A Substantial Update – A Q&A on MTM 8.2.3 with Lead Product Manager Eric Matson

MTM is Explorance’s Learning and Development effectiveness platform, designed to help your organization better measure, evaluate and increase the effectiveness of your L&D portfolio.

Explorance’s commitment to our MTM users means continuous improvement, and as such, this latest update – MTM 8.2.3 – delivers a substantial amount of new features and functions that we’re sure will delight our new and long-term users.

As usual, we’ll discuss these changes and the motivations behind them with Eric Matson, Explorance’s Lead Product Manager.

What’s New in MTM 8.2.3?

New Features

1. Individual instructor scores in Conference Performance Report
2. Follow Up and Manager NPS scores in Key Metrics Report
3. Comments in Course Summary Report
4. Dashboard owner name displayed on shared Dashboards – When viewing a dashboard, the viewer will see who shared it with them (as per displayed via image above). 
5. Single items crosstab in Data Explorer Compare feature.

Hello again Eric! How would you characterize the new 8.2.3 version of MTM?

Eric:  I would describe the new release – MTM 8.2.3 – as being a substantial one, as it features a raft of updates and changes that we believe will add substantially to the benefits our users get from MTM.

Also – just a reminder – MTM is multi-tenant. There is one live version, so with the update having taken place on 19 September, that updated version is the sole version that will be utilized by all users.

Let’s dive into the details of what’s to be delivered with this update. What are the kinds of changes that can users expect?

Eric: We can generally group the benefits that MTM 8.2.3 brings into three different categories, providing:

• New Insights
• Improved Data Collection
• Better Admin functionality

Tackling new insights first, this includes the ability of the newly-added Conference Performance Report to display individual instructor scores, as opposed to an aggregate score for all instructors.

Using this option, the score for each instructor, identified by name, who taught at a conference program will be displayed, providing a detailed insight on individual instructor performance. This is an optional setting; users still can view the aggregated instructor scores if they do not need the additional level of granularity.  

Another new feature we’re very excited about is the inclusion of Manager and Follow-Up NPS scores in the Key Metrics report. When setting up your Report Query, select Post Event, Follow-up, and/or Manager form types to see a comparison between the different form types, their NPS scores and distribution, all compared to the benchmark. This has been a common request from users and we’re happy to see this now realized, as they can now track how their NPS scores change over time, after learners have had the opportunity to apply training to the job.

Also, users can now optionally include learner comments in their Course Summary Reports. We all know how insightful qualitative data can be, and we anticipate this new feature to be very helpful for identifying root causes and next steps behind the report’s quantitative scores. This is especially helpful for course designers or any other type of user who doesn’t routinely log into MTM or doesn’t have other reporting options.

These new features sound like they will provide practical and actionable insights in a more effective way to users. How does this update also improve the general collection and use data within an L&D training environment?

Eric: There are a number of new changes that focused to improve the data collection experience.

For example, we have expanded who can collect manager-level feedback to include organizations using EmployeeID to identify their learners. Manager feedback is an important part of MTM’s methodology and can help identify gaps in the course design as well as barriers preventing learners from applying what they learned to the job. The expanded support is particularly useful for learners in retail – or anyone who might not have corporate email addresses.

In addition, when collecting manager feedback, the names direct reports are now displayed beside their identifier (i.e. Email, EmployeeID), making it easier for managers to know who they are about to evaluate.

Lastly, it is now easier to use email to distribute surveys with upgrades to how emails render on mobile devices for all mobile types and email clients, including Gmail and the Outlook mobile app.

Let’s touch on how MTM 8.2.3 makes admins’ lives easier – given this is always a priority in our updates. What can they expect?

Eric: Absolutely. Recipients of a shared dashboard will now see the creator’s name displayed at the top of the dashboard. As more users have created and shared their own dashboards with colleagues, they had trouble figuring out who exactly had shared a dashboard with them! This addition will ensure users always know who to approach to make a change to a dashboard.

Additionally, the Monitor Email Delivery (MED) download now includes the date a learner was enrolled in a class or conference. The MED enables users to track and troubleshoot the data collection process, all the more now that Enrollment Date is included. Another helpful change is that time zone is now denoted for enrollment date, email sent date, response completed date.

Also, MTM 8.2.3 will allow Admin Users can assign any learners to any Business Unit – ensuring that the responses from students who self-enrolled in a Class or Conference are filtered correctly in Reporting. The Assign Business Unit will be available from the drop-down menu, allowing for business users to be easily and quickly set up.  

I would assume this update also includes some minor bug fixes?

Eric: That’s right. It’s important to respond quickly to client reported issues. Please check out the release notes for a list of which issues have been resolved as part of 8.2.3.

Thanks for taking us through this significant update Eric! Are there any members of the team you’d like to thank for their contributions towards MTM 8.2.3?

• UX Design – Arnaud Friedel
• MTM DevOps – Abdul Rahman, Arun Murali, Barath Ramakrishnan, Felipe Pereira, Jai Surya Senthilkumar, Jayaram Seetharaman, Nithya Sabapathy, Neelakantan Narayanan, Paseer Moorthi Kottaiyan, Pugal Selvaraj, Ravishankar Rajappa, Shriram Sankararaman, Sriram Gunasingh and Thangadurai Subramani. 
• Client Success – Bethany Remely
• Community Engagement & Learning Center – Erika Cost, Gwen Tracy

Learn more about MTM’s capabilities to make an impact on your organization’s L&D programs