Looking to overhaul incident submission form for end users

[skcrosley]

We currently are using a catalog item that is a record producer in Employee Center for users to submit incidents. This maps a few select fields directly to the incident table. However, over the years, we have added several new incident categories and subcategories. Users are starting to complain they don't know which ones to pick, despite our efforts to keep things relatively limited. 

I would like some sort of questionnaire or guided workflow to ask specific questions to the end user and then generate the incident based on the users' answers, including selecting the category and subcategories for them. We've learned that letting users try to figure out their own categories is overwhelming for them.

What is the best way to accomplish something like this? I do not think "Guided Experiences" are what we are looking for, but maybe Playbooks or something with Workflow Studio/Flow Designer? Open to suggestions, preferably without buying additional licensing.

[Itallo Brandão]

Hi skcrosley,

You are absolutely right to move away from exposing raw Categories to end-users. Users speak "Business" (e.g., "I can't print"), while Categories speak "ITIL" (e.g., "Hardware > Peripheral > Output"). Bridging this gap is a UX best practice.

While Playbooks are great for guiding agents through a resolution process, they are often "overkill" (and technically heavy) for a simple self-service intake form.

The best way to accomplish this without extra licensing is to refactor your Record Producer using an "Abstraction Layer".

Here is the blueprint for the Questionnaire Approach:

1. The Frontend (User Facing) Stop mapping variables directly to the category field. Instead, create new variables that act as your questionnaire.

• Variable 1 (Multiple Choice): "What are you having trouble with?"

  • Options: My Computer, A Software/App, My Password, Something else.

• Variable 2 (Select Box): "Which application?" (Hidden by default).

• UI Policies: Create Catalog UI Policies to create the "Guided" feel.

  • Logic: IF Variable 1 is "A Software/App", THEN Visible Variable 2.

2. The Backend (The Translation Logic) You need to translate the "User Answers" into "IT Fields" automatically. You have two ways to do this:

• Method A: The Script Box (Simplest) In the "Script" field of the Record Producer, write the logic to set the actual incident fields based on the variables.

  JavaScript

  // Example Logic
  if (producer.what_is_trouble == 'software') {
      current.category = 'software';
      current.subcategory = 'os'; // or whatever logic applies
      current.short_description = 'Issue with ' + producer.which_application;
  }

• Method B: Decision Tables (Cleaner & Scalable) If you have complex matrices (e.g., 50 different combos), writing if/else scripts is messy.

  1. Go to Decision Builder (part of the platform, no extra license).

  2. Create a Decision Table: Inputs = "User Answers", Outputs = "Category/Subcategory".

  3. Call this decision table from your Record Producer script or Flow. This allows you to update the logic later without touching the code.

3. Why not Flow Designer? You can use Flow Designer, but for Incident creation, it is often faster (performance-wise) to set the fields before the record is saved (via the Record Producer script) rather than saving the record -> triggering a Flow -> updating the record again.

Recommendation: Stick with the Record Producer. Just hide the real fields and build a "Tree" of user-friendly variables using UI Policies. It mimics a Wizard perfectly and costs $0.

If this response helps you, please mark it as Accepted Solution.

Best regards,

Brandão.

[skcrosley]

Hello, thank you for the detailed reply.

I think the main issue I see with this approach is that this new catalog item is now tethered to the Categories and Subcategories we currently have. If they change even slightly, this catalog item will probably need to be updated. 

How would I tie the decision maker with the catalog item? Do you have any examples I can reference? It would help me to understand better, I think.