"Discover table" for strategy governance

"Discover table" is a widget that enables flexible reporting allowing you to quickly create a table with any kind of data to report on your strategy performance. You can further drill-down with the filters to provide flexibility and granularity into the level of details you wish to see in you report.

You can use this widget to report on a wide range of use cases, some of which are:

• Actions-only or initiative tracking report: Report only on the actions that are at risk and owned by Operations team so that I can see how to prioritize efforts and resources.

• Measures-only or operational/financial KPIs report: Report on the measures (KPIs) owned by an individual for performance discussion.

• Projects-only or resource allocation report: Report on all the projects owned by a team with the health and status so that the manager can evaluate the workload of each team member.

• Business or operational review report: Report on the objectives in a plan owned by the executive team to present in the executive meeting and discuss on the blockers, roadmap, etc.

• Team performance or workload management report: Report on the goals owned by a couple of team members to review their workload and performance.

• Departmental performance scorecard: Look at the updates posted by the team members of different departments on their goals and have a quick insight on what is happening.

• Budget utilization or financial performance report: Report on the goals with the financial data populated from the custom fields like Budget allocated, spent, etc.

• Risk Reporting: Report on the open risks against a group of goals at your weekly team meetings or monthly strategy reviews.

How to add this widget to a report?

Click (Discover widget) for direct access or select it from the Table options and you'll see a table with the details of all the objectives, measures, projects and actions in your workspace.

You can visualize the data in this Discover table in these three views:

• Strategy view (Default view)- the data is shown in a nested view as set up in the Planner.

• List view - the data is shown without nesting in the table.

• Timeline or Gantt view - the data that is available in the tabular format is shown along with the timeline visualization.

	By default, when the table is added, the report will show the Strategy (Nested) view of the Discover table. Switch between the two display options to see the table in Strategy (nested) or List view.
	Click Timeline to visualize the progress of the goals in a Gantt chart style. The table columns and filters that you added in the Strategy (nested) or List view will also be displayed along with the timeline visualization in this tab. If you're in Timeline view, you can click Table to view the data in tabular format.
	Search for a goal by entering it inside the Search text box. Click + Filter at the end of the search box to make the filtered result permanently available in the report.
	Hover the mouse over the table and click to drag the table and drop it at the place you like within the report. Or, click the three dots and click Delete to delete the table from the report.
	Click (Table columns) icon to choose the columns that you wish to display in the report. These columns will be retained between the Strategy (nested) and List views.
	Click + Data source and click Objective, Plan or Focus area and search for the relevant objectives, plans or focus areas depending on what parent objectives and its success criteria you wish to see in the Strategy view.
	Click + Group by and choose plans or focus areas or both to group the objectives in the table and display accordingly.
	From the Display list, choose the relevant entity to show only those data related to that selected entity. For example, if you want an Actions-only report, choose Actions from the Display entity list. This entity selection will be retained between the different views. In the Strategy view, you'll only see the parent objectives and its actions with the objectives and projects greyed out. However, in the List view, you'll only see the actions.
	Click + Add filters to apply filters to see the precise information so that you can focus on the data you wish to see in the report. The filters will be retained between the different views.
	Collapse or Expand all rows in both view and edit mode.

"Strategy" (nested) view in "Discover" table:

The "Strategy" (nested) view will show the data set up in a nested or hierarchy structure as available in the Planner unlike the "list" view. This view will let you see how the success criteria are contributing to the high level objective.

Some use cases for which nested view can be helpful:

• To see all the measures that're at risk and the objectives that these measures contribute to.

• To view all goals underneath a focus area from different plans that are owned by a user so that I can see that person’s workload and performance for that strategy area.

• To see the contributing objectives in the corporate plan to know what is driving the corporate strategic objectives.

• To report on the progress of the key projects and actions in a plan or key focus areas to understand the dependency, timeline and blockers.

• To see how different objectives and their success criteria are performing in departmental plans.

Click + Data source and click Objective, Plan or Focus area and search for the relevant objectives, plans or focus areas depending on what parent objectives and its success criteria you wish to see in the nested view. Click the Trash icon to remove the data source. Click and choose the columns you wish to see in the table.

For example, you can choose Plan and select the relevant plans like your corporate plan to see the objectives in it as set up in its Planner page, or choose the main focus areas and see how the objectives and its success criteria are progressing.

Choose the type of entity you wish to see from the Display dropdown list. By default, all the entities (objectives, measures, projects and actions) will be selected. This entity selection will be retained between the different views.

For example, if you want an Measures-only report, choose Measures from the Display (entity) list. In the Strategy view, you'll only see the parent objectives and its measures with the objectives greyed out. Whereas, in the List view, you'll only see the measures.

You can then click + Add filters to drill down to see the relevant data in the table. For example, once you choose the main focus areas, you can then add filters to see only those goals that're at risk or behind so that you can plan better and prioritize work. 

Few points to note in Strategy (nested) view:

• When you're switching between Strategy and List views, the entity selection, table columns and filters are carried over. For example, if you've selected only projects and actions in Strategy view, you'll see only the projects and actions highlighted in the nested strategy view as soon as you choose the data source. While the objectives will be greyed out, measures will not be available in the table at all. But in the List view, you'll only see projects and actions and no objectives or measures.

• Irrespective of the filters applied, the objectives will always be shown in the table since they represent the hierarchy. However, if they do not match the filters, they'll be greyed out.

• If the success criteria does not match the filters applied, then they'll not be available in the table itself.

• You'll not see the plans or goals that you do not have access to. These will also not be available as options for filtering or in data source selection.

• There is no restrictions on the number of nested layers in a plan and everything will be available in the table.

• When a user has selected a data source Plan, the top level Linked objective will be shown in the Discover Widget too - Limitation: When user select group by primary plan, the linked objective will appear in the primary plan’s group eg. Plan A is selected as data source and it has a linked objective from Plan B. The linked objective will be under Plan B’s group instead of Plan A.

• If there're shared objectives from a public (departmental) to a private (corporate) plan and if you filter by the private (corporate) plan, then the department team members will only see those shared goals they have access to. Other goals that're in the private (corporate) plan to which the department team members do not have any access will be hidden from the table.

• When you select a specific objective from the data source, it'll show all its success criteria including its nested and contributing objectives. In the Contributes to column, it'll show the focus areas under which this objective is housed and also any objectives to which it contributes to.

• If you've submeasures enabled in your workspace, then those measure contributions will not be available in the Contributes to column in both views or in the nesting under the parent measure in the nested strategy view.

"List" view in "Discover" table:

Select List from the Strategy dropdown to view the Discover table in list or flat view without any nesting. Whatever entities, table columns or filters that you add in the Strategy view will be available here as well.

Some main differences are:

• Its just a flat view of the selected and matched entities or goals.

• If you selected only measures from the Display list, then the view will list only the measures.

• Sorting options are available in this view. Click  (Sort icon) to sort the data in ascending or descending order or just alphabetically. Please note that sorting is not available for Nested view.

• You can click the three dots at the top-right of the table and click Export to CSV to export the table in CSV format.

• Irrespective of the type of objectives (high-level parent, nested or contributing), they'll all be displayed in the same way.

• In case of shared or linked objectives, you'll see the focus areas with which its shared under the Contributes to column.

• For nested objectives, you'll see the parent objective under the Contributes to column.

Table columns in "Discover" table:

Click (Table columns) icon to choose the columns that you wish to display in the Discover table. You can place the cursor on the column lines to reorder them or drag to resize their width.

The fields that're readily available in Cascade are visible first and after a demarcated line, the custom fields in your workspace that is configured in the Admin > Settings > Custom fields are available. While the Entity or Goal's title is mandatory, you can choose to display any combination of these fields as columns in the table:

• Owner of the goal.

• Collaborators in the goal.

• Team assigned to the plan in which the goal resides.

• Health of the goal.

• Progress of the goal (in %) on that date.

• Target of the goal (Objectives, action and projects will always show as 100%)

• Actual Value of the goal is the current progress value [(Current progress-Initial value)/(Target value - initial value)]

• Expected progress of the goal [(Expected progress-initial value)/(Target value - initial value)]

  Note: for objectives, projects and "maintain" measures, there is no concept of expected progress

• Progress Change (WoW) shows the change in progress from today vs. one week ago
• Progress Change (MoM) shows the change in progress from today vs. one month ago
• Progress Change (QoQ) shows the change in progress from today vs. one quarter ago
• Progress Change (YoY) shows the change in progress from today vs. one year ago
  Visit the Progress change columns in Discover Table article for more information

• Type added to the goal.

• Status of the goal; This is applicable only for Actions and Projects.

• Start date of the goal.

• End date of the goal.

• Update due on is the date by which the next update is due. This is available only if a schedule is set from the Reminder schedule of the goals' sidebar.

• Update posted date is the date by which the recent update was made on that goal.

• Last update shows the entire update made on the goal either while scooting the progress bar manually and attaching quick and concise updates or detailed updates posted on the Updates tab in the sidebar.

• Contributes to displays the parent of the goal. For objectives, this will show the Focus area or the objective it contributes to and for measures, it'll display its parent objective and so on.

• Parent plan shows the plan in which the goal resides.

• Parent objective shows the objective under which the action, project, measure, nested/contributing objective resides.

• Parent project shows the project under which the action resides.

• Description shows the additional details that're available in the Description field of the entities.

• # Open Risks displays the current count of open risks against the goal.

• Open Risks displays the title, description, and severity of the open risks against the goal (sorted by severity, highest to lowest).

• Focus Area(s) lists all the Focus Areas the goal sits within across plans (note that if you have renamed "Focus Areas" to a new alias in the Strategy Model, the column name and selection will reflect that alias).

Below the line, you can choose the relevant custom fields available for the selected entity to show them in the report. The values entered in these fields in the goals' sidebar will be displayed in the report. See Create Templates and Custom Fields for more information on custom fields.

Filters in "Discover" table:

Click + Add filters to choose the filters that you wish to apply.

You can filter the data in this table by the same fields as available in the table columns. Depending on the filtering condition available, the goals are listed in the table.

Similar to table columns list, the custom fields for filtering are also available under the demarcated line. And the options available differ for each kind of custom fields, i.e., while the Dropdown custom fields can be filtered with "Is" and "Is not" options, the numerical fields can be filtered with the options "minimum", "maximum" or "between" number(s).

If you wish to clear the filter, click on the filter and click the Trash icon.

Though most of the filtering options are straight-forward, here're some that may require describing:

• Title and "Text" custom fields:

  • Contains - enter a part of the text to display those values that would match with the specified part of text. For example, when the text is net, then it'll display all the goal titles that contain "net" in them - like Maintain Net Revenue Retention (NRR), Net positive impact on sustainability, Expand the supplier network, Envision a green planet, and so on.

  • Does not contain - enter a part of the text to display those values that do not match with this part of the text. In the above example, when the text entered is net, then all the above goals will not be displayed.

• Dates:

  • Is - enter the exact date to filter by. Whatever date that you choose, the table will display only those goals that exactly fall in that date.

  • After - select a date beyond which you need to look at. i.e., the table will display all those goals that have their dates after the specified date. For example, you have a goal's start date as 11/14/2023 (14th Nov), and you apply filter as Start date after 11/14/2023, then this goal will not be displayed. Any goals' whose start date is after 11/14/2023 will only be displayed!

  • Before - Applying this option will filter the dates that're before the specified date!

  • Between - enter a date range to filter the goals by and the table will display all the goals whose dates fall in this range, inclusive of both the dates.

• Progress and "Numerical" custom field:

  • Minimum - enter a value to display all the goals whose value is atleast (equal to or more than) the specified value. For example, if you choose Progress and filter by progress minimum 50%, then it'll display all the goals whose progress is atleast (equal to or more than) 50%.

  • Maximum - enter a value to display all the goals whose value is atmost (less than or equal to) the specified value.

  • Between - enter a range to display all the goals whose value is equal to and in that range. For example, if you select 55% to 70%, it'll display all goals whose value is at 55, 70 and anywhere between 55 and 70.

Group by in "Discover" table:

To bring in more contextual visualization, we provide you with the flexibility to choose how you want the data to be grouped and presented.

Click + Group by. However, this option is available only in Strategy view.

You can group the data in the table by plan, focus area, or both to display your report accordingly. However, when you switch to List view, these settings will not be retained and the goals will not appear grouped.

For example, if you choose plan and focus area, then the objectives and its success criteria will be grouped by the focus areas within the plans chosen in the data source or filters.

"Timeline" or "Gantt chart" view in "Discover" table:

Click the Timeline tab to visualize the progress of the goals in a Gantt chart style. The table columns and filters that you added in the Strategy or List view will also be displayed along with the timeline visualization in this tab.

Now, if you switch to Timeline view with the List view selected, then you'll see the timeline visualization with the list view of entities.

Hover the mouse over the timeline to see more details such as health, progress and timeframe of the goal. You can still add columns to the left of the Timeline, and scroll within the column sections to see the remaining columns.

While the colour fill represents the progress of the goals (in %), the timeline bar will cover the start/end date. For measures with "maintain" targets, the bars will be transparent with no color fills.

Click the goal title to view it from its sidebar. When you make any progress from the sidebar, it'll automatically be reflected in this table as well as timeline.

Click Finish editing to see the report in View mode. In the Timeline tab, you'll see a dropdown to select the timeframe - Week, Month, Year, etc., and the view will be available accordingly.

FAQs

Can Discover view be exported?
Yes, you can export this table at the report level as PDF. If you've saved the report with the Timeline view, then that can also be seen in the Discover table in the exported PDF. 

How is privacy handled?
In both nested strategy or list view, you'll only see those goals that you've view or edit access to. In case of plans or objectives that you do not have access to, those will not be available for filtering or nested settings.

Can I reorder the table columns?
Yes, place the cursor on the relevant column and reorder them to the desired position. Also, you can resize the column width by placing the cursor on the relevant column line and dragging it.

How frequently is there a data sync?
The data in the table is dynamically updated with the changes made.

Can I filter the goals to see the progress in last quarter alone?
Yes, choose the table columns to show the start date, end date and progress. Then, apply the filter for the start and end date and choose the dates for the last quarter to see the required report.

In some Objectives and measures, I do not see the bar with color fill in Timeline view.
Maintain measures and objectives that have only maintain measures as success criteria do not have progress percentage available. So these will just have transparent bars with the relevant health colors without any fills.

Why am I not able to view the Gantt or Timeline view in Discover table?
If you did not save the report with the Timeline view, then this visualization will not be available in View mode. Click Edit report and click Timeline tab in the Discover table. Once added, click Finish editing and you'll now be able to see the timeline visualization in the report in the View mode.

Why are some objectives greyed out in nested view?
Consider you've filtered to show only those goals whose Health is At risk. The success criteria beneath an objective matches the health filter, but the objective itself that contains those success criteria does not match the health filter (not at risk). In this case, the objective will still be displayed in the table to show the hierarchy but it’s greyed out because it doesn’t match the filter.

What happens if the objective matches the filters but not the success criteria?
Those success criteria that do not match the filters will not be available in the table at all. Since objectives represent the hierarchy, we show them in the table as such or greyed out based on the filters applied.

Consider there's an objective in the top level corporate plan to which there're a couple of contributing objectives in the departmental or regional plans. How can I look at only this high level objectives and its contributions?

In the Strategy view, select that high level objective in the corporate plan as Data source. This'll list all the departmental or regional objectives and their success criteria that're contributing to the high level corporate objective. Now, if you wish to look only at the contributing objectives, then you can select only Objectives in the Display list. You can then add filters to drill down to the data you wish to see in the report.