Hi everyone! 👋

Cherry here from AirOps Consulting. 

I had a blast at the Airtable Builders Breakfast in LA. There were so many great people and thoughtful discussions. After these events, I always like to share a little recap for my team. I thought I'd share it in the community as well so we can continue the conversation.

A highlight of the event was the joint panel discussion between two industry experts, Rodrigo Vélez from Riot Games and Rauma Razzak from Sony Pictures.

🎮 Rodrigo Velez from Riot Games shared how his team created a single interface page with extensive documentation and a glossary of terms, empowering the users to be more independent at finding answers. Rodrigo's humorous take on design and the importance of alignment had the audience engaged. Sometimes, getting alignment from different stakeholders can take far longer than the actual build!

🎬 Rauma Razzak from Sony Pictures spoke about how users access data only through interfaces, and discussed how list interfaces are amazing at representing hierarchical data structures (In her example, shows, seasons, and episodes). She emphasized the importance of understanding the end customer's needs, practicing active listening, and not initially revealing the Airtable system (so people don't get distracted by the pretty colours!). Rauma also highlighted the significance of engaging tech-savvy team members who care about processes and operations to represent their team's needs.

Kelly from the audience then brought up a discussion question about sharing data with external vendors. Airtable's new form update is a great way to share interface forms with external stakeholders to intake data. We will also set up third-party form tools to round out Airtable's form features so our clients can share restricted data for external parties for editing.

In the third session, Jon Harbison, known for his Airtable tips and tricks (and breaking into his own house to make it to the airport), shared his favorite Airtable features:

• Utilize the list view for project management capabilities
• Make the most of the progress bar feature
• Embrace record templates to streamline workflows
• Use 2-ways syncs to facilitate handoffs
• Use granular permissions in interfaces to share access
• Use emojis to highlight/flag a record (At AirOps, we use lots of traffic light emojis to help our clients identify urgency/deadlines for their tasks

Can't wait for the SF and Toronto Builders Breakfasts!

Cheers,

Cherry

Get in touch @ Cherry@AirOpsConsulting.org