Beyond numbers: a lesson in market research from Innovation Days

We’re excited to kick off Innovation Days once again! The energy and spirit from our first edition remain unchanged, but this year, we’ve introduced a few refinements to make the second edition even better.

What are Innovation Days?

Innovation Days are Fluendo’s annual event, where we come together to generate fresh ideas, make improvements, and experiment with new concepts. Beyond just work is the perfect opportunity to shift from our usual remote environment to a face-to-face setup, offering plenty of chances for socializing—whether over lunch, dinner, or after-work activities—and truly getting to know each other.

This year, we focused on ensuring that each idea could deliver tangible results within our tight four-day window. Here are the ideas we worked on:

• Anonymizer Tool: a solution to efficiently anonymize videos or images, protecting privacy in multimedia content.
• AI Video Quality Enhancer: a tool that leverages artificial intelligence to improve video quality for a better viewing experience.
• Synthetic Data Generator: Synthetic datasets are created to help train AI models.
• Flaw Detector: A business case for a solution that identifies and corrects flaws in various systems.
• Cerbero Cross-Compilation for WASM: Enabling Cerbero to cross-compile for WebAssembly (WASM), enhancing our cross-platform capabilities.
• Open Source Project for gst-wasm: We launched a community-driven project for GStreamer WebAssembly bindings.
• Next-Generation Audio Support in DASH Demux: We improved audio capabilities in our DASH demultiplexer to enhance media experiences..
• WYSIWYG Workflow for Markdown Content: This “What You See Is What You Get” editor streamlines the process of creating and managing Markdown content.
• Static Website with Hugo: Our team built a static version of our website using the Hugo framework, improving performance and scalability.

We’ll be revealing these projects in detail with dedicated blog posts in the coming days. Some of our open-source contributions are already public if you’re eager to take a peek. Stay tuned!

What we learned and adapted in 2024

One of the key takeaways from our retrospective on the first edition was the need to plan ahead and focus on what could be accomplished within the limited time. Given the limited time, it was essential to identify goals that could be realistically accomplished within the event’s duration.

Another significant decision was to keep the event on-site and limit remote participation, which might seem counterintuitive for a fully remote company like Fluendo. However, with the Innovation Days coinciding with our summer party, the in-person setting created a unique socializing opportunity, which we deemed essential.

Survey insights: The Innovation Days paradox

As part of our continuous improvement efforts, we conducted a survey of the 2024 edition, which unveiled a paradox that offers valuable insights into the complexities of market research and user experience evaluation.

The survey results initially seemed a bit surprising. When we examined specific categories such as Company Impact, Personal Impact, and Learning, we noticed slight declines compared to 2023—especially in the Personal Impact category.

This drop gave us pause, as it seemed to suggest that the 2024 edition hadn’t met participant expectations as well as the previous year. But then, something interesting emerged: when we asked attendees directly whether the 2024 edition was better than 2023, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

• 50% of respondents said the 2024 event was significantly better.
• 22.2% found it somewhat better.
• 27.8% thought it was comparable.
• Importantly, no one felt the event had worsened.

The lesson: more than just the numbers

This paradox between specific metrics and overall satisfaction offers valuable lessons in market research and user experience:

• Limitations of categorical data: while specific categories help pinpoint areas for improvement, they may not reflect the full picture of user satisfaction. Numbers alone can miss important aspects of the overall experience.
• Power of comparative question: asking direct comparison questions like “Was this better than last year?” can reveal broader satisfaction trends that detailed metrics might miss.
• Context matters: first-time events, like our inaugural 2023 Innovation Days, often set high expectations. Understanding this context is key to interpreting future feedback, and comparing results year over year
• The complexity of user experience: user experience is more than a sum of its parts. Improvements in areas we didn’t measure, such as keynote sessions and atmosphere, significantly impacted overall satisfaction.
• Risk of overly specific metrics: focusing too much on individual KPIs risks missing the bigger picture. To gauge true success, it is important to balance specific metrics and a general overall impression.

Takeaways for market research and product development

Our Innovation Days paradox highlights essential practices that extend far beyond internal events:

• Diversify feedback mechanisms: combine specific and general questions to completely understand user satisfaction.
• Contextualize data: always consider prior experiences and external influences when analyzing feedback.
• Go beyond the numbers: qualitative insights and open-ended questions can often provide a deeper understanding than quantitative data alone.
• Embrace paradoxes: When faced with conflicting data, dig deeper—it often signals complexity in user experiences. Take time to explore these discrepancies.
• Refine research methods: continuously iterate on your research techniques to better capture and interpret feedback.

As we move forward, this paradox reminds us of how intricate and multifaceted user satisfaction can be. Whether you’re developing products, refining services, or assessing customer experience, remember that the most valuable insights often come from the questions you didn’t think to ask.