Workspaces is currently in a Beta testing program, and Workspaces is not widely available to all Organizer accounts. If you are interested in participating in the Beta testing program, please contact your Partnerships Success Manager.
This article describes some common workflows using Workspaces. For more about Workspaces in Organizer, please access the Workspaces Overview.
In order to best utilize Workspaces in Organizer, you’ll first consider how you want to divide up your work. As you consider how to divide up the work, consider how to avoid overlapping responsibilities.
Once you determine the best way to divide up your work, you’ll create segments to help support that division. You’ll use these segments in the creation of Workspaces.
Next, some common ways of dividing up work are described along with example segments.
Organizing by Geography
Let’s look at an example of an Organization with Workspaces organized geographically. A statewide campaign for elected office wants to organize volunteer and outreach based on congressional district.
| District Number | Workspace Name |
|---|---|
| 51 | Team 51 |
| 52 | Team 52 |
| 53 and 54 | Team 53 and 54 |
To create a workspace structure with this type of geographic division, 3 segments are created.
- Team 51: Registered Districts>Congressional is 51
- Team 52: Registered Districts> Congressional is 52
- Team 53 and 54: Registered Districts> Congressional is 53 OR Registered Districts>Congressional is 54 (grouped)
It’s a good idea to name your segments descriptively since the name is visible when choosing the segment for the workspace.
By using these segments in creating three Workspaces, each workspace member can view profiles in specific congressional districts. Any segments that are shared with the workspace will also have the workspace’s segment also applied. For example, a segment of registered voters ages 18-25 could be shared with all Workspaces, but Team 51 will only see registered voters ages 18-25 in congressional district 51.
Organizing by Affiliations
Let’s look at an example of an Organization who plans outreach based on affiliations with an organization, so they have Workspaces dedicated to different target type of affiliation with the organization.
| Affiliations | Workspace Name |
|---|---|
| Young Alumni under 25 and Active Students over 16 | Young Alumni |
| Parents of School Age Children and School Parents | Parents |
| School Neighborhood | Neighborhood |
In order to create segments for workspaces, custom attributes for alumni status, active student status, parent-school affiliation would need to have been populated for profiles (by bulk import or one to one updates with a script).
To create a workspace structure with this type of division by affiliation, 3 segments would be created.
- Young Alumni:
- Filter In
- Custom Attribute Alumni is True AND Age is between 16 and 25 OR Custom Attribute Active Student is True AND Age is over 16
- Filter In
- Parents:
- Filter In
- Model Score> Children Present score is over 29 OR Custom Attribute School Parent is True
- Filter In
- Neighborhood:
- Filter In
- Registered District> Neighborhood is _Neighborhood Name_
- Exclude: Custom Attribute is Alumni OR Custom attribute is Active Student OR Custom Attribute is School Parent
- Filter In
By using these segments to create workspace, each workspace can operate targeting a specific segment of profiles with these segments as a starting point. For example, Young Alumni can further segment to target only young alumni under 18 for an email campaign.
Organizing by Demographics
Let’s look at an example of an Organization who plans outreach based on demographics, so they have teams dedicated to different target demographics.
| Demographics | Workspace Name |
|---|---|
| Voters under Age 25 | Team 25- |
| Voters over Age 60 | Team 60+ |
| Voters Age 26-59 | Team 26-59 |
| College Graduates | Team College Graduates |
One important consideration with these divisions is how much potential for overlap there is. Team College Graduates work has the potential to overlap with every team resulting in the possibility for multiple contacts from Team College Graduates and other workspaces. If the overlap is problematic, then you would want to remove Team College Graduates as a workspace. You can add the person(s) supporting college graduate outreach as a member of the three other workspaces.
To create a workspace structure with this type of division by demographics, 3-4 segments would be created.
- Team 25-:
- Filter In:
- Voter Registration>Voter Status is Active AND
- Demographics>Age is below 25
- Filter In:
- Team 60+:
- Filter In:
- Voter Registration>Voter Status is Active AND
- Demographics>Age is above 60
- Filter In:
- Team 26-59:
- Filter In:
- Voter Registration>Voter Status is Active AND
- Demographics>Age is from 26-59
- Filter In:
- Team College Graduates:
- Filter In:
- College Graduate Score is greater than 59
- Filter In:
By using these segments to create workspaces, each workspace can operate targeting a specific segment of profiles with these segments as a starting point. For example, Team 25- can further segment using model scores or other information for a targeted email.
Organizing by Seasonal Work
Let’s look at an example of an Organization who organizes their outreach work seasonally, so they want to have workspaces devoted to different seasonal campaigns. Each campaign does not need to have visibility into the other workspace and they don’t necessarily need to know if a profile was contacted in another campaign.
| Seasonal Work | Workspace Name |
|---|---|
| Summer Volunteer Outreach | Summer Volunteer Outreach |
| Fall GOTV | Fall GOTV |
| Winter Legislative Advocacy | Winter Legislative Advocacy |
To create a workspace segment to support this type of division, there could be just one segment created based on criteria that would include all profiles in the account. Depending on how your account is provisioned with profiles, the filters you use might vary. This one segment could be applied for data provisioning for all three of these workspaces.
Training Workspace
Let’s look at an example of a workspace used for training on outreach tools. In this example, an organization wants to have a space for new staff or volunteers to learn and practice without creating clutter. You could create a workspace for training purposes.
One important consideration in creating a segment for data permissions is whether or not you want the volunteers to actually change the data associated with profiles.
If you do not want the volunteers to alter profiles with practicing outreach, then you may want to upload a file with fake data and a custom attribute to identify profiles for testing. When creating fake data, we suggest creating names with last names that are randomly generated letters and not realistic sounding names; you don’t want the names to match with real people. We also suggest populating the email with test emails that you create or emails from people who agree for you to practice emailing them. Once you have your fake profiles imported, then you can create the segment for your training workspace based on the custom attribute.
If you would like your volunteers to practice using real data, you can create a segment based on any criteria for your workspace segment. We do have some suggestions when training in this way to avoid negatively altering the data in your account:
- Avoid editing profile information when viewing a profile
- Phone Outreach: Use Personal Phone Banks. Avoid using Wrong Number, Disconnected, Refused, Wanted to Opt Out
- Canvassing: Avoid marking a person or household as: Deceased, Inaccessible, Refused. Avoid editing profile information
- Forms/Scripts: Avoid editing personal information such as phone number, email, address, etc.
- Email: Avoid sending practice email outreach. Instead, create and send a test email to yourself.
Additional Resources
Log into Organizer as a Workspaces User
Creating and Sharing with Workspaces