What’s New in MTM 8.0? A Q&A with Product Manager, Eric Matson

MTM 8.0 is here, and we sat down with Eric Matson, Product Manager at Explorance, to discuss the latest and greatest enhancements driving this release.

Q: What are the main themes of the MTM 8.0 release?

EM: MTM 8.0 marks a shift in how users will interact with Metrics That Matter, both in terms of the platform and their learning data. To facilitate this shift, we have introduced a new UI, new Navigation Menu, and a new Homepage. This release also supports conference data in Dashboards and Data Explorer, seamlessly combining data from multiple types of learning for the first time.  

Q: What was behind the making of MTM 8.0? What were the key drivers behind the selection of its themes and features?

EM: Our goal was to help users get the most out of their learning data without doing a lot of unnecessary extra work. The new Homepage and Navigation Menu brings the most important information and common pages to the forefront when they log in. Conference data can automatically be combined with class data so that users no longer need to download and splice together different reports. Improving the Homepage and conference reporting experience reduces our dependency on legacy tools while also strengthening the value of our new reporting suite.  

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Q: How did Explorance come up with the content for MTM 8.0?

EM: We decided to create a new Homepage and Navigation Menu as part of a renewed focus on improving MTM’s usability. This was accomplished through a close partnership with our Manager of UI/UX, Arnaud Friedel. My favorite part of the project was designing and conducting a series of Card Sorting exercises and identifying patterns as testers sorted menu options into groups. Arnaud and I used these findings, along with user data, to create the new menu groups and Homepage geared at simplifying navigating MTM. 

As for Conferences, there was a shift a few years ago when users started combining data from multiple MTM modules, especially Class and Conferences. This shift, along with the introduction of MTM’s new reporting suite, demonstrated a clear need to build a new way for users to interact with their data, regardless of how the data was collected. Thanks to a lot of user interviews, Conference and Class data is now automatically combined across all metrics and filters in Dashboards and Data Explorer. To ensure the tools remain flexible for a variety of reporting needs, we introduced new filters allowing the data to be sliced and diced as needed. 

Q: From a customer standpoint, what’s in it for them?

EM: At its core, MTM 8.0 is about improving usability. Immediately after logging in, clients can use the Homepage as a springboard to wherever they need to go with access to key statistics, shortcuts, and their recent activity. The new design and structure of the Navigation Menu requires fewer clicks and is more intuitive to new users. Improved usability is also found in the other enhancements included in MTM 8.0. Ready Reports, Data Explorer, and Dashboards all received small but impactful usability upgrades. 

For conference users, MTM 8.0 also brings a new way to analyze learning data. Gone are silos, gone are the days of piecing multiple reports together in excel. Instead, these clients can automatically see all their data in Dashboards and Data Explorer and can leverage the additional metrics, data visualizations, and filters that make these tools so powerful.  

Q: Can you provide a couple of highlights around the MTM 8.0 working experience?

EM: I cannot thank enough the many Explorers (Explorance employees) who influenced this project, but I would in particular like to acknowledge the following:

• Rahsaan Guyon, Chris Lebrun, Steve Lange – on the Consulting team.
• Brett Hatten, Lisa Carrano, Bethany Remely, and Katie Hoff – all of whom were instrumental as we researched use cases (aka my endless questions).  
• Of course, none of this would be possible without our incredible DevOps team (especially Neelakantan Narayanan, Arun Murali, Nithya Sabapathy, Sriram Gunasingh, Pugalengi Selvaraj, Barath Ramakrishnan, Satheesh Ramani, Raffi Kalemdjian, and so many more). 

Watch the MTM 8.0 Release webinar!