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We have just released our new platform version. See what are the main changes.
We are thrilled to announce that our newest product version is now LIVE, and we couldn't be more excited to share it with you. Our goal with this refresh is not only to make it easier for everyone to navigate and discover the work that matters most to them, but also lay the groundwork for adding more powerful functionality into our platform moving forward.
Learn more about the most important changes for our blackbear clients below.
Feature improvements, process changes and bug fixes
Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to say goodbye. We had to say goodbye to some features
New terminology
We have made important terminology changes. Here are the main updates:
- The term ‘Challenge’ will now be referred to as ‘Assignment’
- The term ‘Solution’ will now be referred to as ‘Deliverable’
- The term ‘Motivation’ will now be referred to as ‘Proposal’
New features
- Keep a backlog of assignment ideas
With the Assignment Backlog, you can easily save your assignment idea to your backlog and get back to it later. You can choose to share it with blackbear when you are ready. No more scattered to-do lists or Miro boards. - Simplified Assignment statuses for seamless progress tracking
We have created a simple assignment journey to help you track the progress of each assignment. Each assignment will go through the following main statuses: Backlog, Planning, Sourcing, Delivery, and Completed. You can easily see where in the process each assignment is by tracking its status. - New filtering & sorting
Finally, an easier way to find what you are looking for. For now, we have introduced filtering by status, assignment owner, language and category. We will enhance this as we go. - Get one step closer to the desired results with Draft Deliverables feature
This feature unlocks a solver’s or team’s ability to submit a draft deliverable and get your feedback early into the process to ensure that what you are working on is aligned to expectations. We hope that this will help you achieve the desired outcome. - Blind rating system to facilitate fair rating
The Blind Rating system is a feature that we introduced to facilitate fair rating in our process. The reviews only show up when both parties submit their feedback. This means that you will only be able to view your rating and feedback if you have rated back. - Blackbear approval on rating to enable fair rating
We take pride in ensuring a fair rating process that benefits both our solvers and clients. To ensure a fair rating and payment and to support our clients provide constructive and relevant feedback, all ratings are reviewed by the blackbear team before being visible on your profile and before triggering the payment of the reward. - Open an assignment in a new tab
Sometimes the small things hurt the most. Thank you for hanging in there. You can now right click on assignments and open them in a new tab. - Roles & Permissions for increased security
We have created a set of permissions and hierarchy in the roles, currently split between Company Admin, Assignment Owner and View only. - Manage your team in one place
You can now view and invite users from your company to join blackbear. Depending on your permissions, you can also edit and delete users or assign roles.
- Increased support with our new blackbear Help Centre
We are excited to share that we are launching our blackbear HelpCenter. We are here to answer your questions. We hope that this will be a useful guide in your blackbear journey.
Feature improvements, process changes and bug fixes
- New Assignment dashboard
We have revamped our assignment dashboard, giving it a fresh look and displaying the most pertinent information on the assignment cards. - My Assignments versus Company assignments
We understand the importance of maintaining a clear distinction between your personal assignments and the collective efforts of your company. That's why we have created a simplified view to find your work versus the work that your company is doing: My Assignments versus Company Assignments. - Creating an assignment has never been easier
We want to make it easy for you to get your needs out there as quickly and pain-free as possible. Inspired by the ‘Instant Intake’ concept, you can now create an assignment outline by answering a few quick questions and then submit it to our blackbear team. We will do the heavy work from there - we will shape it and schedule an intake to review it together. - Edit your assignment and set your own budget
Once our team is done with drafting your assignment, they will send it your way for a final review. At this stage, you can edit any information regarding the assignment yourself, including the budget. Once you are happy, you can go ahead and request us to post the assignment to our Solvers to kick-off the process. - Stay ahead of the game with clear Assignment deadlines
We understand the importance of timely submission when it comes to delivering exceptional results. In collaboration with you, we establish deadlines that will now be visible on the assignment page but also communicated to you effectively. - Get more flexibility with assignment deadline extension
We recognize that sometimes little extra time is needed to ensure solver(s) deliver the expected 5-star quality deliverables. That's why we've introduced a flexible solution that allows them to request a deadline extension when needed. In agreement with you, we can now extend their deadline as per need. - Introducing new rating criteria for clearer context
We introduced a new rating criteria for when you rate and when you get rated. This is in an effort to facilitate a fair rating system that provides clear context and considers the most relevant aspects when completing an assignment. Below is a snapshot of the new criteria. - Enhanced rating precision
Every decimal point counts, and every contribution you make will now be accurately reflected in your ratings. Previously, we rounded-up all ratings to 0.5 or 0.0 decimals, which sometimes resulted in a less precise representation of your performance. Moving forward, we will round up to the closest one decimal point, ensuring a closer match to your average rating. - Get more flexibility with assignment deadline extension
We recognize that sometimes you may need a little extra time to ensure your deliverables shine with 5-star quality. That's why we've introduced a flexible solution that allows you to request a deadline extension when needed. Simply reach out to your dedicated Project Consultant in advance, and together we can extend the deadline in agreement with the client. - Track the progress of your assignments (solvers, deliverables, and ratings)
We have introduced a new way to present the progress of assignments. Our new view provides a cleaner and better insight into the work being done, making it easier for you to keep up to date and rate a solver or a team. - Improved notifications system
We have revamped our notifications and notification settings to provide you with an even better user experience. Our goal is to ensure that you receive the most relevant updates and enhance the overall communication and clarity on our platform. - Improved account deletion
We never want to part ways but at times, it happens. We've revamped our account deletion process to ensure that your departure doesn't go unnoticed and that your feedback helps us shape a better platform for future users.
Other general improvements
- General UX Improvements: We improved the navigation, pagination, loading states, navigation and colour contrasts, error and empty states.
- UI tweaks for your liking: new look and feel.
- Cookie policy: your privacy is important to us. For that reason we have improved our cookie policy.
- Bug fixes: we have solved bugs all across the application to make room for new ones. We are only human! 🙈
Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to say goodbye. We had to say goodbye to some features
We learned that the below were not as valuable to you as we would have liked. ****🙂 We might bring them back with your help in a way that benefits you.
- What’s app notifications
- Desktop notifications
- Browser notifications
- Billing: Don’t worry, this is temporary. We will have this back soon!