- Part of StoryAI Opportunities, which requires StoryAI Premium.
- All users (except Guests) can view and investigate Opportunities.
- Admin, Architect, and Standard users can update Opportunity status and assignment; connect funnels; and comment on Opportunities.
- Admin and Architect users can mute Opportunity issues.
Overview of Spiking Issues
Spiking Issues are anomalous friction or error events that are happening on your digital properties. StoryAI Opportunities proactively detects these issues, analyzes them, and provides you with the context you need to understand and resolve them quickly.
This article will cover the following:
- Overview of Spiking Issues
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Quick start
Customers with StoryAI Premium can quickly get started with Spiking Issues by doing the following:
- Within Fullstory, select Opportunities from the left-hand menu.
- Click Spiking Issues at the top of the Opportunities page.
- By the time Opportunities has been enabled for your Fullstory account, you should already see several Spiking Issues listed.
- Click into the first Spiking Issue.
- Explore the Spiking Issue detail page.
- Optionally, update the Status to "Investigating" and change the Assigned To.
Continue reading to learn more about Spiking Issues.
How are Spiking Issues Detected?
Fullstory monitors a set of key metrics on an hourly basis. When an unusual spike in any of these metrics is detected, it triggers an investigation. An "issue" is defined as a combination of a metric and a unique dimension (e.g., "Uncaught Exceptions" and the specific error message text).
When a spike is detected, the system performs a thorough analysis using a combination of AI-assisted analysis, statistical analysis, and heuristics. This analysis aims to determine the severity of the issue and provide you with as much information as possible to help you understand the issue at hand.
Types of Spiking Issues
StoryAI Opportunities can detect a variety of Spiking Issues, including:
- Uncaught Exceptions
- Console Errors
- Network Errors
- Error Clicks
- Rage Clicks
- Dead Clicks
- Refreshed Pages
- Abandoned Forms
- Watched Elements (see below)
- App Crashes
Configuring Watched Elements for monitoring
Unlike other Spiking Issue types that are monitored automatically, Watched Elements require configuration before they can be monitored in Opportunities. To configure which Watched Elements are monitored:
- Click the 3 dots (⋮) next to Opportunities at the top of any Opportunities page.
- Select Manage Watched Elements.
- Click the All tab.
- In the dialog, you'll see a list of all Watched Elements configured in your account.
- Check the box next to each Watched Element you want to monitor for anomalous spikes.
- Click Connect to save your selections.
The Spiking Issues interface
When viewing Spiking Issues from the Fullstory interface, you'll observe the following:
- Filter opportunities by various criteria and adjust the time range on the right. The filters that you select will be associated with your Fullstory user and persist across sessions.
- A list of Spiking Issues will be listed, which includes the title of the issue, a brief summary, the issue's Status, Severity, and the time of the Last Spike.
Click into an individual Spiking Issue to see the detailed view, described below.
Investigating a Spiking Issue
At the top of a Spiking Issue, you can modify the Severity and change the Status and Assigned To to begin the triage process. For example, setting the status to "Investigating" will move the issue forward to "In Progress" on the Opportunities kanban board. You can also mute Spiking Issues.
Overview
The overview provides a comprehensive summary of the issue, including an AI-generated title and a detailed description. You can also watch sessions where the issue occurred and add comments for your team.
Trend
The trend tab shows you the lifecycle of the issue with a Timeline view of key points in time:
- First Spike: This graph helps you understand when the issue was first discovered.
- Last 24 Hours, Last 7 Days, and Last 30 Days: These graphs provide a broader view of the issue's activity over time.
You can change the Count of property to be "Unique users" (default), "Events", or "Unique Sessions". The default count can be modified by clicking the 3 dots (⋮) next to Count of.
Impact
The impact tab helps you understand the scope of the issue:
- Reach: This section provides metrics on how widespread the problem is, including the percentage of users impacted.
- Lost Conversions: This section will show any lost conversions associated with the issue and the funnels that have been connected to Opportunities.
Diagnostics
The diagnostics tab helps you pinpoint where the issue is occurring by providing breakdowns across various dimensions. You will also find a session playlist to watch sessions where the issue is occurring.
Muting Spiking Issues
Spiking Issues can be muted by Admins, Architects, or Umbrella managers. Navigate to the issue's detail page and locate the Mute button at the top of the issue.
- An individual Spiking Issue, e.g. Uncaught (in promise) SyntaxError: "undefined" is not valid JSON
- Rule-based Spiking Issues, e.g. “Starts with” XYZ
- Entire category of Spiking Issues, e.g. Uncaught Exceptions
Muting Spiking Issues will mute them indefinitely and for all users, unless the issue is manually unmuted.
To unmute issues, click the 3 dots (⋮) next to Opportunities at the top of the page and select Manage Muted Issues.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do I need to connect a funnel in order to use Spiking Issues?
No, unlike Opportunities Funnel Drops, you don't need to connect a funnel to Opportunities to use Spiking Issues. However, any funnels that you have connected will be referenced on the Impact tab of the Spiking Issues detail view and analyzed for Lost Conversions.
Can I configure custom signals or metrics to be monitored for spiking issues?
No, at this time you cannot customize the list of dimension metrics that are monitored for spiking issues.
What is the threshold of users that need to experience an issue for it to be surfaced as a spiking issue?
The user threshold is dynamic and based on the number of sessions that are expected to be seen in a given day. This means that with lower session volumes issues will be reported more frequently, while for high session volumes issues will need to affect more users before they are surfaced. All issues require a minimum of five unique users to experience the issue to qualify.
How is Severity determined?
Severity is automatically determined by Fullstory based on the number of users affected, whether it blocks them from an action, and if they're experiencing additional friction. Severity can be updated manually.
How do Watched Elements work with Spiking Issues monitoring?
When monitoring Watched Elements for Spiking Issues, keep the following in mind:
- Only Watched Elements (elements configured with the "Watch this Element" option) can be monitored—simply naming an element is not sufficient.
- If a Watched Element is archived or removed from search, Opportunities will stop monitoring it for new spikes. However, any existing Spiking Issues related to that element will remain visible in Opportunities.
-
Data requirements: At least 3 days of data is required to establish a baseline before spikes can be detected:
- Existing Watched Elements: When you connect an element that's already been watched for 3+ days, the system will backfill historical data and begin monitoring for spikes immediately.
- New Watched Elements: When you connect a newly created Watched Element, it will take 3 days to collect enough data before spike detection begins.
How can I tell who on my team resolved a Spiking Issue?
When you open a Spiking Issue and view the Trend tab, you'll see in the timeline on the left the Resolved state and the name of the person who resolved the issue.