July 2021

Playbooks Update: 9 New Plays

We’ve added 9 new templates to playbooks to enable more common analysis use cases. Here’s what’s new:

• Audience Overview (Web and Mobile App)
  • This starter template helps teams understand their omnichannel traffic
• Blog Overview
  • Understand your blog performance, including viewership trends over time and best performing content.
• Blog Performance
  • Understand how well your blog is performing, in temrs of shares, subscriptions, and conversions
• Quiz Engagement and Impact
  • Using a “quiz” to personalize recommendations? Use this dashboard to understand the impact of your quiz on conversion, order volume, and more.
• Promotion Engagement and Impact
  • Using promotional codes to improve conversion? Use this dashboard to understand the impact of your promotions, which promotions are top performers, and more.
• NPS Overview
  • Understand promoters, passives, and detractors of your product and see their comments at a glance.
• Subscription Retention
  • Understand retention, churn, and more for your eCommerce subscription.
• Feature Engagement and Impact
  • Understand adoption and retention in the weeks following a new feature launch. Did users discover and continue to use the feature?
• Email Campaign Performance
  • Understand how well a specific email campaign is performing.

Dashboard Date Range Filter Enhancements

We’ve updated how date range filters work in dashboards. When you change a date range on a dashboard, we automatically use the report’s default granularity and enable you to change it to any granularity that makes sense (now including “entire range”, which wasn’t previously supported).

Once you change the date range and granularity, the dashboard URL will also update to reflect the new timeline so that you can share the same view with others.

Automatic creation of Source events

When you connect a third-party source to Heap, we now automatically define and categorize new event types captured from the source allowing you to immediately jump into analysis.

June 2021

Effort Analysis

Effort Analysis helps you understand why users are dropping off between funnel steps by analyzing all your autocaptured data and surfacing signals that indicate where users might be struggling across these areas:

• Number of Interactions: the median total count of clicks, form changes, and form submissions between steps (including interactions you haven’t chosen to track yet)
• Time Engaged: the time it takes users to convert from one step to the next, but only counting “engaged” time (when there is at least one interaction within 60 seconds) and ignoring time spent away from the computer (e.g. stepping out for a cup of coffee for an hour).
• Retry Rate: the percentage of users who needed to revisit your workflow across multiple sessions in order to convert to the next step.

Group Suggestions UI Update

We’ve updated the UI for Group suggestions in graphs and funnels. Suggestions now appear in a sidebar next to analysis and show a preview of the data before accepting the suggestion.

Pageview Suggestions

Pageview Suggestions is a new way to define pageview events in Heap. Heap automatically analyzes all the pageviews we have captured and suggests high traffic pages for you to define.

We even detect patterns in your URL structure and propose definitions that use wildcards to account for these patterns. For example, if we put the title of our blog in the URL path, Heap will recognize the pattern and suggest heap.io/blog/* which will account for all of the pageviews on our blog.

May 2021

Iterable Source

Following on April’s release of the Iterable Connector, we’re releasing the Iterable source. With Iterable events flowing into Heap, marketing teams can measure the impact of cross platform messaging on site traffic and online behavior.

Increased Heap Connect Sync Frequency

Heap Connect now supports syncs every 4 hours for Redshift and every 2 hours for Snowflake/s3/BigQuery. When you toggle on syncs, you’ll be able to select your sync frequency.

Increased sync frequencies are available to Heap customers on our Premier tier. Reach out to your CSM if you are interested in upgrading.

Customize Heap Connect Sync Schedules

Now you can also choose the anchor time at which you’d like to schedule your Heap Connect syncs. Together, the anchor time and sync frequency create the sync schedule.

Mobile SDK Updates

Our mobile SDKs received some minor updates, check changelogs for details

April 2021

Iterable Connector

The Iterable connector enables marketing teams to sync segments from Heap to personalize Iterable cross-platform messaging. With access to granular behavioral data, marketers can drive more personalized messaging and upsell/cross-sell audiences based on past behavior. The result? Higher conversion rates and less opt-outs.

Report Archiving

Admins are now able to quickly identify and bulk archive unused reports, keeping your Heap spaces clean and consistent. If you ever change your mind, archived reports can be restored at any time.

Property Explanations

When grouping by a session-level property, if one of the property values has a strong correlation with a different property value, that information will appear when you click on the data point in your graph. This should help you more easily understand the story data is telling you.

Updated Funnel Visualizations

Heap funnels have gotten a facelift, here’s what’s new:

• A highlights bar shows overall conversion rate and the step with the highest dropoff, so you immediately see where you need to focus your attention in a Funnel report.
• A vertical layout better supports Funnel steps with longer names, as well as Funnels with more steps, so you can get even more granular insights about conversion.

All functionality has been preserved.

Custom Funnel Conversion Windows

You can now choose a custom window of time within which to analyze your funnel conversions — any number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, or even weeks

Definitions CSV Export

Dataset administrators can now easily export information about events, segments, and properties as a CSV file to help keep your company aligned around key definitions.

March 2021

Playbooks

Playbooks take analytics best practices out of books and webinars and build them right into the app. With just a few inputs users can build a dashboard full of insightful reports for common marketing, product, and eCommerce use cases.

We plan on adding new Plays all the time, so stay tuned for more updates.

Sticky Legends

Graph legends will now always be visible, helping you take better screenshots and share insights.

Maximum Groups increased from 2 to 4

We’ve doubled the amount of group by’s in Graphs and Funnels. Slice and dice data to your heart’s content.

BigQuery User Migrations

Data analysts using Heap Connect for BigQuery no longer need to merge anonymous and identified user behavior themselves. Heap now applies these migrations during the sync process.

Expanded Snowflake Support

We’ve expanded our support for Heap Connect-Snowflake to the following data centers/regions: Microsoft Azure australia-east and Amazon eu-central-1.

Android SDK Tracking Opt Out

Our Android SDK now provides support for developers to disable tracking to comply with user privacy regulations.

February 2021

Marketo and Intercom Connectors

The Marketo and Intercom Connectors enables teams to sync segments from Heap to their marketing platforms on a nightly basis. This allows marketers to incorporate the granular user behavioral data available from Heap into campaigns without additional engineering effort; powering personalization to better drive critical product and business outcomes, like feature adoption, trial conversion, and retention.

Marketo

Intercom

Expanded Report Previews

The reports view has been updated! We now expose more report metadata and have easier to use filters.

Report Starring

You can now star important reports so you can quickly locate them later.

Increased File Size Limits for "included in" filters

We’ve increased the file size for “included in” filters to 100kb and removed the line limit.

Collapsible web Event Visualizer navbar

The EV navbar can now be minimized allowing you to navigate and define freely.

January 2021

Property Suggestions

Now you can leverage the data-attributes in your DOM to seamlessly define retroactive properties. This means that Heap’s promise of a complete and retroactive set of event data is now available for certain kinds of property data as well. 

Here’s how it works. When you define an event in the Event Visualizer, Heap now offers Property Suggestions that are associated with the event that you can choose to use in your event definition. 

Once you’ve added the relevant Property Suggestions to your event definition, you’re all set to start running reports using the data. Like all event data in Heap, access to the info stored in your data-attributes is now immediate and completely retroactive. 

Defined Property Updates

We’ve made defined properties easier to use to help you better organize your data. 

A new analysis preview on the definitions page allows you to quickly verify if your property definition is correct. 

Are you ready for Heap to read your mind? When you use a defined property in a filter, Heap will now finish your sentences by autocompleting your thoughts based on the top options. 

iOS Event Visualizer Updates

We heard your feedback on the old iOS pairing gesture being a bit clunky (involving some finger gymnastics). So we’ve improved the EV pairing mechanism on iOS so that you can connect your device to Heap by simply scanning a QR code. 

Group Suggestions

One of the most common next steps after creating a funnel or looking at feature usage or conversions is to break the analysis down by landing pages, user segments, etc. to answer the question: “Is this trend being influenced by a particular group?”

Answering this question used to involve a laborious “guess and check” process with the goal of spotting an interesting breakdown with enough variation between groups. Now Heap does this “guess and check” process for you by automatically examining a set of properties and proactively suggesting the most significant groupings. 

These Group Suggestions help you find the best ways to group your data to uncover predictive insights on customer behavior. How does it work? When you run a graph or funnel query, Heap now automatically offers suggestions for how to best group your data to reveal deeper insights. 

For example, in a funnel query, Heap will analyze which properties are most predictive of overall conversion rate, and then suggest grouping your data by those key properties.

So if you have a funnel to track requests for a quote, we may recommend segmenting cohorts by UTM Campaign, UTM Source, or Landing Page to surface insights in user behavior. These automated recommendations bring to light the often unexpected characteristics or properties that users who convert share.

When running a graph query to see the weekly number of product demos requested, Heap might suggest grouping the results by UTM Campaign for insight into which marketing campaigns have the highest impact on lead generation over time.

BigQuery support for Western Europe

Teams based in Europe can ETL data to BigQuery instances in GCP’s europe-west-2 region.

Updated Developer Best Practices

We want to make following best practices in your data analysis a no-brainer. That’s why we created a guide with all of our recommendations for developers so you can stay at the top of your analytics game.

December 2020

Analysis Launcher turns questions into queries

By reimagining the ways in which you analyze data with Heap, we’ve just upped the speed of insights. Introducing the Analysis Launcher: a more intuitive analysis flow that helps you build better queries — faster.

Up to now, when you logged into Heap, you had to know exactly how to translate that question in your head into Heap’s language of analysis. If you weren’t already familiar with what each of our analysis modules could do, it might’ve taken more time than you were willing to spend to determine the best path to building your query. 

Now when you come to Heap with a question, the Analysis Launcher immediately guides you to frame your question in terms of the data point you’re interested in analyzing (events, users, accounts, or properties) or around a use-case (conversion or retention). 

Our new shortcuts then quickly identify the right query module so you can go from question to answer with confidence. Also, if you’re allergic to clicking, the entire Analysis Launcher can be operated with hotkeys!

No more sifting through analysis types to find your use case or missing out on key data points — the full power of Heap’s analysis features is now at your fingertips!

The new Analysis Launcher includes:

• Categorization by object (e.g., events, users, accounts) and by use case (e.g., conversion, retention)
• Shortcuts for common analyses (e.g., # of sessions that include an event, % of active users using a feature)
• Hotkeys to get to your desired analyses faster

Annotate insights with Footnotes

We’re not only passionate about building better ways to discover insights, but also about building better ways to share them. In last month’s product update, we made report-level notes visible in dashboards. Now you can take communication a step further by attaching notes to specific dates within your report. 

Unexpected spikes or decreases that appear on Heap insights could leave your teammates puzzled without further context: What happened on that day? Is there something wrong with the data? 

With Footnotes, you can now annotate your Heap reports to clarify anomalies (eg., new product launch, Black Friday, etc.) and to provide additional context. Try it out — and share more insights clearly and confidently with your organization. 

Event definitions opt for accessibility

f you value accessibility as part of your site or product development, then you’re going to love this update to our Event Visualizer (EV). We’re now preferring aria-labels in the automatically generated definitions provided by our Event Visualizer. 

Your web developers often use aria labels to give elements on a page meaningful descriptions for use in accessibility programs. Our EV now pulls these aria-label attributes when defining an event, so you can build trustworthy event definitions more easily than ever. 

Automatic definitions that align with your accessibility efforts? That makes us want to sing.

Sync select data into your warehouse

Clean up crufty columns in your data warehouse with our latest Heap Connect feature. Heap users with Architect or Admin-level permissions can now manage which user and event properties sync to their data warehouse via Heap Connect. 

By syncing and unsyncing select properties, you can ensure only the most relevant data takes up space in your data warehouse. Need to resync an event? We got you. Your data is still retroactive and ready to sync when you are.

Other Heap Connect Updates

Earlier this year, we added new properties to what we automatically collect with Autocapture. Now these properties sync directly to your data warehouse via Heap Connect! 

The following properties now sync to all warehouse destinations:

• heap_device_id
• heap_previous_page
• heap_app_name (android events)
• heap_app_version (android events)
• heap_device (android events)

Don’t want to sync these properties? Simply select to unsync them! Sync on, sync off. 

Admins can now reset 2FA

What good are insights if you can’t access them? Admins can now skip support and reset two-factor authentication for their users directly in their Heap account. Keep those insights coming.

Control JavaScript Snapshots

Our JavaScript Snapshots give you the ability to use JavaScript expressions to capture additional metadata that isn’t autocaptured by Heap out of the box. This can be extraordinarily useful if you’re trying to call third-party APIs (including Heap’s API) or check if users have enabled browser push notifications or capture users’ timezones, for example. But JavaScript Snapshots can also be dangerous if used maliciously. 

To protect against this, we’ve added new safeguards to how your data can be captured and enriched in Heap. If needed, your Heap account Admin(s) now can disable JavaScript Snapshots in order to align with company security policies. Even with JavaScript Snapshots turned off, you can still create Text in Element and Form Value Snapshots using the Event Visualizer to enrich your events with additional properties. 

Check out our Help Center for more info on how to create Snapshots in the Event Visualizer. 

November 2020

Tell a Story With Customized Reports

When it comes to displaying reports, we’ve realized that one size does not fit all. Dashboard reports can now be resized to accommodate those that need more room to convey information (like graphs with a “group by” or table reports). 

Let your dashboards tell a story, and lead with the heavy-lifters. Not all metrics are created equal, so make the most important ones BIG.

Take Note(s) of Insights

If you’re a fan of Post-It’s, you’ll want to take note of this new feature (sorry, we couldn’t resist). Notes that were created on reports now appear directly on those reports in dashboards. 

Fewer clicks to insights? Nice.

You can use notes in dashboards to help other stakeholders in your organization understand key takeaways from reports. Or use them to add helpful context when looking at a shared report.

Table Views in Dashboards

Your dashboards support line graphs, pie charts, bar graphs…and now tables! With table views in dashboards, you can pin a report (saved analysis results) as a table to get quick insights from listed data. 

This is helpful for keeping close tabs on lists of unhealthy accounts or top performing features. If you’re a customer success manager listing out accounts by activity, you can easily identify the inactive accounts that you need to track down to re-engage.

Bulk Up on Invitations

Now you can invite everyone to the analytics party! With bulk invitations, you can add multiple teammates to your company’s Heap account at the same time — the more the merrier. 

But wait — we made it even easier. You can also copy a list of emails, paste them directly into the email input field, and voilà! Your teammates practically invite themselves. 

September 2020

Naming Conventions

Properly named and categorized events make using data and finding insights fast and easy. Heap now allows admins to set up event naming conventions that are automatically enforced as users create new events. This allows data to be understood at a glance, reducing confusion and increasing data trust.

Report Alerts

Report Alerts let your team set automated alerts on any KPI, letting Heap monitor key metrics  and automatically alert all relevant stakeholders when they exceed a set number. Your team can keep track of the entire product and know instantly when problems arise or customer behavior changes. This gives your entire team access to data and information at the moment it becomes important, and makes sure everybody can act quickly and in unison. This isn’t just data for data’s sake—it’s data made actionable.

Salesforce Data Connector

The Salesforce Data Connector allows teams to bring usage data from Heap into Salesforce and generate a shared, reliable definition of account health, without ever leaving SFDC. For companies looking to put Product, CS, and Sales on the same playbook, be efficient in prioritizing accounts and reducing churn, and create a reliable measurement of adoption and usage, it’s a game-changer.

June 2020

Session Aggregates

Highly requested and now available in the app! Session aggregates count how many sessions contain an event of your choosing. Here are some example questions:

• What percentage of sessions result in clicking on contact support?
• What’s the weekly number of sessions where my northstar event occurred?

Event Repair Workflow

The event repair workflow allows account architects to identify inactive definitions and repair them without impacting saved reports, dashboards, or downstream syncs.

May 2020

Data Definition Workflow

We’ve added new workflows for data owners and data consumers to collaborate around event, segment, and property definitions. All new definitions are now automatically submitted for verification to your account admins and architects. Admins and architects will be able to manage a queue of requests allowing them to verify the integrity of the data and make any needed changes. Utilizing these workflows will allow Heap accounts to scale data trust and democratize access to insights.

Automatic definitions for API events

Events sent to Heap via API now automatically generate definitions. This makes it easier to verify their accuracy, categorize them, and hide them.

Custom roles

Account administrators can now fully customize permissions to fit their organization’s data democratization strategy.

April 2020

Introducing: Account Health Analysis

Understanding customer health is a key part of reducing user churn and a powerful way to grow your business. That’s why we are excited to announce Account Health Analysis, a new feature that helps you track feature adoption and engagement. With Account Health Analysis, you’ll be able to manage account adoption for key features, identify accounts that are at risk for churn due to inactivity, and prioritize investment in underused features.

New Autocaptured Properties

We’ve added new properties to our autocapture capabilities. “Previous page” will give analysts more tools to understand how their users discover features and flow through the digital experience. “Initial landing page query” and “initial landing page hash” will provide more context around a user’s first touchpoint with your business.

March 2020

Introducing: Heap + Appcues Bi-lateral Integration

Heap is excited to announce a two-way integration with our partner Appcues. With Heap and Appcues, product teams can easily create targeted product experiences, without engineering help. Bring Appcues data into Heap to see how product guides, tooltips, and other actionable experiences drive activation and retention. Sync behavioral cohorts from Heap to Appcues to optimize your product experience for each individual user.

Intercom Data Source

We’ve partnered with Intercom to connect the dots between customer engagement and product experience. With the Heap and Intercom integration, it’s never been easier to understand how your Marketing, Sales, and Support conversations affect product engagement and the entire customer lifecycle.

Filter Reports by analysis type

Looking for that funnel you saved, but forgot what you named it? You can now filter by analysis type in the reports view! This feature is designed to help you find and share insights.

Bulk Actions on Properties

Users can now bulk hide and show properties as well as bulk delete user-defined properties from the properties view.

February 2020

Date Range Picker

You can now change the start and end date calendars independently of each other, which should make choosing a date range much more intuitive.

Android/iOS View Hierarchies

You can now define a single event to track engagement with an area of a screen, or multiple interactions that would have previously required Combo events with a lot of extra event definition.

iOS Event Visualizer

The iOS Event Visualizer has been updated to look and feel a lot more like our Android Event Visualizer. You now have full control and the ability to use the Event Visualizer to define iOS events using all available properties. 

Identify API Robustness

Heap will now automatically reject common patterns of bad identify calls (e.g. merging all users into one person named “guest”), protecting your dataset from common API usage mistakes.