Inside Geocaching HQ transcript (episode 53): Experimental features
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0:00:11.8 Chris Ronan: Happy New Year and welcome to Inside Geocaching HQ. I am Chris Ronan, one of the lackeys at HQ in Seattle, a geocache under the name of Rock Chalk, and this is our first podcast of 2022. We will be discussing experimental features in the official geocaching app with Nicole, who is one of HQ’s product managers. Experimental features were first introduced in June of last year, and to be honest, we haven’t done the best job of telling you about them. And that is partly because when they first came out, they were only available in our iOS app, well, now they are also available in the Android app, and we really want to get the word out about them so that premium members will know about the opportunity that they have to experiment with these features. Hence Nicole’s appearance here on the podcast. So let’s get to it, me and Nicole talking Experimental features in the official geocaching app.
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0:01:16.6 CR: So Nicole, for people that didn’t listen previously and if they didn’t, they should go back and listen to your other appearances on the podcast, ’cause it was such compelling content every time, and you’re laughing, but it was, it was amazing. And it’s always great, you always bring really interesting stuff, so for people that haven’t listened though, who have missed out in the past, maybe just give a little overview about what you do at HQ?
0:01:40.3 Nicole: I’m Nicole. My username is Nykkole, N-Y-K-K-O-L-E. I am a product manager at HQ, currently working with the mobile team. So, working with the mobile apps on iOS and Android.
0:01:53.1 CR: And you’ve also used to be on the community volunteer support team, and so you’ve had a lot of really great experience at HQ that now you are taking to the product team. And today we are talking about the Experimental features in the official geocaching apps. So for people who aren’t familiar, just an overview, what are Experimental features for people that have no idea what it’s about?
0:02:21.5 Nicole: So Experimental features is a menu in the app where premium members can turn on features that are currently in development or aren’t ready to move into the main app yet. You can go to more settings, to view the Experimental features menu, and then on iOS and Android, you will see different types of Experimental features that you can turn on, and it’s basically sneak peeks of projects, and you can customize a personalized and opt in to those features to test them out and give feedback.
0:02:57.3 CR: So, one of the cool things about this is that you can decide to turn on or off things that you’re interested in. We should mention this is a premium member only feature, so you have to be premium member to be able to see Experimental features. And for me, I’m an iOS user, I’m looking at it here, I have six different features that I can turn on or off. Is it different between iOS and Android as far as which features or how many are available under Experimental features?
0:03:29.6 Nicole: Yes. That’s right, I am an Android user and I only have access to two Experimental features currently. The reason for that is basically implemented Experimental features as an opportunity to bring these features that are in development to premium members early, and so, we’re always looking for opportunities, how to get things out fast, and it’s not always possible to be in parity with that. So, instead of holding back and waiting until both platforms have something implemented, we make those available for the different platforms at the time that it is possible.
0:04:02.5 CR: So, where do these ideas come from?
0:04:05.9 Nicole: It’s a mix of feedback from the community, we get a lot of emails with ideas or replies and surveys, also conversations in person that we have at events with the community, some of which is identified by developers. For example, if a developer says, Oh, this would be something that is quick to add, that could be something that goes into the Experimental features menu. And then others are experimentation, Innovation, the AR view of trackables is an example of that. And then also larger projects that we wanna bring in front of players sooner rather than later to collect feedback, those could also go on to Experimental features.
0:04:41.1 CR: Yeah, I don’t know how detailed we wanna give into each one of these things, but the most recent ones, maybe we could just give people a brief idea of what they’re about. So for instance, looking at iOS new profile view.
0:04:57.1 Nicole: Yeah, the new profile redesigned, that is a project that is currently available on Android and iOS, and it’s a bigger project, the public release is planned for 2022. The Experimental features menu allows players to opt in, get a sneak peek at what it currently looks like, give early feedback. And while we are working on finishing the feature in preparation for the public release, currently what we see, there’s probably not gonna be any drastic changes. So if you’re listening and you wanna opt in to take a look, this is very close to what the final result’s gonna look like. And you can go to the forums to give feedback, feedback is super important to us. And there’s a premium member only forum, you can find the link in the app where you can go and give feedback on the new profile.
0:05:48.2 CR: Yeah, one of the things I really like about it is, as I’m looking at new profile view as an example, when I click on it, it gives me a kind of a summary of what is in this feature. And then what’s great is, if you wanna turn it on, you can go check it out and then come back, turn it off, and then look and see what the differences are. It’s pretty cool to be able to do that. And you agree, I hope.
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0:06:20.7 Nicole: I absolutely agree, Chris. I just…
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0:06:22.7 CR: Stunned silence of agreement.
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0:06:25.7 Nicole: Wonderfully described. [laughter] It’s hard for me to remember that nodding is not audible.
0:06:33.1 CR: Right. [laughter] Yes, this is not a television show, Nicole, I should have stated that upfront. Okay. [chuckle] So profile redesign, and then the other thing being the AR view of trackables. What is that about?
0:06:49.3 Nicole: Yeah, that was an innovation project which is available on iOS only. It was pretty fun project that we saw an opportunity and went ahead to innovate and experiment. When you turn it on, you can see the Christmas giveaway trackable in AR, when you go to one of the Christmas giveaway trackable details pages, and I don’t know when this is gonna air, but there’s a photo contest going on where people can submit the photos that they took with this AR trackable. And it’s a pretty fun feature. It’s very bare bones, so definitely a next experiment and innovation project. And yeah, we’re gonna make decisions on where this project will lead depending on feedback, how many people use it, and we’ll see how it goes.
0:07:43.3 CR: That’s great. Of course, there’s a number of other things, and I’ve mentioned to you before, one of the Experimental features that I personally like a lot is show favorite points on logs which leads to a question that I have, that I think other players might have, was, Okay, I love that feature, when might it become a non-experimental feature? I guess, What term are we using? When will it become just a regular feature and not be experimental anymore?
0:08:12.8 Nicole: That is a great question, and as you know, Experimental features, that menu is pretty new, so nothing as of yet has been moved into the core app and becoming a regular feature. But that is definitely the goal to use the Experimental features feedback loop to decide what can and will be moved into the core app. But we are a small team and we are always looking for parity between the apps, so the favorite points feature is one example that I on Android do not have access to. So, we will use the feedback that we get from the community and the usage that we see with the the different features to decide which ones are gonna be moved or promoted to become regular features.
0:08:53.8 CR: Right. So, as far as feedback goes, we mentioned the forums and there is a link from the app, correct? To be able to go to the forums or you can go to forums.geocaching.com and scroll down to the experimental features forum, which is under bug reports and feature discussions. Again, you would have to be a premium member to be able to access that forum, just like you have to be a premium member to be able to access Experimental features. But, once you’re in there, you can look at discussions about each feature and also vote as to whether or not the feature should be released in the app.
0:09:40.4 Nicole: That is right. And so, what we’re seeing currently is more people vote than post feedback, which is great. So, if the only thing you do is go to the forums and vote, I will look at this personally and we will take that into account.
0:09:54.3 CR: What kind of factors does the team consider when evaluating whether one of these features will eventually graduate and become a basic feature? I mean, I assume you’re looking at some of the qualitative feedback in the forums and then data use, how often these features are used and that sort of stuff. Are there other things that go into it too?
0:10:20.6 Nicole: Yeah, we look at how many people have turned it on, how many turned it off again, that’s an indication. If you’ve turned it on and then off again, maybe you didn’t actually found that to be a valuable addition to the app. We look at the votes in the forums and how many people vote. If only two people vote yes, but no one else votes, that is 100%, but a very small number of votes. And then of course, we also read through the forum posts. I’m not in there quite as often as I would be in the public forum after public release, but I do read through those comments and if there’s future request, or improvements suggestions, all of this will be taken into account.
0:11:01.4 CR: So, is there a timeline that the team tries to follow in deciding how much time to give for feedback before making an ultimate decision on each of these features, or is that even possible to have a very strict amount of time in mind as far as how long people will have to look at the stuff before the HQ team decides whether or not the feature will eventually make it into the app as a full feature?
0:11:32.1 Nicole: Yeah, there’s not a strict rule. It’s gonna depend on the feedback we get as we talked about, and so for some project, the feedback will allow us to make changes as we’re actively developing it. For others, the feedback will allow us to decide if we are gonna pursue this feature or not. And so, depending on the type of project, some experimental features are more experimental than others. So for example, the AR view of trackables, that one might not make it into the app at all, that decision is still outstanding. But for other features, the Experimental features provides a true sneak peek of what is to come.
0:12:09.7 CR: So, to recap for anybody who hasn’t used this yet, and I think it’s the same in both apps, you go to more, at the bottom of the…
0:12:20.3 Nicole: The bottom of the navigation bar?
0:12:21.5 CR: Bottom of the navigation bar. [chuckle] I was gonna say the bottom of the page. I’m so old when I say that. So the bottom of the navigation bar and then, hit settings, hit Experimental features, and if you’re a premium member, you will have access to that. You can see all of the Experimental features that are available to you. You can turn them on or off, and then, if you have some feedback, go to the geocaching forums. And either offer feedback and/or write vote for whether you think the feature is ready or if it needs more work or not. And Nicole reads all of that, don’t you?
0:12:58.5 Nicole: I do read all of that, multiple times.
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0:13:01.1 CR: Multiple times? Wow.
0:13:03.2 Nicole: ‘Cause I forget what I’ve already read, so I just read it all again.
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0:13:07.2 CR: Yes, I’m doing that more and more too myself. [chuckle] Well, I think, as a player, I’ve really enjoyed having access to these Experimental features. It used to be that when you use the app, just one day you would open it up and something had changed and you either liked it or didn’t like it, and there really didn’t feel like there was much to say about it. And so, it’s nice to be able to know about some of the stuff that might be coming, and to be able to share your opinion on whether or not it should be coming, ultimately.
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0:13:42.0 Nicole: And please do. Please share your opinion. We love feedback. We love hearing what you think about it, whether you like it or not like it, how you would improve it. Give us all of it.
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0:13:52.8 CR: That was Nicole from HQ’s product team. If you haven’t checked out Experimental features yet, please do give them a look and give Nicole and her team some feedback in the forums. And if you have feedback for us about the podcast, send an email any time to podcast@geocaching.com. Let us know what you would like to hear about in 2022. Until next time, from me and Nicole and all of our fellow lackeys at Geocaching HQ, happy caching.
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