3.x Release Notes
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      3. 3.x Release Notes

      3.0 Release Notes

      January 7, 2022

      3.0 Release Video

      Release Highlights

      New Year, new KaiNexus! Coming into 2022, KaiNexus resolved to dramatically improve our software’s functionality and give our UI an interface-lift. Can you believe that the last time we significantly updated our interface was in 2016? The world has changed a lot in the past five years, and so have we. Here’s how KaiNexus 3.0 is ringing in the new year with improvements as bold and bright as midnight fireworks:

      • Successful New Year’s Resolutions are specific, measurable, and relevant—just like our Reports! The new Reports Snapshot is now Workflow-based and includes a simplified status bar and Activity, Engagement, and Impact Reports.
      • Instead of losing weight this year, we’re bulking up our Weighted Scores! 3.0 allows you to calculate Weighted Scores using other Weighted Scores, add a Weighted Score to an Item with the new “+” icon on the Weighted Score panels, and set thresholds for your Weighted Scores tied to specific text values that show up on your Items. 
      • We love to watch the Times Square ball drop on NYE, but we’re sure not going to drop the ball on X-Matrix. 3.0 brings updates to the UI of X-Matrix, and you can now add Board links as rows within an X-Matrix Card and use our Item Filter to add Items automatically. 
      • If one of your goals this year is to de-stress, try out the Comfortable view of our new density feature. 3.0 allows you to customize the density of Item Lists across the app, giving yourself more (or less) white space. Additional white space creates a simpler, calmer experience for users, while increasing the density allows more information to be displayed on the screen.
      • Another update coming with 3.0—we are officially launching KaiNexus Universal Badges! Universal Badges are a set of Badges, available to all customers, created to help users explore the system. For example, earn the Mobile Explorer badge by logging in from a mobile device, submitting an item, and leaving a comment. Make it your resolution to collect every Universal Badge in 2022! 


      We’re so excited to see where 2022 takes KaiNexus 3.0! Check out the full release notes below.

      What did we improve in 3.0? ✨

      Boards

      • Do you ever wonder how engaged Users are with your organization’s Boards? Now you can see how often a Board has been used and by whom within the last 90 days. Within the Manage Board window, there are new sortable column options for Created Date, Last Updated Date, Last Viewed Date, # of Views, and # of Users. Click the # of Users to pull up a List of those Users.

      Badges

      • Excited to see which Badges your coworkers have earned? Click on another User’s profile and select the “View Badges'' button to pull up a list of that specific User’s Badges.
      • Checking the “Hide Unawarded Badges” box on the “View Badges” window will be respected as a User preference, meaning if you’ve checked this box, all unawarded Badges will be hidden when you visit any View Badges window (even when snooping on other User profiles!). Leaving this box unchecked will allow you to see all the Badges you are able to earn, but the ones you haven’t earned yet will be grayed out. 
      • Universal Badges are the first of its kind—a set of Badges available to all customers, created to help users overcome the initial hurdle of using the system, help users explore functionality, and encourage users to work more in the system. Keep an eye out for new achievements like Mobile Explorer, Improvement Leader, and the coveted KaiNexus Pro SuperBadge.
      • Although we encourage organizations to utilize ALL the Universal Badges in your system, organizations can pick and choose which specific Universal Badges are implemented; just let your Customer Success Lead know!

      Emails

      • Decluttering sparks joy! Get a jump start on spring cleaning by decluttering your inbox when you opt out of unwanted Digest and Subscription emails. Before, Users could only customize which days they would receive a Digest. Now, receiving a Digest is entirely optional!

      Filters

      • Building off of monitoring Board engagement, the Additional Filters in the People Section now have the option to filter by the “View Board” criteria to create a List of Users who have viewed the specified Board(s).
      • Even better, you can now filter for specific Users with the “Users” criteria in the Additional Filters in the People Section.
      • Best of all, the Additional Filters in the People Section support new logic for “is any of” and “is not any of” criteria for Users, User Type, Persona, Location, Roles, Titles, Positions, Employment Statuses, Certifications, Badges, and Badge Types. 

      Items

      • Item Tabs have always been customizable, but now their order of appearance can be customized too! Just reach out to your Customer Experience Lead for more information. 

      Lists

      • The Lists section is now called Items. You’ll find quick access to the Items section (and all your beloved Lists) using the Navigation Bar at the top of the app!
      • Talk about an A-List enhancement! Right-click on an Item in Detail, List, Tree, Kanban, and Gantt View to pull up a super convenient, in-line editing menu. We didn’t offer in-line editing for Detail and Kanban Views before, but that was sooo 2021. 
      • For Item Lists in List, Tree, or Gantt View, you now have the ability to customize the Item List density between “Comfortable” and “Compact” for Lists using the “View Options” section of the Advanced Filter. This will help display more (or less!) white space between each of your Items within your Lists. By default, all existing Lists will be displayed in “Compact” view, and all new Lists will be created in “Comfortable” view.

      People

      • Put me in, Coach! We renamed the “CI Expert” Persona to “CI Coach”. To prevent any hiccups with data imports, the value is still CI_EXPERT for those of you using the People API.
      • We’ve added a new Persona called “KaiNexus Champion” for Users who work as primary (or secondary) contact with KaiNexus and who typically act as an administrator for KaiNexus at your organization.

      Templates

      • Aside from much needed UI changes, the biggest motivation behind 3.0 is Template and Workflow refactoring. Workflows are tags used to categorize your various tools within an improvement process. Now configuration options are set at the Template level and Users can define their own Workflows using those Templates. This allows for more flexibility and eliminates a lot of the restrictions we had in place with the standard Projects, Improvements, Tasks, Charts, and Incidents. For example, you can nest any type of Template within other Templates, add Honor Roll functionality to any Template, and add Chart functionality to any Template! The possibilities are endless, and we’ll be sure to help your organization through this process with an Optimization Review. 
      • With the Workflow and Template refactor, we have dramatically expanded the ways you can use KaiNexus. Therefore, we feel it is important to also give Users more icon choices to represent their Templates. Plus, it’s just more fun. Choose any icon from the Use any icon from Font Awesome library to use as your Template icons. 

      Translation

      • One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions is to learn another language. We may have broken our Duolingo streak already, but we’re proud to offer more options for Static Text translation. Translate “Continue” into Cantonese, “Done” into Danish, and “Error” into Español! View the full list of Static Text options under Admin > System > Translation. 

      UI

      • This is where 3.0 really shines. We’ve polished Boards, Items, People, Reports, Admin, the Navigation Bar, and really, anywhere that could be polished, we took a buffer to it! In fact, we polished them so thoroughly that we rounded out all the edges on buttons, windows, panels, and text boxes. 
      • The Left Navigation Bar has moved to the top of the screen, which gives you easier access to the different areas of the app and reduces the number of clicks needed to navigate through each section. With the Navigation Bar up top, this also increases the available work area on your screen.
      • You now have the ability to create Boards, Item Lists, and People Lists directly from the Navigation Bar. Go ahead, create an Item and see for yourself how much more streamlined it is!
      • The Locations filter still lives in the same spot, on the left side of the screen, but is now more accessible with the removal of the Left Navigation Bar. The Create button, search box, bookmarks, notifications, and User Profile are all still available in the Navigation Bar.
      • The Board Picker has been moved to the Navigation Bar at the top of your screen. With this came changes to how your current board selection is visualized. Your currently viewed Board is no longer displayed in the Board picker, rather it is now displayed in the breadcrumbs and is identified by larger text that is blue.
      • In the name of simplification and consistency, we’ve put the Filters, Add, and Action buttons at the top of the screens across the app, and the available options in these buttons vary slightly based on where you are in the app. For example, the Add button on Boards shows what Cards to add while the same button in the People section adds new Users.

      Weighted Scores

      • For Users with the permission to add Weighted Scores to Items, a new “+” icon will appear in Weighted Score panels, making it easier to add a Weighted Score to an Item.
      • WAIT, there’s more! Weighted Scores can now be used to calculate other Weighted Scores.
      • Quickly check your Items’ Weighted Score Attribute calculations with new column options in List, Tree, and Gantt View.
      • Within the Weighted Score window, you now have the ability to clear out the associated Weighted Score Attribute Values while preserving the Weighted Score itself. When deleting a Weighted Score entirely, a cautionary message will warn you that deleting this Weighted Score will clear all associated Weighted Attribute Values and remove this score from the work panel of the Item.
      • When creating or editing a new Weighted Score Group, you can check a box to have your Weighted Score round up or down to the nearest whole number. If enabled, the calculated Weighted Score will look at the first digit after the decimal point (if there is one). If this digit is less than 5 (1, 2, 3, 4) it will round down, but if the digit is 5 or greater (5, 6, 7, 8, 9), it will round up to the next whole number. 
      • When a Weighted Score uses the Percentage of Max calculation, the % icon will always be displayed. 
      • Utilize the Advanced Filter when creating a Weighted Score to set additional rules that filter for when Weighted Scores become Available to add, and/or when they are Automatically Created.
      • Context is everything, and now you can give more context to each of your Weighted Score Attribute Values with the new “Notes” field.
      • A notification flag now appears at the top of an Item when a criteria is met so that a Weighted Score can be added to an Item. This will also generate an in-app notification that will appear on your Notification window for Users who are a member of the Team on the Item.
      • You can set thresholds for your Weighted Scores. These thresholds can also be tied to specific Text Values that can be displayed on your Items as well.
      • Imagine if the New Year’s countdown went something like “10.9… 10.8… 10.7… 10.6…” While that’s not the most ideal introduction to a new era, decimals work pretty ideally with Weighted Scores, and now you can include a decimal number value anywhere between 0.01 to 9.99 when setting a multiplier on a Weighted Attribute.
      • We’ve added an edit and delete icon next to a Weighted Score within the Item’s Weighted Score panel.

      X-Matrix

      • Tired of individually finding and adding Items to an X-Matrix quadrant? Use the Advanced Filter when adding Items underneath a quadrant within an X-Matrix Card to automatically add Items. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much time you save!
      • Perhaps the most impressive addition to X-Matrix is the added ability to add Boards links as rows within an X-Matrix Card. In addition to making these rows clickable, this importantly added the ability to create a cascading X-Matrix structure.
      • Get excited to wrap your head around this new feature! On the North and South quadrants of the X-Matrix, navigate to the quadrant’s Headers and expand the Text Options to reveal radio buttons with new options to wrap or clip your text. Please note that the East and West quadrants do not have the wrap text option.
      • X-Matrix also got a much-needed UI enhancement. Hovering over an Item/Board/User/Free Text cell on an X-Matrix Card will highlight the entire cell in light blue (just like hovering over an Item in an Item List!). Headers are expandable and collapsible (collapsed by default), and the convenient “Alphabetize” icon quickly sorts Lists of Items, Boards, People, and/or Free Text from A–Z. Lastly, the columns have been reordered from left to right: South, West, North, East.

      3.0 Bug Fixes 🐛

      • Packed like sardines, Fishbone diagrams were getting squished on the left side of Custom Layout Detail Panels when “Include Fishbone” was checked. Now each fishy diagram will utilize all the horizontal space available in the panel.
      • We fixed a bug that prevented editing Weighted Scores when accessing the Item via an Item Link.
      • We fixed a bug that caused Item List Cards to become unresponsive after toggling the "Network Location" Column to sort the List.
      • 2021 had a lot of us hunkered down, refraining from social interaction, but our Similar Items took it a little too far. They hermited away so well that searching for Similar Items yielded no results, but that’s all fixed now!
      • A standout characteristic of an Honor Roll student is recognition of academic achievement. Our Honor Roll status was so eager to achieve that it appeared in Templates which did not have Honor Roll enabled. 
      • A picture is worth a thousand words, but a Template Notice is worth 1024 characters. We fixed a bug that restricted Template Notices to only 100 characters. 
      • We fixed a bug that prevented scrolling through the Templates selection window when creating or editing a Weighted Score. 
      • Similarly, we fixed a bug that prevented scrolling through the selected notification types when creating or editing a Notification Preference. 
      • We fixed a bug that caused Badge processes to timeout when pushed to sandbox.
      • We stopped certain Item List Cards from querying twice on their initial load, which had caused delay when loading longer Lists. 
      • Ego death, a lack of self, a rejection of identity… Humans often experience something like that, and apparently so do Weighted Score Groups, so we fixed a bug that allowed you to save Weighted Score Groups without a name. 
      • It’s a tight squeeze… for Weighted Scores panels! We fixed a bug that caused the Weighted Score name and Value to get smushed together. 
      • We fixed a bug that caused some Weighted Scores to be listed twice on .XLXS exports.