Data experiences
at Atlassian
Organisation
Atlassian
Industry
IT Asset management / Analytics
Year
Aug 2024 - present
Role
represented design in a triad
Background
What are Assets?
JSM Assets is a data management platform integrated into Jira Service Management (JSM) that functions as a Configuration Management Database (CMDB). It supports various business use cases such as tracking inventory, warranties, replacements, software licenses and HR/Legal data.
It is a key offering for Atlassian's enterprise customers.
What was wrong?
Analytics for Assets were underwhelming, despite being a key enterprise requirement
Visualization platform was incomplete and couldn’t fully support analytics
Data wasn’t easily accessible — not stored in the hot tier
No dedicated team focused on Analytics
Temporary solution had poor UX, negatively impacting perception of Assets
impact on business
$1.5 million lost
Retention rates
~8%
retention
from a customer
"This is very disappointing. It is not of the quality we expect from Atlassian products, slow in performance - but most importantly - it is not what the user base has asked for.
In it's current form, Jira Assets is not a complete ITAM solution. Without dashboard widgets, there is no advantage to having an ITAM component for Jira - it's no more work to manage a separate platform, that is likely many times faster and more reliable."
Validating the problem
Methods used to validate the problem
Key findings
Customers started switching to third-party marketplace apps or exporting data to Tableau.
Lack of permission controls was a major issue — only admins could use Analytics.
Premium-plan users were hesitant to upgrade to Enterprise just to access Atlassian Analytics.
Sales teams stopped highlighting Assets’ in-product reporting due to its limited value.
Competitors offered advanced reporting, while Atlassian lacked even basic capabilities.
Illustration between competitors and us
tech & Logistical challenges
For performance to improve, there was a high-cost of moving data to the hot-tier.
The team had to abide by the platform and couldn't make any front-end changes.
How might we…
… start offering basic reporting capabilities?
… improve permissions?
… ramp up to offer advanced reporting capabilities?
… make the experience scalable and usable for all of Jira Service Management, and not just Assets?
Ideation
method used to ideate
Goals of the workshop
Goal 1:
Deep dive into the problems, get cross-functional stakeholders on the same page
Goal 2:
Generate ideas, group them and arrange them on a priority x feasibility matrix.
snapshots from the workshop
snapshots from the workshop
snapshots from the workshop
OUtcomes of the workshop
✔️ My PM and I grouped these ideas and crafted a 4-horizon strategy.
✔️ By the end of the workshop, there was a solid, shared understanding of customer & tech challenges.
✔️ Participants wore their design hats to brainstorm solutions. With engineers in the room, we deliberated on the technical feasibility and were able to reach workarounds.
Outcome: 4 - horizon strategy
Designing
Reframed design brief
Improve the in-product reporting experience in JSM Assets by designing intuitive, flexible, and scalable journeys that empower both admins and agents to make informed decisions, without being hindered by existing platform or architectural constraints.
target personas (replace)
key design challenges
1
Design complex yet crisp experiences sans usability issues.
2
Create a content strategy that is free of jargons.
3
Collaborate with the platform team to fill the gap in the design system by creating components for reporting use-cases
visual design principles
We grouped the chart builder into five logical parts:
Metric / Chart viz
Data source
What you see on the chart
Additional filters
Name
We used spacing and visual hierarchy to distinguish the sections.
We also used progressive disclosure in the chart builder to reduce confusion.
IA decisions
Due to backend challenges, the user was expected to select 'Object types' twice. This experience led to two fields having the same name in the chart builder.
We addressed it by re-labeling the fields and adding helper text that helped differentiate the two fields.
Start from a blank canvas - build as you go
Move, delete, duplicate and resize charts on the dashboard
Low learning curve to create complex charts for non-tech users
Hover to drill into data
Have permissions control in your hands
Apply pattern fill to make your charts accessible
Evaluation
method used to evaluate
key findings
We received a rating of 5.6 on average.
Creating, editing, deleting and moving charts were rated 'very easy'.
There was a steep learning curve with the two object type fields on the chart builder. Once the participants got a knack of it, the tasks became easy for them. The first chart building task received a 2/7 and by the last one, it was 6/7.
Impact
impact
5+ presentations to leadership including Heads of Product and Engineering in ITSM
Secured headcount of 7 new engineers,
2 more designersBecame central team for JSM Analytics, three sub-streams were formed