Thank you and a few random thoughts

[SkyeHa]

First and foremost, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who took time to meet me in person. For some of you it was as easy as randomly bumping into you in the hallway. For others (*cough* @Doug Den Hoed *cough*) it took skillful intervention. No matter how, please know I was thrilled and honored to be able to meet and talk to you in person. I enjoyed every minute of talking with everyone. We spend a lot of time on Community reading each other's posts and talking with each other offline and it's nice to see the live person behind the avatar. Random thoughts below. * @Alison Milbury -- it would be great to keep the LEAP-specific discussion going through the year. Maybe you could remove the 2018 part of the name. * One of the reasons I said it would be great to keep discussion going in this forum, is because I had a few conversations with folks and the gist was "the material in the session didn't line up well with the session track or session description". When I hear things like that, the first thing I think is "we need peer review". This doesn't need to be a free-for-all, but we need a way for session presenters to be able to better align their sessions with the tracks provided. I'm suggesting a rubric and peer review, but that's because I just got forced to go through English 101 a few years ago. * Another reason I'm suggesting this, is because I think the sessions would be better value if there was more collaboration. We often get a few weeks' notice on applying to be a presenter and for me it comes during the holiday period and I don't want to think about much during that time of the year. By having the Leap forum up we can talk through ideas for the next 6 months. I know I've had a few ideas of the type, "I don't have enough knowledge to get this going but maybe someone else can get inspired to take it and go" * Lastly (and this is just feedback about the tracks in general), we need a way to give more input into how we experienced the Leap tracks and that may lead to a way to better gauge who would benefit from individual sessions. Anyhow, I'm open to feedback from you all! I wish everyone safe travels (if you're still in Nashville) and a great weekend, if you're back home. -skye

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Thanks Skye, It was so good to put voices and handshakes to faces and names! I'd like to add my thanks to everyone who tried out the LEAP GPS App, graciously accepted their buttons, and helped me track down Eric, Polly, Vic and Skye (among many others). I like your suggestions, too. Maybe (a bit like Ideashare) we could set up a LEAP Share thread or section to post topics, refine what they'd cover, and recruit speakers. #BestLEAPYet ! Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[SkyeHa]

Thanks Doug :). I was a bit uncertain about whether anyone would find any value in working on session ideas throughout the year, so I didn't want to suggest more infrastructure (adding sections) but that is definitely the route I would prefer to go when we build up the traffic to deserve it. If we even just start by commenting on any missed opportunities, that might guide us towards inspiration. For example, I brought two new people with me on this trip, and they commented that they would have liked a few more hands-on sessions. I know for the regulars, we have probably moved beyond the need for this, but I also think there are always going to be beginners, so my first suggestion for anyone considering a "product fundamentals" kind of a course is that if you mention "hands on" and "new" in the same description, you'll probably get quite a good attendance from the "new implementation/new system admin" crowd. -skye

[AshleyMi2]

I think this is a great idea! I raved about how great LEAP was last year and had three people join me this year (including our new director of project management). However, I believe we left underwhelmed. Personally, I didn't think this LEAP was nearly as good as last year. I still found value, but the feedback from my group was consistent among many... 1) The venue was too big, yet the session rooms were too cramped 2) The session content didn't often align with the description that we read when signing up 3) Several of the sessions seemed redundant 4) We felt like content was either really basic or really complex, not much for middle of the road implementations. 5) The 2 hour general session was too long and a bit lackluster (with the exception of launching Fusion) 6) I think having the dinner in the experience lounge (Leap 2017) was a better fit than this year. 7) Loved how quickly the food lines moved (because there were so many), but the food options were less than impressive. We definitely enjoyed our time with the LEAP team and did find value in some of the presentations, but the vibe was definitely different for us this year. It is very possible that I am the victim of comparing it to 2017, but that was a favorite- by far. All of the entertainment, food, etc aside- I do think that LEAP could benefit from user input on the sessions and better collaboration to cut down on redundancy and mismatched session descriptions. Ashley Mizelle, PMP Project Manager TowneBank Suffolk, VA 757-673-1617

[pco88]

Good to meet all the people I've met this year! Thanks for the button Doug. Best leap for me was the Disney Leap but that's when we were just starting and luckily most of the sessions fit. Salt Lake was good and I picked up what I came to the Leap for. This year, most of the sessions I thought that were advanced were maybe not as advanced as I hoped. I think better labelling of sessions are needed or identified. Lunch entertainment should be toned down, it was so loud, it's hard to network yelling back and forth. Polly Co

[JaclynRe]

I up vote the idea to have peer reviews of session topics for LEAP! Really fantastic idea, Skye. I often struggle internally wondering if session ideas are relevant for my industry peers or whether they provide widespread value. I think many of us are excited and passionate about the achievements we realize and want to share both the successes and how we overcome challenges. But, does that translate to value for others? Are my victories and challenges shared elsewhere? Anyway, I like the idea and think it will definitely help us align content, so, count me in! Jaclyn Reiter, PMP, SA Project Manager, Strategic Initiatives Equifax, Inc. St. Louis, MO 314-684-2693

[TamiJo]

I would love to continue the discussion throughout the year. I attended LEAP in 2015, about 18 months after our implementation. I came away with a lot of good information to improve our use of Workfront. In 2016, we sent a new system administrator and she benefited from the product fundamentals track greatly. Got her up to speed in a short amount of time. So, going into 2018, I was expecting new information that could help us push our implementation forward. I had a similar experience to others, (content didn't match description, etc.) but I also experienced at least three sessions where the Q&A overtook the presenters. The presenters never got to finish their slide deck because of the audience questions. A couple suggestions to fix include a room moderator to help speakers who aren't as experienced presenters keep their session or track, or work with the speakers to prepare them to handle these types of situations. I'd love to see a track (or at least a networking session) for those of us who have been using Workfront 4+ years. Sharing best practices, how we've implemented business processes, etc. would be very beneficial. Would a lab environment be considered? Maybe on the free night, offer space in the experience zone or in the eating space, where people could work together based on topics. Wanna talk about reports, sit at table 3? Wanna talk about automating user set-up, sit at table 6? If people show up, great. If not, the tables were going to be empty anyway. My best take-aways from this year included the networking and individual time with Workfront employees. Any thing LEAP 2019 can do to maximize that would be beneficial. I'd love to continue the conversation. Tami Johnson SAIF Corporation 503.373.8702

[WhitneyVi1]

Thank you, Skye, and each of you, for the feedback. We love hearing all the ways we can make Leap a better experience for each and every one of you. We will continue to check back often for more suggestions so don't hesitate to let us know if there is anything else we should take into consideration for Leap 2019. The few suggestions you've shared so far have us anxious to get 2019 sessions in order, and you can expect to hear more in Community on all those details and more! The Call for Speakers opens this fall, and we'll be sure you have the chance to get involved. Thanks again for your time in providing feedback. We want to give you more reasons than ever before to join us again at Leap 2019 in Dallas! Whitney Vincent Workfront

[FrancesDurhamEvans]

Like Tami, I had many sessions where speakers were unable to finish their presentations due to derailing Q&A from audience members. I like Tami's ideas of experienced room moderators to help keep sessions on track or prepping speakers on how to handle this situation. Frances Durham Evans Famous Footwear, Caleres, Inc. St. Louis, MO

[AdinaPi1]

For my session, I told the moderator to announce that we won't be doing Q&A until the end of our presentation, and it worked great! I think it's up to the speaker if they want questions in between or not. Adina

[EricLu2]

Skye - Thanks for starting this thread 1) I like the idea of Peer Review. I'd appreciate people's thoughts on my presentation; 2) I attended a presentation that was supposed to be about WorKFront, but five minutes into it, they spoke for 40 minutes about a custom solution LeapPoint built for them. I was disappointed. I think setting people's expectations from the start more accurately is a good thing; 3) I think the venue actually took away from the quality of this year's LEAP. On Monday night, we had that dinner/event. The food lines were terribly long, there weren't nearly enough seating, and well, the venue completely got in the way of sitting around talking to people. Again, highly disappointing; 4) I get a lot of value from sitting at the meals talking to people. Lunch was another disappointing affair because of the presence of the music. Oh, I thought the band did great. I couldn't hear anyone talking around the table. I saw lips moving, but couldn't make out what they were saying. 5) There was no place to sit outside of a meeting room. People were sitting on the floor and the steps trying to work on a laptop or just talk to people. Had the venue put some chairs and tables around, people would have been far more comfortable. It would have been very convenient. Again, I think the venue got in the way of it being a positive experience; 6) In my presentation, I let people know that if they have a question to clarify something on the slide we are looking at, ask it, otherwise, please hold questions to the end. I think that worked well and I don't feel as my session got derailed. Many other sessions, however, were derailed by questions. Not all questions were derailing, obviously, but when the question devolves into a company-specific issue that has no general interest, the speaker should defer the question until later, and none of them did. 7) I do believe there was overlap in the sessions. I think WorkFront was trying to sell the new resource planner/scheduler hard. There were a number of sessions about that, and they were duplicative. Dan Perkins make it interesting though. I viewed the preponderance of Resource Planner sessions, all focused on the new planner, to be hard-selling; 8) The guy (Brendan Wovchko) that did the Kan Ban ("Can You Kan Ban? Yes You Can", Thursday 0905-0955) session was terrific. What a great presentation. He was, in my opinion, an authority in the business of Kan Ban and spoke directly to critical success factors in using Kan Ban. This is the quality of session I aspire to provide. 9) That was my fourth LEAP, well, fifth if you count Best of Leap in London last year. I'm finding that most sessions are tailored to relatively new users. Yes, I know they have a track called "Advanced", but after a few years of using the product, it is common place. I would like to see sessions tailored to the longer-term users. I wouldn't decrease the number of sessions tailored to relatively new users - those are of immense value to people. I would add a track called "Old Timer" and talk about things like purging, archiving, cleaning up unused portfolios, projects, teams, and so on. 10) I used to run Product Management at a software company years ago. In that role, I used to manage our company's presence at trade shows. I've been to a LOT of conventions and shows. I started a user group for a software package once and arranged annual conferences. I have a feel for hard it is to pull off something the size and scope of LEAP. It is my opinion that the LEAP team at WorkFront does a top-notch job putting it all together and getting it all communicated and coordinated. Everything WorkFront did to facilitate the conference went off, from my perspective, without a hitch. That isn't easy, but the WorkFront team sure makes it look easy. They done good. 11) I like the idea of keeping the topic open. I have lots of ideas for presentations I could give - and ones I'd like to attend. I think if we could toss out ideas, then WorkFront would have a better idea about what sessions people want to attend. That would help them select presentations to put on the agenda. Skye - Congratulations on your award. You were absolutely beaming when you had your picture taken with the WorkFront Leadership team. Warms my heart to see good things happen to good people. :-) Lucas Eric MPM eric.lucas@crowley.com Crowley Information Technology

[SkyeHa]

To Eric, and everyone else who responded, thank you. I'm entirely blown away by the support. I think we all agree that we had a pretty good time but there's an opportunity to improve for next year and I for one would like to help out and participate more in that. I don't want to address everything that everyone said but I have two things I'd like to chime in on... For the specific topic of "holding questions to the end" I think there were a few presenters who were trying to be nice and take questions as they came up. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't, and when it doesn't, it's hard to switch midway. I agree with Adina, it's up to each presenter how they want to handle questions. Having moderators watch for this would definitely help this from both sides: if the questions start detracting from the presentation then we need to stop the questions, but if the moderator starts hearing a confused rumbling, it may be time to stop the presentation and start taking questions. In terms of session content (and specifically to what Eric said: duplicative sessions), I know when I presented last year, I was terrified that I was going to duplicate someone's session. So much so, that I hunted the other presenter down and asked if I could see his outline. But that's just me. I think there should be a way to avoid this in the future, just by having enough metadata on each session. Sessions about the same thing should be compared against each other. Presenters should list the thing that their session is mostly about. Guys, we do this with our projects (keep metadata), we can do it for 130 breakout sessions with no sweat breaking. Custom form creation in 3... 2... Anyway that's it for now, but I'm really happy to continue to chat about Leap 2019 as the year progresses. Thanks, -skye

[ErinRe]

I think the LEAP event is tremendous. So well executed so kudos to the team! The biggest observation our team made this year was related to the content in the sessions. Ill echo that it felt like redundancy with slightly different flavors for a lot of the adoption sessions and capacity planning sessions. In talking with a few people it seems like it would be helpful to have sessions that take a deep dive into specific set up or reports people are using. This is where I get a lot of great ideas to be able to bring back and apply in a way that fits our need. The advanced sessions are not quite advanced enough for people that have been using the system for 3+ years. I find the time spent networking and interacting with other users, and finding users similar to us (location, education industry, IT) is the most beneficial part of the week. Thank you again Workfront team! ERIN REED National Heritage Academies, Inc.