Offline Crush Trial - APAC Region (December 17, 2025 - January 31, 2026)

APAC Trial: Offline Crush Pilot (December 17, 2025 - January 31, 2026)

Trialling the inclusion of an offline crush into the Getting Help on Tickets workflow. This is an async form of the existing crush or pairing sessions.

Relates to RFC: Implement Offline-Crush via tag in Zendesk (#7307)

Trial Overview

Duration: December 17th, 2025 - January 31, 2026 (7 weeks)

Target Region: APAC

Rationale: This period presents the highest opportunity to demonstrate value due to:

  • Increased number of team members on leave
  • Individual engineers potentially working non-standard working hours over this period
  • Reduced availability for synchronous Crush sessions

Participant Structure

Core Participants (Active Contributors):

The following SEs have agreed to participate in the trial. Participation is completely voluntary - there is no obligation to respond to offline crush requests, just as there is no obligation to attend or present at the existing sync Crush sessions.

Participants will:

  • Use a personal view in ZD to see all tickets with offline_crush tag, or
  • Monitor the Field notes offline crush issue board
  • Receive email notifications for new/updated offline crush tickets by subscribing to the label offline_crush
  • Be encouraged (but not required) to review and assist when they have capacity and relevant expertise

Confirmed Participants:

  1. Alvin Gounder
  2. Iris Blackburn
  3. Ben King
  4. [Participant Name 4]
  5. [Participant Name 5]
  6. [Participant Name 6]
  7. [Participant Name 7]
  8. [Participant Name 8]
  9. [Participant Name 9]
  10. [Participant Name 10]

Extended Participants (APAC Region):

  • All APAC Support Engineers can:
    • Use the Offline Crush macro when seeking help
    • View and respond to requests in the ZD personal offline Crush view
    • Participate at their discretion
  • Cross Region responses on field notes welcome
  • Announce in SWIR for awareness of trial globally
  • Provide instruction to create personal view in ZD for offline_crush tickets or access the Fieldnotes issue board

Integration & Enhancement to Sync Crush Sessions:

When sync Crush sessions have no tickets presented by attendees, the offline crush issue board could be reviewed on the call

  • This ensures:
    • Offline crush requests get visibility during sync sessions
    • Crush session time is productively used even without pre-submitted tickets
    • Seamless integration between async and sync collaboration methods

Required Setup (Pre-Trial)

Support Ops deliverables:

  • Zendesk macro: "Offline Crush"
  • Applies offline-crush tag
  • Adds internal note with field note instructions
  • Field note template: <fieldnote_offline_crush>
  1. Structured format for offline_crush requests,
  • Zendesk view: "Offline Crush" personal view
  1. Filtered to show tickets with offline-crush tag
  2. Accessible to all Support Engineers
  3. Sorted by most recent activity

Documentation:

Trial Timeline

Week 1 (December 17-20):

  • Announce trial to APAC team
  • Confirm core participants
  • Complete technical setup
  • Conduct brief training session/demo

Weeks 2-6 (December 23 - January 24):

  • Active trial period
  • Participants use and monitor voluntarily
  • Weekly check-ins with participants
  • Track metrics and gather qualitative feedback

Week 7 (January 27-31):

  • Final data collection
  • Retrospective collect feedback from participants

Success Metrics

Quantitative:

  1. Usage metrics:
    • Number of tickets tagged with offline-crush
    • Number of unique SEs using the macro
    • Number of unique SEs providing assistance
  2. Response metrics:
    • Average time from tag application to first response
    • Percentage of requests receiving at least one response
    • Average number of responses per request
  3. Resolution metrics:
    • Percentage resolved without engineering escalation
    • Average time from request to resolution/tag removal
    • Number of pairing sessions initiated from offline crush requests
  4. Comparison metrics:
    • Engineering escalations during trial vs. same period previous year
    • Crush session attendance during trial period

Qualitative:

  1. Participant feedback:
    • Ease of use (macro, fieldnote template, view)
    • Quality of assistance received
    • Perceived value vs. live Crush sessions
    • Suggestions for improvement
  2. Barriers identified:
    • What prevented people from using it?
    • What prevented people from responding?
    • Technical or process issues encountered

Communication Plan

Pre-Trial:

  • Announcement in APAC Slack channel
  • Announce in SWIR (global awareness)
  • Email to APAC team with trial details
  • Handbook documentation published

During Trial:

  • Weekly reminder in APAC Slack channel
  • Bi-weekly update on usage stats to encourage participation
  • Quick success/struggle stories shared on this issue

Post-Trial:

  • Results presentation to APAC team
  • Findings shared with broader Support team
  • Recommendations for global rollout or iteration

Voluntary Participation Model

Important: Participation in Offline Crush is completely voluntary, mirroring the voluntary nature of sync Crush sessions.

For those seeking help:

  • Use the macro when you need assistance
  • No guarantee of response time, but this trial aims to demonstrate value

For those providing help:

  • Review the Offline Crush Fieldnotes issue board (or Zendesk personal view) when you have capacity
  • Respond to requests where you have relevant expertise
  • No obligation or expectation to respond to every request
  • Contribute when it fits your schedule and workload

Philosophy: This is a peer collaboration tool, not a support queue. The goal is to make it easier for team members to help each other when they can, not to create additional obligations.

Support During Trial

Trial Coordinator (likely RFC author):

  • Monitor overall usage and engagement
  • Facilitate weekly check-ins
  • Address technical issues with Support Ops
  • Collect and synthesise feedback
  • Share updates and success stories

Support Ops:

  • Technical support for macro/view/notifications
  • Quick fixes for any issues identified
  • Data extraction for metrics

Next Steps

  1. Finalise participant list (Target: Complete by December 15)
  2. Finalise technical requirements with Support Ops (Target: Complete by December 15)
  3. Create documentation (Target: Complete by December 15)
  4. Record short video > tag zd ticket and open field note offline_crush, and a second commenting on an offline_crush field note (December 15)
  5. Launch trial (Target: December 17)
Edited by Chantal Lawrence