Different roles within my company need different views for the same database. Some people require formula fields for analysis, some need just the data entry fields, some just need statuses. As far as I can tell, the current solutions to this problem are:
Create lots of view types for everyone
(this quickly becomes a lot to sort through to find your views in each space)
Create lots of Spaces
(each space type could be duplicated for each position type. This isn’t ideal in cases where people want multiple role views)
Create smart folder levels
(I don’t like the extra step of clicking and this doesn’t seem to work with multiple smart folder levels. Example user-role as the first level, project as the second level. If I create a view under project then I can’t restrict it to all projects but for only that user type)
Does anyone have any good suggestions on this? How do you give your teams the best views for their role without sacrificing navigation?
Hi!
Telling the truth, I think that Smart Folders are the best way for your case now (maybe there will be better ideas for our community )
So, is there any way to group the roles? Maybe not so granular, a bit “global”
Super easy example - Team.
Team can be Development, Customer Success. But also team can be Management (that combines team leaders across all the departments)
And then you can use Smartfolders with one or two levels.
Team > Project
If I create a view under project then I can’t restrict it to all projects but for only that user type
Not sure that I got that problem - could you please share some details here? Maybe with examples?
Longer-term, I think it would be fabulous if the Left Menu could be customized via Rules - e.g., to change what is visible based on who is viewing it, and what their roles are.
In terms of Spaces, the left menu visibility will depend on permissions of course.
For views, it can be nice to use smart folders to make the left menu vary by user
e.g. by using a ‘contains Me’ filter
So if, for example, Users A, B, C have Role 1 and Users D, E have Role 2, and any Project is linked with one or more roles, you can define a lookup to get the Roles’ Users for a given Project.
Then you can create a smart folder of Projects and use the “Roles Users contains Me” filter.
If Projects X and Y are linked to Roles 1 and 2 respectively, Users A, B, C will only see Project X and Users D, E will see Project Y.
@Chr1sG - Thanks! we do this with smart folders and filtering to user groups to only show applicable projects. I was having trouble figuring out how to make views within those projects filtered to user types - since I want multiple user types on the same project (I gave a better example below on why I want this). I think I figured out a workaround (see below)
@Polina_Zenevich - thanks for the suggestion. But your last point, “If I create a view under project then I can’t restrict it to all projects but for only that user type” - this is exactly what I’m looking for. But if I do it the opposite way, projects>user roles>specific user views - then I should be able to create views specific to that user type and then filter projects by assignees.
I think this is how I will handle it for now, but to @Matt_Blais’s point, it would be great if there were more customization options in smart folders or for the left menu as a whole. This solution works, but it’s more clicking which hinders quick navigation between spaces.
You asked for another example: I work in construction management. I have spaces for each type of operation. One example would be our ‘Schedule’ space. In ‘Schedule’ we manage several different processes (submittals, procurement, MOPs and facility shutdowns, milestones, etc.). So this space is applicable to a bunch of teams. But the ideal view between a superintendent, a project manager, and a project engineer are very different. Which leads me to having too many views.
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Longer-term, I think it would be fabulous if the Left Menu could be customized via Rules - e.g., to change what is visible based on who is viewing it, and what their roles are.