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Looker Integration

Last updated on Jul 23, 2024

In this article:

  • Introduction to Looker integration

  • Enabling the Looker integration

  • Configuring the Looker connection

  • Connecting the Looker connection to an OKR

  • Supported Chart Types and other guidelines

  • Handling timeout while integrating

Introduction to Looker integration

Integrating Looker with Peoplebox allows any updates on linked Looker dashboards, tiles or looks to automatically update progress on your OKRs in Peoplebox. This makes for a powerful setup as it ensures that the OKR process is not waiting on manual check-ins and progress is updated real-time on Peoplebox.

Here is an example of where teams see the benefit of the integration with Looker:

  • A Product Manager links their Key result (‘Increase payment attempts rate from 98% to 99.5%’) with a Timeseries chart in Looker. As he number gets updated on a daily basis, the KR gets closer to its goal.

Enabling the Looker integration

Anyone with the access to Peoplebox can enable the looker integration, and here’s how it can be done:

  • Edit a Key result(KR) you want to integrate Looker with.

  • In the Edit KR drawer, under the Progress section, you will have an option to Enable the integration. If a connection has been made previously or if the integration has been enabled already, you will have the option to Edit the enabled integration.

  • This integration can also be disabled unchecking the Automatic Updates From option.

Configuring the Looker connection

  • After enabling the integration, the first step is to configure a Looker connection.

  • In the Connect to Looker drawer**,** provide a name for the connection.

  • Enter the Client Id which your admin has shared with you.

  • Add the Server URL of your Looker account.

  • Enter the Client Secret associated with your Client Id.

  • Click on Save to get up and running with this integration. You can edit the saved connection at any time.

While in most cases one connection is enough, Peoplebox allows you to connect with multiple Looker instances. Click ‘Create a New connection’ to add another instance. You can add names to your connections to differentiate them. These names are displayed to members when they link their OKRs to Looker dashboards.

Connecting the Looker connection to an OKR

Once you have configured the connection, the next step is to start linking OKRs to the dashboards or tiles or looks in Looker.

  • After you have added the authorisation details, the next step is Specify input field.

  • In the Track KPI From, Dashboard will be selected by default.

  • In the Dashboard Name, enter the complete title of the dashboard to search for it. Select the options from the searched dashboard. Please remember to enter the complete dashboard title, as Looker's API only works with complete titles.

  • Select the tile or look in the Dashboard Tile or Look Section. Refer below to see the chart types supported. 👇

  • Once the tile or look is selected, the user gets an option to select the x and y axis.

  • The labels of each of these axis will be shown as per what the chart has in looker.

  • The value that can be connected to each KR can be a single numeric value so any charts returning non numeric values won't be supported.

  • Some charts have options to filter on pivots as well and all of that will be shown dynamically based on the chart type.

Supported Chart Types and other guidelines

  • You can Verify your chart type here

  • All the charts should have proper custom labels for x and y axis. If custom labels are not present then the first label for each axis returned by looker would be shown. Labels don't affect the value selected.

  • For Percenage based metrics, choose Percentage in the Result Format dropdown. Else the default is Exact - Same format as received from Looker.

  • Since the charts are generally tracked on a month on month basis whereas OKRs are tracked on a quarterly basis, there is an option of selecting Latest Value while selecting the month axis(x axis). Choose this to keep the values updated even when the current month changes. This option is supported only for charts where the x axis is month.

Handling timeout while integrating

  • The default timeout for a response from Looker is max 40 seconds.

  • In the event that looker doesn't return the data in this time, you will se an error as follows

  • To solve the timeout issue, the user needs to make sure that the dashboard data is hot on looker. What it means is that the user should have opened the dashboard on looker multiple times in the last few minutes, such that on refreshing the chart on looker dashboard, it should load instantly.

  • Once the dashboard data is hot, user should try to integrate on Peoplebox and it should work smoothly.