
    *Custom (Calendar drop down)
    *Previous task closed date
    *Previous objective closed date

    Ideally, there would eventually be the above with the below add ons
    *Previous task closed date + __ days
    *Previous objective closed date  + __ days
    *(Drop down to choose a specific task) closed date + __ days
    *(Drop down to choose a specific objective) closed date + __ days
    faust_belarmino
    heather_landgraf
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      heather_landgraf
    elaine_cleary
    Like Jennifer, I wish I would double vote!  I continue to hear the similar feedback as noted in this Community post - the Gantt chart is not valuable since it's just a bar chart and making the start dates manually editable would be a good starting point.  Is there any update from Gainsight product on prioritization?  Thank you!
    andr_raposo
    jahnavi
    lesliediephuis
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      spencer_engel
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    • sam_buddery
      sam_buddery
    graham_harman
    Can not agree more with this thread, the bar chart is not presentable to a client in it's current form. Exec's & PM's would just not accept this as a working document.
    Making the start dates manually editable is the minimum needed before a CSM could consider sharing this with their client.

    Would a Gainsight CSM use the current version to manage their clients success plans, I very much doubt it
    ana_rita_santos
    aditya_marla
    elaine_cleary
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    jen_pakravan
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    • jen_pakravan
    • Contributor ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • May 10, 2018
    is there an update on this?
    ray_roohparvar_faea94
    Forum|alt.badge.img
    I'm not one to pull punches with my feedback, but without the ability to edit a start date this feature is a major fail. Completely useless. I'm embarassed to go back to my team and tell them there's no way to change it after almost everyone of them asked me how to change the start date. As a suggestion, maybe Gainsight shouldn't roll out half baked ideas...
    ana_rita_santos
    faust_belarmino
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      faust_belarmino
    aditya_marla
    • aditya_marla
    • Helper ⭐️⭐️⭐️
    • May 11, 2018
    Hi Ray,

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback on this. Completely agree that we need to introduce the concept of "Start Date" in (today its based on  Created Date) and make the GanttChart work on this. This is definitely high on our to-do list but unfortunately, I do not have an ETA for this. Will keep you updated as and when this gets picked up
    Also, would you be open for a quick call - I would like to understand how you are using success plans & maybe walk you through what we plan to do

    Regards
    faust_belarmino
    1 person likes this
    • faust_belarmino
      faust_belarmino


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