More Collaboration = Better Products

I’m a huge fan of SeeClickFix and have been for a long time. As a homeowner in New Haven, I reported issues in my neighborhood, discussed them with my neighbors, and voted for the issues I cared about. I use SeeClickFix as a tool for collaborative problem-solving, and I believe that collaborative problem-solving generates open, engaged communities. The more open and engaged our communities become, the more problems we can solve together.

Last summer, I had the honor of joining the SeeClickFix team. As Director of Product, I have the privilege of thinking strategically about what problems our product is solving, or, in a more positive light, what opportunities our product can provide for both our partners and residents. In the spirit of openness and collaboration, I’m excited to announce some opportunities we will be sharing with our partners this year.

Better Tools for Communication

Let’s be honest, internal communication is hard for most organizations. Most of our current partners discuss issues via internal comments or in lengthy email threads. To streamline internal communications, we released @mentions for internal comments this past Wednesday. With @mentions, you can ping coworkers directly and alert them about issues immediately. No more getting lost in email threads! We’ll also be adding personalized feeds and notification preferences so that it’s easier to message someone in SeeClickFix and manage those notifications.

Taking Calls from Citizens

Over the last few months, we have been rolling out iterations of our new Call Taker Interface. This new interface provides a web reporting form for call takers to not only log issues, but also connect the citizen reporter via SeeClickFix so they can track and receive updates. This is an innovative solution compared to the way traditional call centers handle calls in that it provides an immediate and ongoing feedback loop to the reporter.

Groups and Permissions

Typically, there is more than one group or department working in SeeClickFix at a time (e.g., Parks Department, Department of Public Works, etc.) Within these groups or departments, there are individuals with different titles, such as managers, directors, assistants, or workers, etc., and each has a unique role to perform within SeeClickFix. We will be addressing this need by introducing flexible groups and roles within SeeClickFix — creating a more streamlined experience for these various roles and departments. With this enhancement, individual departments and users will only see the request types they’re responsible for and will be able to reroute issues to other departments and individuals when necessary.

Service Level Agreements and Escalation that Supports Workflow

Service Level Agreements (SLA) define the level of service expected. We will be enhancing SLAs to align directly to our partner’s business hours and holidays. When an issue gets close to the SLA, a process will be implemented to escalate that issue to the individual or group responsible for that issue. The SLA on an issue might also change based on the priority level given to it. For example, if a resident reports that a limb has fallen on a power line, an admin will be able to label the issue as high priority and this will automatically change the SLA to be done immediately. This process will alert the field worker who’s been assigned to the issue that it is now high priority and has a new SLA.

Advanced Reports and Exports

SeeClickFix currently has some great reporting and export features. We want to make these features even better and more customizable. This year, we’ll be adding the ability to export the data our partners collect into custom fields, enabling users to track materials and hours spent on an issue. We will also allow our partners to select what columns they would like to export for fully-customized reporting.

A New Map and Analyze View

We currently have powerful filtering controls within the Issue List. This year, we will be extending those filters to a map and analyze view. You will be able to view statistics on issues for a particular assignee as well as how the organization is doing on issues with high priority. Combined with the Groups feature, these new reporting tools will enable you to quickly analyze issues over the last quarter by department, time, assignee, and priority.

Accessible, Clearer, and Cleaner Design

As a primary communication channel between neighbors and governments, it is critical that we at SeeClickFix provide fully-accessible and intuitive mobile and web applications. While our current web and mobile applications have some accessibility standards in place, we are continuously working to improve best practices and further guarantee our adherence to W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Not only do we want our application to be more accessible, we also want our design, interfaces, and functionality to be cleaner, more intuitive, and true to our users.

New Embeddable Reporting Forms and Maps

An important part of SeeClickFix is the ability to build custom report forms that can be embedded on any website. By leveraging new technologies, we will be building new embeddable report forms and maps that will be more responsive and intuitive.

All New Mobile Applications

Our mobile application currently has a 4 star rating in iTunes and Google Play and, as iOS reviewer Danimology says, the “app does exactly what you need it to do.” In addition, it serves as the primary reporting tool for citizens and officials in the field. As we move the SeeClickFix platform forward with new features providing better communication and customization, we need our mobile application to follow suit. Customized feeds, @mentions and direct messages, analytics, reporting snapshots, and better duplicate identification will all be addressed in the new mobile apps. We know our partners love the mobile button functionality in our current apps, so we’re exploring how to make them smarter and more customizable. The new mobile apps will also be aware of what group or role you are in, providing a more streamlined and customized experience for every user.

We are excited about where our product is heading and want to embrace the values of transparency, rapid iteration, and collaboration to make these things happen! We invite you to join us. Just as SeeClickFix is a platform for collaborative problem solving, we want you to help us continually improve our product and services. Click here to sign up for product updates and invitations to product research conversations.