Kicking off Exciting Integrations – A Q&A on MTM 8.3 with Lead Product Manager Eric Matson

MTM (Metrics That Matter) is Explorance’s Learning & Development effectiveness solution. MTM helps enterprise-level L&D teams better understand, measure, and refine the effectiveness of their training and instruction programs.

Explorance is committed to continuously improving MTM via regular software updates. This month’s update – MTM 8.3 – is a significant one, delivering a fresh new look and feel, as well as providing new customization and certification options that will be refreshingly familiar for users of the Blue People Insights platform.

All of this points to an exciting period of increased integration over the coming months for MTM.

What’s New in MTM 8.3?

New Features

1. Survey / Test Redesign
   All survey respondents, including students, instructors, and managers, will enjoy a newly refined experience submitting Class and Conference feedback and responding to test questions. This new modern user experience makes it easy for everyone to use MTM while meeting Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA compliance.
2. Custom Color Palette
   Clients can customize the primary color used on surveys and tests using their own brand’s color or one of MTM’s pre-set WCAG 2.1 AA compliant colors.
3. New Certificate Builder
   Clients using MTM’s standard certificate style will have an updated and more modern design. Admins can configure certificates to use multiple logos, multiple signatures, custom messaging, and a custom color palette.
4. Assorted New Time-Saving, Branding, and Accessibility-Focused Capabilities
   New dropdown question functionality, invalid response correction options, the ability to include custom images to the respondent page for better branding, visual improvements while answering multiple choice questions, and an expansion of multilingual capabilities during the survey experience.

Hi Eric! This is an exciting release with a brand-new user experience awaiting users. Has a lot of work gone into this?

Eric: That’s right – a considerable amount of work has been ongoing on this release since summer 2020.

One important thing to note is that MTM has several core modules – those being classes, conferences, and tests. These are the core modules that are being updated in this release.

There are some other modules, such as 360 assessments, that are not covered by this release, but for those core competencies listed above, you can now take advantage of these changes.  

Every form you pull up will have this new look and feel. It’s a more modern, a fully accessible WCAG 2.1 AA compliant experience that is more closely aligned with Blue 8. This will feel very similar to that platform, regardless of if you’re completing an engagement or learning survey.

Why were customizable color options provided as part of this particular update?

Eric: It’s important to our users that MTM’s surveys feel like an internal tool. Having the surveys use your organization’s chosen colors is a key way to delivering on that.

We offer a range of presets for those organizations who may not already chosen a color palette that is accessibility-guaranteed – with the full ability to utilize a company’s long-standing brand color.

Would it be fair to say this also opens the door to a more branded experience while utilizing MTM? 

Eric: Yes, certainly this color provision can also assist with delivering a more branded experience. For many years, we’ve supported the provision of a company logo within MTM to deliver that experience, but this takes things a step further.

The provision of a new certificate builder is also present. I notice this comes very shortly after Blue 8 delivered new certification options.

Eric: Indeed! Those who are using the certification capabilities of Blue will note a clear correspondence with this newly-provided certification in MTM – again this is our effort to streamline a familiar experience and shorten the learning curve for users utilizing both products.

The look, feel, and customization for certification in MTM will be the same.

We have a number of additional and assorted time-saving and improved branding measures packaged into this release. Is there anything particular here you feel is of note?

Eric: Yes, one that I’d like to highlight particularly is related to the login page for our surveys.

We’ve always had the ability to add a custom message here, but with MTM 8.3, this will also include a hyperlink, which is very useful for clients who want to include their own privacy policy on the site.

This will be very useful, both to fulfill legal requirements for organizations, and to better allow employees to understand how their data is going to be handled.

This represents a great step forward for MTM – especially on the visual end. Can you sum up what this update represents, what the months ahead promise?

Eric: I’m happy to say that MTM is entering a phase where a lot of emphasis is being put on expanding who can really access and use it. Providing the very best accessibility remains at the heart of our work.

Additionally, there will be more work done to bring it closer to the rest of Explorance’s suite of products. This is all part of the overall goal of better integrating our products. We are taking a big step towards that with this release. Now, the survey process will really feel the same, regardless of if you’re using Blue or MTM. As I mentioned, from a technology standpoint, the certification process is the same.

The coming months will bring even more exciting integrations with the rest of the Explorance suite. This is a major kick-off in that regard – so stay tuned.

How MTM Delivers Actionable Insights into your L&D Performance

About Eric

Eric Matson is Lead Product Manager, MTM at Explorance. An experienced Agile Product Owner, he has a passion for technology, transportation, and urbanism, primarily where these intersect to make our lives easier. Based in Chicago, he has been an Explorer for over three years, leading feature development and retirement related to Metrics that Matters (MTM).