Calendar Cloud

Unify your data, simplify your schedule

Project Overview

Project Name: Calendar Cloud

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop a centralized calendaring solution that integrates and visualizes all marketing activities, emails, and projects, providing an automated and unified source of truth

My Role: Assessed existing market solutions to identify the optimal approach, developed preliminary design and requirements, assisted with the end-to-end product development and implementation process, facilitated user adoption by training marketing teams on leveraging the new solution, and led continued system evolution by further identifying and resolving customer requests and pain points

Context

Background: In today's fast-paced digital landscape, professionals often juggle multiple calendars and data sources, leading to fragmented schedules, incomplete data, and decreased productivity. Recognizing this challenge, our team aimed to develop a unified calendaring platform that integrates various data streams into a single, cohesive calendar. The goal was to automate data input processes, enhance operational efficiency, and provide users with a centralized hub for all their calendaring needs. With limited solutions on the market today, as well as approximately 98% of B2B marketers recognizing the benefits of automation, our team decided to custom-build a solution.

Target Audience: B2B Marketers

Problem Statement

Problem Statement: Marketing teams are experiencing difficulties in visualizing and coordinating campaigns because their current calendaring tools lack integration with Salesforce, Marketo, and Asana data, which results in marketing silos, lack of collaboration, and missed opportunities. Addressing this issue will lead to improved campaign coordination and increased marketing productivity.

KPI Goals:

  • Campaign Coordination: User satisfaction ratings >= 80%

  • Marketing Productivity: Hours saved per day >= 1 Hour

Strategy Development

Vision: To revolutionize marketing by providing a centralized, automated calendaring solution that enhances efficiency, standardization, and collaboration across the organization.

Objectives:

  1. Integration: Develop robust integrations with Salesforce, Marketo, and Asana to automatically capture and synchronize marketing activities, ensuring a unified data repository.

  2. Customization: Enable users to apply filters and create personalized calendar views, displaying data relevant to their specific roles and responsibilities.

  3. Interoperability: Facilitate seamless export of activities to external calendaring platforms such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook, accommodating diverse user preferences.

  4. Collaboration: Implement features that allow users to share customized views with teammates, create global organizational calendars, and enhance visibility and coordination across marketing initiatives.

Strategic Approach:

  • User-Centric Design: Engage with internal marketing teams to gather insights and feedback, ensuring the solution addresses real-world challenges and enhances user adoption.

  • Agile Development: Adopt an iterative development process, allowing for flexibility and continuous improvement based on user feedback and evolving market demands.

  • Scalability: Architect the solution to accommodate growth, ensuring it can handle increasing data volumes and user counts without compromising performance.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Standardization: Achieve uniformity in calendaring practices across the organization by automating data capture from Salesforce, Marketo, and Asana, reducing manual entry and associated errors.

  • Efficiency Gains: Significantly reduce the time marketers spend managing calendars, allowing them to focus on strategic activities and campaign execution.

  • Enhanced Collaboration: Improve coordination and communication within and between teams through shared calendars and increased visibility into marketing activities

Approach

Research and Analysis

Our primary objective was to assess the availability of existing calendaring solutions and understand the specific challenges faced by our internal marketing team.

Market Analysis: We conducted comprehensive evaluations of third-party calendaring solutions by participating in demonstrations from various providers within the calendaring segment. This analysis revealed a significant gap between the features offered by existing products and the unique requirements of our organization, leading us to pursue the development of a custom solution.

Internal User Interviews: Engaging directly with our internal marketing team, we identified several critical pain points:

  • Manual Entry Inefficiencies: Post-creation of Salesforce campaigns, marketers were required to manually input each activity into their personal calendars (Google, Microsoft Outlook, or Apple), a process consuming approximately ten minutes per entry and totaling at least two hours per day.

  • Inconsistent Data Entry: The absence of standardized data fields led to inconsistencies in calendar entries, hindering user comprehension and coordination.

  • Fragmented Calendaring Systems: Marketers individually created groups within their respective calendaring platforms to coordinate with specific individuals. However, the lack of a centralized, accessible master calendar resulted in disjointed scheduling efforts.

  • Siloed Tracking Tools: Schedules for Marketo emails and Asana projects were managed separately, necessitating assistance from marketing operations professionals to extract and consolidate information—a task that could take several hours depending on resource availability.

  • Global Visibility Challenges: The absence of a unified calendaring system led to uncoordinated marketing efforts, causing inadvertent repetitive engagements with the same customers and prospects across different teams.

Solution

Features/Designs/Technologies

We focused on developing a robust, user-centric platform by integrating key features, intuitive designs, and advanced technologies.

Backend Infrastructure: We prioritized creating a flexible and dynamic backend capable of seamless integration with multiple systems, including Salesforce, Marketo, and Asana. This approach ensured clean data flow and efficient operations, laying the groundwork for a responsive and reliable user experience. By designing a scalable and flexible API integration pattern, we facilitated robust and adaptable connections between diverse systems.

Data Integration and Storage: Calendar Cloud operates as a visualization platform that connects to external systems to read relevant data without storing it locally. This strategy significantly reduced storage costs and improved data accuracy by accessing real-time information directly from source systems.

User Interface and Experience: To enhance usability, we implemented several key features:

  • Data Source Navigation: Introduced toggle tabs at the top of the calendar, enabling users to effortlessly switch between data from Salesforce, Marketo, and Asana.

  • Filtering Options: Developed robust filtering capabilities, allowing users to customize their calendar views based on specific criteria, thereby improving data relevance and accessibility.

  • Activity Tooltips: Added hover-over tooltips for calendar activities, providing immediate visibility into activity names and details, especially useful on days with multiple entries.

  • Detailed Activity View: Designed an expandable section that displays comprehensive data points related to each activity. System administrators have the flexibility to configure visible fields through an admin console, ensuring that users access pertinent information tailored to their roles.

Export and Sharing Capabilities: Recognizing the need for interoperability, we incorporated features that allow users to:

  • Calendar Export: Export activities directly to external calendaring systems such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Microsoft Outlook, ensuring seamless integration with users' existing workflows.

  • View Sharing: Enable users to share customized calendar views with colleagues, both internal and external to the organization, fostering collaboration and ensuring consistent information dissemination.

By integrating these features and adhering to best practices in backend infrastructure design and data visualization, Calendar Cloud delivers a streamlined, efficient, and user-friendly solution that enhances organizational productivity and collaboration.

Challenges and Iterations

In the development of Calendar Cloud, we encountered several challenges that necessitated strategic iterations to enhance the system's functionality and user experience.

Integrating Multiple Data Sources: Our initial objective was to consolidate data from Salesforce, Marketo, and Asana into a single calendar view. However, the vast volume of data and the complexity of filtering configurations posed significant challenges. To address this, we implemented a tabbed navigation system, allowing users to select and view data from each source individually. This approach maintained the unified calendar experience while providing clear segmentation, reducing user confusion and enhancing usability.

External Sharing Capabilities: Another challenge was enabling calendar access for individuals outside our organization. Initially, access required organizational Salesforce credentials, limiting external collaboration. To overcome this, we developed a workaround that permitted non-employee access and facilitated the sharing of calendar views with external partners. This enhancement proved invaluable for marketers needing to coordinate plans with external stakeholders.

Ongoing Iterative Development: Building Calendar Cloud has been an iterative process. Continuous feedback and evolving user requirements have led to ongoing enhancements, reflecting the system's flexibility and the value it offers. This iterative approach ensures that Calendar Cloud remains responsive to user needs and continues to provide effective solutions for marketing operations. Throughout the build process, select power users were involved in testing features in a sandbox environment ensuring the project aligned with team requirements and project objectives.

By addressing these challenges through thoughtful iterations, we have significantly improved Calendar Cloud's functionality, user experience, and collaborative capabilities.

Results and Learnings

Results

The implementation of Calendar Cloud yielded significant positive outcomes:

  • High User Satisfaction: An internal survey encompassing over 200 users revealed a 90% satisfaction rate, surpassing our KPI target of 80%.

  • Increased Efficiency: Users reported saving at least 1.5 hours daily, exceeding our goal of one hour, by eliminating manual data aggregation tasks.

  • Enhanced Trust and Engagement: The system's reliability led to user requests for additional functionalities, indicating increased trust and engagement.

  • Organizational Alignment: Marketers transitioned from isolated calendars to a centralized system, promoting unified strategies and reducing redundant efforts

  • Standardized Data Inputs and Processes: By standardizing data inputs and processes, we established a streamlined infrastructure that enhanced data quality and consistency, facilitating efficient filtering and integration across the organization. Such an approach not only improved operational efficiency but also ensured that all teams could rely on accurate and uniform data for decision-making.

Lessons Learned

Throughout the development of Calendar Cloud, we gained valuable insights:

  • Thorough Requirement Gathering: Early, detailed collection of user requirements could have minimized iterative revisions during testing, streamlining the implementation process.

  • Enhanced User Involvement: Engaging more power users and testers early on would have facilitated quicker enablement and smoother adoption upon release.

  • Comprehensive Planning: While our team engaged in thorough planning for the Calendar Cloud project, we recognized that building a system from scratch presents inherent complexities. This endeavor required us to collaborate effectively, transforming initial concepts into a fully functional product. Through this process, we gained valuable insights into the dynamics of teamwork, problem-solving, and adaptability. The experience underscored the importance of continuous learning and reinforced our commitment to delivering a solution that meets our organization's needs.