Bluebeam Dashboards
Creating a Bluebeam Dashboard helped me become more efficient and provided me a fun creative outlet in my work. Turns out I have more to learn if I want to bring the same efficiency value to my team.
When I first learned about the Bluebeam dashboard I immediately threw one together. "This will be so helpful! Everyone use it!" It had 4 buttons that would greatly ease my server navigation headaches. What a great tool! I'm so proud of myself.
I saw room for improvement the same day. A creative project with no parameters? I was all over it. Within two weeks (under a full workload) I had an update with 2 new buttons and some extra project-specific information that I thought would reduce questions and help the people I work with.
A year later, I asked for suggestions about improving the dashboard. I had some ideas of my own but I wanted to know what my brain couldn't come up with. One person responded. I incorporated their suggestions and published version 3! I was really excited about the extra functionality and the additional information it provided.
A couple weeks ago I was confused by a duplicate folder on our server. My dashboard was linked to the wrong one so I had to correct it. That revealed to me that the other project team members weren't using the dashboard - otherwise they would have been caught up in the confusion, right?
"Wait a second. These guys are massively productive in our company. Do they not use the dashboard?? Is the value I thought I was bringing actually no value?"
I started a poll to find out if and how much my team members were using dashboards for their own projects. I received half of the response I wanted but gained valuable insight into my tool: most people were only using one or two buttons if they even used the dashboard at all!! Time to re-evaluate:
This tool is really valuable to ME. I don't like navigating through the server folders. If I can look at a dashboard and click once then I'm going to do that 95% of the time. 30 clicks per day is better than 100 clicks per day!
If I'm going to keep using this dashboard but my team is only using one of the buttons, maybe I should just remove the rest (fewer to update on a new project). Simple is good. Simple is better.
My teammates are moving fast and I tried to introduce something new. Since it wasn't a requirement and server navigation wasn't a pain point for them, only a few jumped on board. It is no longer worth my time to expand functionality or even maintain this tool. If I can't sell this tool to my leadership and have them implement it, then maybe it should be tabled for now.
I'm still contemplating how I should handle this. I'll need to talk to other leaders in the company and look around the web for organizational tools I can use. Even if I only find a solution for myself, that is valuable for my professional development and increases my professional worth.
The response to my poll was discouraging but the feedback is teaching me something important. If I'm trying to add value to the majority then I need regular feedback to keep tabs on the majority - data from the masses or insight from the leadership. If I get excited about new ideas then I need to do a reality check with my goals and responsibilities to make sure investing my time in development has real potential.
Learning costs a lot! But I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn. I am grateful that God brought me to a company that cares about people, encourages innovation, and models a striving for excellence from the top down. Those are all things I learned after I took the job.