Program Settings
Narrative
This document outlines different setting options available for a particular program and how it affects the overall program. It helps define the characteristics of the program, how it will read the data, appear to users, rewarding timeline, etc. So, for example, if you have a weekly campaign that will run for next 3 months, you can set up a program, define the dates of the week the program starts, a rewarding timeline and set up a recurrence to replicate that program every Monday. This way, a new program will be created automatically every week to capture the output of that week’s campaign and determine the rewards accordingly.
Objective
Vision | Define the characteristics of the program using the different settings options available for it |
Goals | To define how the program will read the data, appear to users, issue the rewards and auto-replication of the program |
Initiatives | |
Personas | For admins to define program characteristics based on the need |
Program Period
Program period is the selection of date range within which one wants to consider the transactions of users from.
For example, if the date range is from 01-05-2022 to 31-05-2022, then all the transactions for the month of May in 2022 will be considered as a part of incentive calculation for that month for relevant users.
This is the reason it is necessary to have a transaction date in the dataset, as it will be used by the system to define which entries to consider for a particular time period and which ones to not.
The program period can be set from the 3rd section - Settings, in the program creation process. Please refer to the sample screenshot below for reference.
Recurrence Feature
An addition to the Program Period section is the recurrence feature.
In a nutshell, this feature allows you to repeat a program periodically.
Recurrence can be used in such scenarios where you want to run the same program multiple times, without having to create it every time.
The recurring can be done only till the date till which the program groups are valid for.
Please note that the recurrence feature can only be used for present or future programs.
Recurrence can only be implemented for standalone programs, it does not work for cascading, and a new program will be created for each recurrence in the same program group.
As seen in the below screenshot, there are 4 options for recurrence-
Weekly, every Friday
On the 1st of every month
Every 7 days
Custom - define a custom period of recurrence
Once you select a recurrence condition from the dropdown, text below the dropdown will give information about the recurrence set up, i.e. how many times it will repeat and till what date.
Rewarding buffer time
Buffer time or buffer period is the count of days a program is to be kept in the “Active” state, after which it is marked as “Completed” and the rewards are awarded to the users. Prior to being Completed, the users can see the rewards they have earned, but they are not awarded those until the program has been completed.
So if a program is supposed to end on the last date of a month, and has a buffer date of 10 days, it will be completed 10 days after the end of the month and the users will then be credited the rewards.
After it is completed it will be shifted to the “History” tab on the mobile app. The user can still see their incentives, and their transactions.
After a program completes, one can see the incentives in the “Incentives” tab for approval or adjustments (unless the rewards are on set to auto-approval, in which case they are credited automatically).
You can add the buffer time in the “Settings” stage of program creation as shown below.
Buffer time can be modified for Draft as well as Active programs, as many times as needed.
Transaction Date
Transaction date is where you select which date parameter(s) needs to be considered from the different data set(s) you are using in a program. So, if your data set has multiple date fields, you can pick which one needs to be referred to and the transactions are then included accordingly in the program for calculation.
Hidden Programs
While creating a program, you get an option to select whether you would like that program to be visible to the end users or not.
If you are creating a program only for internal purposes or just to be used as an output in another program, you can choose to hide it from the end users so that only relevant programs are visible to them.
This also helps keep them more engaged as else the app can get cluttered.
To hide any program, just select the check box on the bottom of the program settings.
Kindly note, once a program is active, this setting cannot be changed later.
More on Hidden Programs here Hidden Programs
Cascading Programs
If you would like to use the output of one program as an input in some other program, this can be enabled using the cascading feature of Compass.
To enable cascading for any program, just select the check box in the program settings while creating that program.
While creating a cascading program, you will get an option to create a new view for it or use the existing view (if any old programs from the same view had been created earlier).
If you choose a new view, an entirely new view will be created and based on the new view you will have to create your metrics for the next set of programs to use the output of this program as an input.
Whereas, if you choose the existing view, all the available views, if any, will appear in the dropdown menu and can be selected for this program. The program will add the output for this new program in the view you select. If there are any existing metrics created on that view, you can continue to use them as is and they would now give you the output of this new program as well.
More on Cascading here Cascading
Program Themes
There are 4 program themes in which you can display the programs to the end-users on the mobile app.
Mansion Theme
Salesman Theme
Hiking Theme
Car Collector Theme
These themes can be changed even after the programs have been published and will be visible to the users after they re-login into the app.
Features
Feature | Program Settings |
Purpose | Define program characteristics to determine how the program will read the data, appear to users, issue the rewards and auto-replicate itself, if needed. |
User problem | Customize programs to read the data for specific time-period, define these for it, setup rewarding timeline and auto-replication for recurring programs |
User value | Can help define all the characteristics of the program using program settings option |
Assumptions | The event date has the necessary date parameters for the program |
Not doing | Pick multiple dates from a single event data, setup recurrence for back-dated programs or customize themes other than what is available |
Acceptance criteria | Ability to define the program characteristics based on the need |
Analytics
Ease of Use - A relatively simple feature of Compass and can be picked up quickly by even new users. You just need to ensure the necessary date parameters are available in the user data.
Frequency of usage - Every time you have to create a new program, you will need to define the settings for that program.
Time Spent - It is fairly quick to define the program settings if you have the necessary info. It shouldn’t take you more than a couple of minutes to do so.
Abandonment rate - As long as you have all the info, this should be almost 0.
FAQs
Q. Can multiple date fields be selected under “Transaction date”?
A. You can pick only one date parameter from each data table (connection). So, if you have multiple data tables, you will need to select that many date parameters. But you cannot select more than one date parameter from a single data table.
Q. Can program settings be changed after a program has been set as active?
A. For active programs, you can only change the buffer dates, program description and themes. No other changes are allowed. If any other changes are needed, you will need to clone the program and then make those necessary edits in the new program.
Q. Can these be customized as per preference?
A. Currently, you can only select a theme from the available list on Compass. It cannot be customized any further.
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