We had our 24.1 release webinar Thursday and fielded lots of great questions. You can watch the recording here, peruse the slide deck (attached at the bottom of this post), and look over the webinar Q&A below. The few questions we didn't get to during the webinar, now answered, are marked with an asterisk.
Many thanks to everyone who attended, asked questions, and gave us feedback!
New Home
What is the ETA for configuring columns?
February 15th to Preview as fast-follow on work. Then to Production on Feb. 29th.
When will we be able to selectively turn on the New Home page again?
Likely sometime later this year.
Did you say that delegating work is not yet available in the New Home Page? If so, when would it become available? and where this be done from "My Work" widget?
Delegation is available for New Home via My Work, My Tasks, or My Issues widgets. Viewing the delegations from New Home is the remaining work we still have to complete.
What about calendar functionality/widget for the New Home experience prior to it becoming the default experience?
Candidly, prior to it becoming the default experience, likely not. We want to ensure the "experience" is up to par before adding back in all the functionality. We do want to support a Calendar view in the future though.
Is there a plan to add the calendar to the New Home page? Our Teams use the calendar a lot. So they aren’t using the New Home page
Yes. We have future plans to support a Calendar view in the New Home experience.
Can you delegate tasks/issues to more than one person?
Not at this point.
Is there anything on the roadmap regarding out of office message. Although we have delegate, users don't know when someone is out of office when their tagging someone on an update
That's something that's been requested for a while now, but due to shifting priorities we are unable to introduce the functionality. Feel free to upvote on the idea.
Will there be an option soon to manually switch certain users to the New Home experience? I know I can change the settings to default everyone to the new and have them be able to switch back and forth. But I'd like to have everyone in the current home, but start onboarding some users one by one manually.
Yes. We have future plans for a better opt-in/opt-out experience.
Can you turn off the ability to delegate?
Yes, you can turn the ability to delegate assignments from the Setup > Project Preferences > Jobs & Issues or do the same at the Group level.
Will there be the ability in the New Home page to log time to your To-Do list items?
Likely not. We want to preserve the simplicity of To-Dos. But there will be other enhancements to To-Dos like tags, hyperlinks, and drag and drop to reorder. We have also considered "convert to task" which would allow log time (as you know).
When will the New Home page just stick and completely replace legacy Home?
No exact date yet, but deprecation of legacy home will likely start in second half of 2024 (if not sooner). In other words, it will just stick sometime this year.
When will the New Home be fully rolled out?
I'd say "fully" over the next year (or so) is when you'll see the remaining key enhancements and improvements to usability.
Loving the home page. Will there ever be an option to add a calendar as a widget on this home page?
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, eventually, we'd like to add Calendar functionality to the New Home experience. Just a few "more critical" items we'd like to prioritize above Calendar. If you'd like to see progress on where we are at, please email me at jeremyf@adobe.com.
Will there be the Calendar View in Home, similar to the Legacy/Current Home?
Eventually, yes. But likely not similar to Legacy/Current home.
When a task is created on to do list, it adds task to the activation, which shows on timesheets and can throw off time tracking. Is there a way to remove the to do list on the layout template level or way to prevent the task from being added to an activation? *
Currently there is no way to remove the to do widget from the layout template. I believe the task should not appear unless certain actions have been taken (for example, log time).
We have been using personal tasks with planned start date and planned completion date to generate reports to show what our field service reps are doing. The planned start is not possible in the New Home. Will this be addressed before existing Home is phased out?
Please clarify if the need is around viewing the planned start date or being able to input a planned start date on the personal task. Currently, To-Dos are personal tasks so you should still be able to get to that information.
We don't use Home, we use dashboards. Can we continue to do that and hide the new Home to our users?
Yes, you'll still be able to use dashboards.
If I set Home up via Layout Template, the user can't adjust it for their own needs?
The user will still be able to adjust (rearrange, change color background, etc.) to their liking.
In the new Home screen, the To Dos are not available to all our users? How do we open this up for all users in our system?
Assuming it has something to do with your access or permissions. Initially, we had all widgets open to everyone then dialed it back for those who don't have permissions to work with Personal Tasks aka To-Dos. You would likely need to upgrade those users to a higher license/permission.
In my "old home" I only have a delegate option for issue/task/document approvals, not for issues/tasks themselves. Is this something we need to turn on/configure?
It is enabled via Setup, outlined here.
Can those with Planner Licenses (project managers) configure a team's home screen or only the admin?
Yes, if they have been designated as a Group Administrator.
As an admin, can we remove the "To Do" area of the new Home screen for all our users?
Not currently.
When you delegate and that person completes the task. Will that mark it as complete? Before I had an issue that it was not mark as done since it was waiting for the person who delegated the task to complete too
Yes, it would mark it complete.
Can you create custom formats for the tasks in the New Home? Before I was able to do so when I created a dashboard for the user.*
By formats, do you mean more than just a list view? If so, no. Would love to know what you have in mind though as we are planning for future enhancement to Home.
Can you pick which tasks are delegated? We have users with multiple roles that would multiple delegations.
It is either all or none at this point.
Will we be able to add our own backgrounds to the New Home?
Custom colors is something we're currently considering now. No decision has been made but in general I like supporting this idea.
Does this delegate existing & incoming work or just incoming work items (after the delegation is done)? *
The existing work is delegated accordingly, and the delegations for upcoming work are visible in the “Assignments and Delegations” section of a task or issue. However, these do not appear in the worklist.
With this new feature of delegating tasks - will it have the ability to delegate proof approvals?
Not yet. It is on our backlog but not on the roadmap at this point.
The Delegation functionality -- can the System Admin to turn that off for certain users? Or will ALL users be able to access that functionality and delegate their tasks?
The configuration is available at the group level, so if the users you want to have the functionality turned off/on are in the same group, that is possible
When I go into layout templates, I only see "home" option. I do not see the updated Home option, how do I get that added?
Please check your preview environment. If it does not appear there, please submit a ticket to support and we are happy to help troubleshoot. Thanks!
Ever considered one location for All delegations so users don't have to go widget by widget to log every object delegation? Maybe a dropdown of all delegation options from one area? And include a feature to apply 1 user delegate to all objects so you're not selecting the same delegate (and coverage dates) over and over if that's applicable. I can dream, can't I?
Yes! That's exactly why we've paused on adding "viewing" the delegations to New Home as there are a few ways we could solve for this. Appreciate this feedback.
It would be amazing if the workflows could be immediately adjusted when Tasks are Delegated instead of waiting until the day a user is OOO, so workflows do not look like they are getting unnecessarily pushed out; is that a future feature consideration?
That's a great idea. Will pass this feedback along to the respective product manager. Thanks!
Can users still reconfigure/move those widgets?
Yes, they can.
Can you delegate specific tasks to different users?
That's not available right now and is not on the roadmap at this point
Does the task list reflect the new delegate in the project schedule?
Yes.
Will we have the ability to decide what widgets are available for users to add?
Eventually yes. Giving admins the ability to enable/disable certain widgets are part of our future plans.
Can I set a new default view for users, but still allow them to customize it afterwards?
Yes, absolutely!
Is the new Home and Home Workspace the same thing? We are working in the New Home page, but I don't see Home Workspace in my preview and would like to explore more.
Yes. New Home = Home Workspace, at least for now. Interesting, please submit a support ticket so that we can help you troubleshoot. Thanks!
What type of user does this work for? I don't have this on my homepage.
If you are referring to the New Homepage it is mostly tailored for "task owners" or "collaborators" needing a one stop shop to view progress and take action.
Are there any plans to make delegated tasks reportable along with a user's own tasks?
As of now, there are no scheduled improvements around work delegation.
Proof/approvals
In last year's what's new webinar, you featured major changes to the proof capabilities. Are those still happening?
Yes, we're continuously building out a new unified review & approval experience natively inside Workfront. We've already finished the foundational work which will replace current document approvals. If you want to have it enabled on Production, please inform your account representative. We're now in the process of building on top of the foundational experience by adding more and more proofing capabilities. Depending on your needs you can decide when to best start using this new experience as opposed to current Proofing.
Does this new document approval show in dashboards "My pending document approvals"?
The widget is called "Pending Approvals"
When will proof approval delegation be available?
It is on our backlog but not our roadmap yet. It is something that is needed but we currently have higher prioritized features for H1 2024.
How can we set the approval process for requesters? How can they change the status to Approve, and it will show as approved status to the authors/workers? *
The approval process today is the same, as a single stage approval. The requestors don't change the status, rather the status changes based on the decisions that have been made and that approval decision status will display for authors/workers and everyone else.
How can we set approval process via changing statuses? Like, worker marks the status "approval awaited" and requester will mark the status as "approved"
Currently, you can only set an approval on the destination status. For example, you want to change the status to complete, but that requires an approval, you set it on the complete status. I know it's a bit confusing with statuses such as Approved, but currently there is no alternative. That might become available sometime in the future.
When will we be able to delegate approvals within Proof?
Delegation of approvals is something we want to work on, but we have higher prioritized functionality coming H1 2024. Soonest possibility is sometime H2 2024+
When will the proof syncing issue be resolved in the Awaiting my Approvals widget? I am hesitant to release this to all my users since it doesn't always show all proofs.
If you could reach out to your customer success or account manager and let us know exactly what syncing issue you are seeing, we can look into it for you!
When will we start to see enhancements and updates to Proof similar to the Document enhancements?
The document approvals enhancements are setting the foundation for the future of content review and approval (proofing) natively in Workfront
Is the new proofing integration going to use Frame-io or will it continue to use the Proof HQ interface? Will we see a move away from the desktop proof viewer for interactive proofs into a browser-based version?
As part of the "unified review & approval" initiative we're going to allow users to open documents with the Frame.io Viewer and benefit from the existing review capabilities. This is already possible for assets that got uploaded to Frame.io and connected to Workfront via our new native WF + Frame.io integration. This native integration is still part of our limited alpha release and only available to selected customers that fulfil the requirements (Workfront on IMS). If you're interested to become an alpha customer, please reach out to your account representative.
Do the new approval functionalities also appear for Proof approvals? Task approvals?
No, only for document approvals which are the foundation for the future of content review and approval natively inside Workfront
Will there be information on knowing which instances will receive the limited release for document approvals?
We have several hundred customers enabled. If you haven't received notification, then most likely it isn't your instance. However, if you would like it enabled in your environment, we would be happy to enable it for you. Just let your customer success or account manager know and we will turn it on!
With the ability for reviewers to mark that they are done - will they be required to do this?
No, they won't be required to. The approval can still happen without the reviewer completing their review. But it is encouraged if they are added as a reviewer.
It would be a great value add on the Approvals widget to either have Due Dates visible or at least list the items needing approval in chronological order of what's due first instead of being listed by which files were most Recently uploaded, which is irrelevant for prioritizing approvals. Is this kind of enhanced functionality being considered for future updates?
We're already working on introducing Approval deadlines to the new approval experience. As part of it you will be able to see the deadlines in the new WF Home widget as well as additional indication how many days / hours are remaining.
How do I request to be part of the beta for the content approval reminders and visual status?
Please reach out to your account representative or customer success manager and let them know.
Does this include proof HQ approvals?
No, this is only for document approvals natively in Workfront
Will the documents approval native to Workfront include digital signature approvals? and commenting features?
It will include any files that are able to display in the Document section of projects, tasks, or issues
Will this new widget work with proofing approvals?
It will only work with new document approvals, which new approvals are setting the foundation for the future of content review and approval natively inside Workfront
Is there a plan for Document & Proof approval delegation?
It is on our backlog but not on the roadmap yet.
Couldn't we see users' approval progress previously?
Yes. There is some trace information that is provided in the reporting interfaces. What we have in mind is to unlock all the approval-related data to identify additional trends and metrics (e.g., cycle time between reviews, and from upload to entry date)
Commenting
Will you be demoing the comment changes?
Here is the link to the release page where you can find more information about what's being released.
Do we have a functionality to create "Pop up" notifications?
Thank you for the nice feature suggestion. We currently don't have that, but there are plans to introduce that in the future. Don't have an ETA yet.
Will we ever be able to search within System Activity?
We are monitoring feedback and if it gets requested a lot (tracking via ideas site) we will consider introducing it.
Can you limit who can add images into comments? I would only want designers to be able to put images into comments for getting questions answered but other people will treat it like turn in.
Currently, the ability to add images is a system level setting. So, it's either enabled for everyone or no one. Thank you for that feedback.
When can we get the proof comments visible in the updates section?
You should be able to see proof comments at the document level commenting stream. You won't see them at the higher levels though. This is done on purpose to avoid information clutter. If you don't see the proof comments at the document level, feel free to submit an issue with the support team so that the development team can take a closer look.
Reporting
What are the chart options that will be available for Canvas? The options for reporting in Workfront are so limited, I'm hoping we've explored other options where possible.
The first charts we will be adding are the same that are available in the existing reporting capability. This is to allow us to maintain the current capability as a starting point for users transitioning to the new reporting interfaces. The good news is that we are doing this through a new charting library that will give us the ability to grow beyond the current capabilities.
Are there any updates on the new report builder? It was mentioned this past summer, and I haven't heard much since. Hoping for a simplified builder for my users.
We are continuing to work on the new reporting tools. I am hopeful that we will have more specific information in the next release webinar.
I would like to be added to any report canvas betas if available.
I will make a note of that. However, I will also mention we are not planning any additional alpha or beta cohorts until early spring. I think the presenter indicated that we had an alpha starting in January, but that is for the Data Lake Access / BI Availability alpha, not Canvas Dashboards.
Boards
When can we get projects linked in Boards and more colors for each column? *
The plan is for Boards to support more objects including Projects. There is no active development on adding Projects to Boards. There is also no active development on adding additional color to Boards, including more colors for each column. It is an item something that we want to enable, but currently there is no active development.
When will the new boards include the ability to make added fields (custom or default) available to show on cards? Currently you can add a field to a card but cannot make it visible. *
As of right now, you can select a custom field to show on the card view. A user needs to open the card details to view custom data. It is an enhancement that is planned but has not been completed.
Will we be able to keep waterfall list of workflows or is everything eventually moving to Boards? (I hope not for PMs sake)
Thanks for the feedback. There are currently no plans to remove the list view for the tasks.
Custom forms
When will the new form creator include logic coding?
There is no ETA at this point, but it is on our roadmap
Admin Console
Hello, thanks for the webinar! I have a few questions related to user imports. I see that you are now recommending to import users through the Admin Console, do you plan to completely phase out the user import functionalities within Workfront? If yes, do you have a timeline for it?
Do you plan to add a way within the Admin Console to add more information to Workfront users? For instance being able to specify the user's access level directly within the Admin Console while inputing a new user (whether we do manual or bulk import) *
We do not currently have plans to phase out the "user import" function within Workfront. Adobe Admin Console has a larger initiative on the backlog to unify user permissions, roles, and access. There is no ETA on this initiative, but at that time Adobe is considering adding more granular user permission options in the bulk upload via the Admin Console.
Misc
Can you link the in-depth training for the new features?
You can find the release notes with the information about what's coming on the release notes page. You will also be able to see short demos of the features from there.
How do I get access to our preview environment?
The link to your preview environment can be accessed via Setup > System > Preferences. or by simply going to your https://your companydomain.preview.workfront.com/login?
How do I know what version of Workfront I am using?
Workfront doesn't have versioning. Everybody gets the same version unless you are on the fast release track, in which case you are getting feature updates monthly instead of quarterly. If you would like to know whether your account is on fast track I can check and let you know.
When is this release taking place? (or has it already?)
It has started. Some of this functionality is already in your Preview environment. The production release is set for Thursday and Friday of this coming week.
How can I check to see when 24.1 is coming to our instance?
The quarterly release is planned to go out to all customers on January 18th, so your instance will get that too. You can go to status.adobe.com to find out which day 24.1 comes to your instance. On that page, open the Experience Cloud tab, then filter by Adobe Workfront on the left.
* This question was not answered during the live webinar chat
