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What are Lineups?
Lineups are customizable datasets that allow robust filtering, sorting, & layout controls using all of the data your department already has in the system.
Are Lineups a beta feature?
Yes. Lineups will eventually exit beta testing after the feature has had time to settle into the system and everyone has had to time to familiarize with what it has to offer.
Are Lineups different than the Daily Roster?
Lineups are the spiritual successor to the Daily Roster. Lineups offer all the same features as the Daily Roster, and much more, in an improved but familiar layout.
Is the Daily Roster going away?
Yes, eventually. The Daily Roster will coexist alongside Lineups until Lineups have exited the beta testing phase.
What is a beta feature?
Beta features are features that are functionally complete, have undergone rigorous internal testing, and are ready for trial by fire by the masses. Beta features typically have some rough edges that, while sometimes annoying, are not impactful enough to outweigh the benefits of the beta feature as a whole. The primary purpose of a beta testing phase is to test new features in the real world, with real users, at scale, to find what works & what doesn't, identify strong & weak points, and allow actual users to get their hands on new features & provide feedback early on so the feature can be further refined in a relatively controlled environment that doesn't jeopardize the daily workflows users have come to rely upon.
How long will Lineups be in beta?
We don't have an exact timeline yet, but are confident it will conclude by the end of the year, likely much sooner. We will provide at least two weeks notice prior to the beta period concluding. Our beta timeline is largely influenced by client feedback and overall usage. When Lineups exit beta, the Daily Roster also goes away, permanently, so one pre-requisite to Lineups exiting beta status is ensuring the vast majority of existing users have migrated away from the Daily Roster.
Another pre-requisite is ensuring Lineups are where we want them to be quality-wise. New features, especially large & complex ones like Lineups, always end up requiring supplemental bug fixes & tweaks post-launch, no matter how much internal testing is performed. A handful of software developers testing a complex feature simply cannot compare to 100,000 users using & abusing it with the billions of Lineup combinations that are possible.
Will Lineups grow as a feature?
Lineups will absolutely grow as a feature. It was designed with expansion in mind. Lineup expansions will come in the form of Care Packages. Care Packages are bundles of fixes, tweaks, expansions, and overall refinement to Lineups as a feature. At least one care package will drop before Lineups exits beta. More care packages are planned as we gather user feedback and identify improvements internally.
Are there any major Lineup features planned for the full release that are not yet present in the Lineups beta?
Yes. We took a conservative approach to Lineup privacy/sharing/permissions for this initial beta release to ensure every single user could use & abuse Lineups without worrying about it affecting other users at their department. In this initial release, Custom Lineups are only visible to the user that created the custom lineup, and cannot be shared. Some of the major features we hope to add to Lineups prior to exiting beta are:
- Lineup Sharing & Visibility Controls
- Granular Lineup Permissions
- Expanded filtering options
- Adding "OR" logic when stacking filters, rather than just "AND" logic
- e.g. - Filter for results matching Filter 1 OR Filter 2 -- vs -- Filter for results matching Filter 1 AND Filter 2
- Adding more filter options in general
- Adding "OR" logic when stacking filters, rather than just "AND" logic
Are there any major Lineup features planned for sometime after the full release?
Yes. These features have no timeline as of yet, since the future is always unknown. However, one feature we are eager to eventually implement on Lineups is Conditional Formatting. The cell/row formatting that Lineups currently use for things like time off, RDO's, on call shifts, etc. is mostly just copied from the Daily Roster to ensure existing users aren't totally alienated from the way they are used to seeing that info represented.
With that said, those existing formats are very static and sometimes just not conducive to clear information representation, especially with all the new and unexplored ways that same info can be organized in Lineups vs Daily Roster. So, while we don't have a timeline for it, we do hope to explore conditional formatting sometime after 2026.
What does Lineups offer in this beta release that can ease my workflows and ensure the Daily Roster is no longer relevant to me?
Lineups offers everything the Daily Roster offers. The same info, the same table layouts, the same highlighting on grid-based lineups, the same access to shift menus, person menus, extra shifts, exports, columns, table headings, you name it.
In fact, one of the obstacles we designed around while creating Lineups was finding a way to allow Lineups to break free from the shackles that hold the Daily Roster back, while also ensuring users that have come to rely upon the Daily Roster were cared for and could still leverage the workflows they came to rely upon from the Daily Roster. For this very reason, you will see that Lineups are actually broken into 3 categories (Grid, Custom, Favorites). Grid-based lineups are exact matches of your Daily Rosters, premade for you on day one. The same groups, labels, colors, people, etc. with the only difference being it is represented using the more modern Lineups technology. If you change something that would affect your Daily Rosters (even creating new Daily Rosters altogether), those will automatically flow into the Grid Lineups category.
For this reason, grid-based lineups are also very restrictive in how they can be customized. They do not offer nearly the same level of customization as Custom Lineups. We won't get too technical, but the Daily Roster is actually constructed using the same data frameworks that are used to build the grid. You could almost think of the Daily Roster as the Grid viewed from a different perspective. Odd to think about, I know, but it's why we decided to compartmentalize those daily roster/grid based lineups into their own "Grid Lineups" category. Existing users get to see their old stuff in a fresh light, while also gaining access to Custom Lineups to build vastly more powerful tools.
Are Lineups mobile-friendly?
Yes! One of the leading considerations while designing Lineups was mobile devices, and consideration for various screen/window sizes as a whole! You'll notice that Lineups come in table view and card view. Mobile devices will always use the card view, and desktop devices can swap between table & card view at will, or automatically if the window size is shrunk enough.
What's the best way to use Lineups during the beta?
We recommend starting small, use basic filters, basic sortings, try to keep everything contained so that you can ease your way into it. This conservative approach also helps us address issues in targeted fashion. Trying to find the cause of a bug in a highly complex lineup is more difficult than in a simpler one. So easing into Lineups allows you to learn at a comfortable pace and allows us to polish things in a regular cadence as we receive feedback in the coming months.
With that said, the best way to use Lineups is whatever way works best for you! For now, Custom Lineups you create can only be seen by you, so go nuts, see what's possible & what isn't, let us know what works & what doesn't, and together we'll make Lineups the best it can be.
Will there be any guides or helpful documentation available for Lineups?
Yes, but the resources on offer are limited for this initial release and will be published in batches, with the first batch accompanying the upcoming beta.
Documentation/learning materials will primarily come in the form of cheat sheets and annotated examples to show what's possible and the overall intention of lineups are as a whole. We have a handful of resources available alongside this initial release and will add to that library as the beta plays out. As we approach the full release, we may create one or more training videos as well, after the feature has settled a bit.
It's harder to hit a moving target than a stationary one. As Lineups matures, certain aspects of it will become increasingly set in stone due to bug fixes, tweaks, expansions, and overall user feedback shaping it into something concrete & everlasting. As this occurs, we will be able to create more robust Lineups documentation that better stands the test of time. We plan to use this initial beta phase to focus more on refining the feature itself, rather than trying to spend resources documenting things that could change as the beta progresses. We also don't want to pigeonhole users into certain ways of using Lineups during this beta phase. We want everyone to see what's possible, and help us identify natural pathways of growth for it as a feature.
If I want to provide feedback about lineups to Pace, perhaps a bug, a design suggestion, new filters, fields, or sorting options, how should I provide that feedback to Pace?
Lineups are a large, complex collection of features & flows. There are billions of potential Lineup combinations across a variety of use cases and department types. We expect a lot of Lineups feedback in the coming months, so the best way to ensure your feedback reaches us in actionable form is to submit a dedicated ticket via the Help button at the top-right of Pace Scheduler, or by sending it as an email to [email protected]
In other words, text-based feedback is best, especially if you submit it via a dedicated ticket/email, rather than bundling it into a ticket/email that covers multiple topics.
Passing comments on a phone call or web meeting are ok too, but are harder to accurately & reliably pass on to our product designers, and just slower overall to enter into the feedback pool in organized fashion.
We want to ensure feedback is broad, deep, and well organized so we can make wise decisions about the future of Lineups. Things to add, subtract, modify, or clarify. Lineups is one of the largest, most complex features we've delivered, with a lot of growth potential, so we don't want to rush anything or implement feedback in knee-jerk fashion.
Some prefer speed, some prefer quantity, we prefer quality. We appreciate your patience.
Any final tips on mastering Lineups?
When in doubt, click around & find out!
