Universal Reporting
fulfilling the pyramid of Clarity & revealing the power of the Work Graph
Challenge
Our users were exporting their data from Asana to manually create reports that were immediately out of date which, in addition to the work about work created, meant they didn’t have a single source of truth to create alignment and clarity.
Solution
Make it effortless to construct views of the metrics that matter using the power of the work graph and data visualization best practices.
Outcomes
A v1 launch that solved user problems, achieved our team’s launch KR and caused positive movement for multiple NSMs within the company. Longer term, this feature enabled the ability to report on Goals which is now a top rated OKR product, largely due to its ability to use reporting across the Work Graph to achieve alignment and clarity.
Role
I led the product design of this product, from initial user research and scope definition to final assets. I worked in close partnership with my Product Manager and Tech Lead, and I managed collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including product & executive leadership, the design systems team, and other senior designers as I built upon or created new interaction patterns that had ramifications for the rest of the product.
Where to begin
Overview
Companies were keeping all of their work in Asana, but there was no way for leaders to get visibility across all of it in the ways that mattered to them. We wanted our users to have actionable, real-time data to drive clarity and planning and reveal the power of Asana’s work graph.
The design process involved extensive research with our users, deep dives into the information architecture and security structure of the site, and a lot of thoughtfulness about how to provide a dashboard that was consistent to users with varying levels of access to the data underlying it. We also wanted to balance customizability with data visualization best practices to make sure we were helping our users create useful charts that were easy to understand and create alignment with.
Through this careful consideration, and many rounds of design and user feedback, we were able to create a solution that empowered users to quickly create visualizations that helped them and other stakeholders understand the live state of their work. This enables them to spot problems before they arise, notice patterns and use this information to adjust workflows, and to easily track progress against their own or company goals.
I’m currently updating my portfolio, but in the meantime you can learn more about this project on Figma.
Impact
For our users
“The cross project visibility is a game changer.”
“It’s going to help us tell better stories as to why the work we’re performing matters.”
“Thanks to Asana’s ability to monitor progress across projects, it’s possible to predict your projects' delivery dates with outstanding precision. Through this, I am able to give practical answers and precise delivery dates to those who commission the projects.”
For our metrics
9.8% of domains had at least one user visiting a dashboard 3d28
We saw a strong increase in the Clarity and Align North Star Metrics during the second week after the marketing moment, with an increase in Healthy Align domains of +3.7% (at any point over the week), and +2.1% of Healthy Clarity domains. This was despite some public holidays in countries with a significant portion of Asana customers.
Additional
This work and launch created the ability to report on Goals — another new product offering from Asana. By creating reusable frameworks that could be implemented in Goals, and by collaborating with designers on that team throughout the process, they were later able to incorporate reporting into Goals.
Goals is now a top rated OKR product, largely due to its ability to use reporting across the Work Graph to achieve alignment and clarity.
Press related to this product
Introducing Universal Reporting: See all your organization’s work from every angle — The Workback
Clarity at Scale - Asana Announces Universal Reporting to Visualize Progress Across the Enterprise — Business Wire
Achieve clarity at scale: Introducing the Asana Enterprise Work Graph — Business Wire