Datadog
Designing custom forecasts for FinOps teams to plan future costs
AGENDA
BACKGROUND
1.
RESEARCH
2.
DESIGN SOLUTION
3.
NEXT STEPS
4.
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
1.
RESEARCH
2.
DESIGN SOLUTION
3.
NEXT STEPS
4.
BACKGROUND
What is Datadog?
BACKGROUND
What is Datadog?
Cloud monitoring & security platform for large-scale applications
BACKGROUND
What is Datadog?
Cloud monitoring & security platform for large-scale applications
Helps teams observe, troubleshoot, and optimize across infrastructure, logs, and apps
BACKGROUND
What is Datadog?
Cloud monitoring & security platform for large-scale applications
Helps teams observe, troubleshoot, and optimize across infrastructure, logs, and apps
Helps teams prevent issues before they impact customers
BACKGROUND
Datadog Products
BACKGROUND
Datadog Products
BACKGROUND
Datadog Products
My team
BACKGROUND
Cloud Cost Management
I worked with my design manager, PM & a few engineers:
BACKGROUND
Cloud Cost Management
I worked with my design manager, PM & a few engineers:
My Role
As sole product designer on Custom forecasts, I was mainly responsible for:
BACKGROUND
Goal
Datadog is trying to expand beyond typical software engineers & aiming to bring FinOps teams into our platform.
BACKGROUND
Who are FinOps?
Responsible for:
BACKGROUND
Who are FinOps?
Finance
Engineering
FinOps
Their goals in CCM:
BACKGROUND
Challenge
We need to support full end-to-end budgeting workflow in order for FinOps teams to fully adopt Datadog for their Cloud Cost Management.
BACKGROUND
What does FinOps do?
BACKGROUND
What does FinOps do?
1. CREATE A BUDGET & FORECAST FOR THE YEAR
BACKGROUND
What does FinOps do?
1. CREATE A BUDGET & FORECAST FOR THE YEAR
2. REFORECAST AS THE YEAR PROGRESSES
BACKGROUND
What does FinOps do?
1. CREATE A BUDGET & FORECAST FOR THE YEAR
2. REFORECAST AS THE YEAR PROGRESSES
3. CREATE & SHARE REPORTS TO LEADERSHIP
BACKGROUND
What does FinOps do?
1. CREATE A BUDGET & FORECAST FOR THE YEAR
2. REFORECAST AS THE YEAR PROGRESSES
3. CREATE & SHARE REPORTS TO LEADERSHIP
Supported in Datadog
Not supported in Datadog
Supported in Datadog
BACKGROUND
What are forecasts?
Predicting future costs based on historical data & future plans
BACKGROUND
What are forecasts?
Predicting future costs based on historical data & future plans
cloud
BACKGROUND
What are forecasts?
Predicting future costs based on historical data & future plans
cloud
BACKGROUND
Datadog’s Out-of-the-box Forecasts
Predicting future costs based on historical data & future plans
cloud
BACKGROUND
Problem
Users can’t edit Datadog’s out-of-the-box (OOTB) forecast, making it difficult to account for future cloud cost plans & accurately report on finances.
BACKGROUND
“Datadog doesn’t know our org changes, [future] launches, or savings goals, we do.”
— Tomorrow.io
RESEARCH
BACKGROUND
1.
RESEARCH
2.
DESIGN SOLUTION
3.
NEXT STEPS
4.
RESEARCH
Interviewed 4 Org’s FinOps Teams:
RESEARCH
Research Goals
Insights
RESEARCH
Define requirements to fully support budgeting workflows in CCM.
Research Goals
Insights
RESEARCH
Define requirements to fully support budgeting workflows in CCM.
Understand how Datadog’s OOTB forecast fits into users’ workflows
Research Goals
Insights
RESEARCH
Define requirements to fully support budgeting workflows in CCM.
Understand how Datadog’s OOTB forecast fits into users’ workflows
Users need to customize their forecasts but still need the OOTB forecast to fill in the gaps
Research Goals
Insights
RESEARCH
Define requirements to fully support budgeting workflows in CCM.
Understand how Datadog’s OOTB forecast fits into users’ workflows
Users need to customize their forecasts but still need the OOTB forecast to fill in the gaps
Out-of-the-box forecasts are a good starting point and reference, but not the full story
Research Goals
Insights
DESIGN SOLUTION
BACKGROUND
1.
RESEARCH
2.
DESIGN SOLUTION
3.
NEXT STEPS
4.
DESIGN SOLUTION
Scenario
Goal 2
Review how your updated forecast compares against your budget
Goal 1
Edit your forecast to reflect a future increase in spend
Scenario 1
Scenario 1
Forecast vs. Budget vs. Actuals for current month
Values broken down by budget line
Edit call-to-action in table
Graph for a visual reference for data
Scenario 1
Scenario 1
Scenario 1
Callout: micro-interactions
1
2
3
4
Unedited values = grey placeholder text
If there are no custom values, then OOTB = Forecast
After changing a value, the text turns to black & the call is blue
This is what custom values look like when they were previously edited in a different session
Scenario 1
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
New task
=
mid-month finops review
Scenario 2
New task
=
mid-month finops review
Scenario 2
Scenario 2
Scenario 2
DESIGN SOLUTION
Customer Quote
“If we can make this work, this will be our budgeting, forecasting, visibility tool going forward.”
— Cvent
NEXT STEPS
BACKGROUND
1.
RESEARCH
2.
DESIGN SOLUTION
3.
NEXT STEPS
4.
NEXT STEPS
Future Vision
Inline Commenting
Add comments on the values they edit for context
Forecast Edit History
Creating an audit log of changes to a forecast
Forecast in Budget Creation
Allowing orgs to set their first forecast as their budget
NEXT STEPS
Lessons Learned
Companies forecast very differently
Had to design a flexible experience multiple types of FinOps users
Working in a new domain space
Onboarded myself through a lot of reading and videos
Designing for a spreadsheet user
Having to design a sheets-like product in a style similar to CCM