Our latest release includes some significant updates to our product so we can better support our customers who, more than ever, are trying to figure out how to lead teams and communities in different and often difficult times.

What we’ve seen over the last 12 months

The pandemic has flipped our collective world—and how we work—on its head. And in some ways, it accelerated inevitable change. 

For many of us, the office gave us a false but comforting sense that we had our finger on the pulse of what was happening with our teams, organizations, and communities. We often talked about agility in structure, processes, and leadership—but the truth is, we were all caught off guard. 

“The Year That Shall Not Be Named” pretty quickly broke our confidence in the way things were, and seemingly overnight, our work worlds became much less clear. How we built relationships changed. How we solved problems got more complicated. Pets, crying children, and bored partners crashed our video calls. 

Side note: a pandemic highlight for me happened recently when a coworker’s little human interrupted our conversation about metrics to show off his booger. Honestly, it made my week. 

When we looked at the data to see what customers were trying to navigate and solve, the bulk of challenges fit into three buckets:

1. Strategic Alignment: Getting teams across functions and locations on the same page, and validating that the strategies put in place were the right ones for those groups.
2. Performance: Figuring out what approaches or tactics were having the most significant impact on performance and results—good or bad. 
3. Culture and Community: Finding ways to build a sense of community and stronger teams, and support people through change.

Everyone’s trying to figure out the way forward in the new hybrid workplace model, so we looked for ways to clear your path. 

Here’s what we’ve introduced to help:

Exchange Studio

When you log in as an Exchange leader, you’ll see an area called the Exchange Studio, a go-to resource to help you get the most out of the Exchanges you run around strategy, performance, and culture. 

We’ve provided recommendations on what to ask and when based on the specific challenge you’re looking to solve. We’ve seen what works for our customers and packaged it up in practical how-tos so you can benefit from proven Exchange cadences.

Planner

To make it easier to keep track of your Exchanges, we’ve introduced a Planner that’ll keep you focused and strategic when thinking through what to ask and when. You can create your Exchange plan in advance, and assign objectives, choose leaders, and define outcomes to tackle your biggest priorities. 

Note: Planner is currently available only to Room Administrators.

A new Dashboard

To make things simpler to navigate, we’ve introduced a one-stop-shop view when you first log in. It’s where you see your upcoming Exchanges, past Exchange performance, and how well people are engaging with your questions. You’ll also see a preview of the Planner and be able to easily navigate to the Exchange Studio. 

Improving the Experience for Participants

We’ve also made updates to the participant experience, so people can more easily contribute thoughts to a conversation, see what topics are surfacing, and explore the results of an Exchange. Topics are sorted by rating from high to low rather than how frequently they’re mentioned, so participants can see what’s most important to the group.

Welcome to 5.0!

Those are the highlights of our 5.0 release, and we’re excited to see how they help you embrace a new, more agile way of doing things at your organization. For more details, check out the release notes in our Help Center. 

We hope this release makes it easier and faster for you to tap into the collective intelligence of your people, so you can make progress towards the things that matter to you, your businesses, and your communities.