I'm sure when 2020 started, none of us could have predicted what a rollercoaster year it would turn out to be. Over the past twelve months we've seen some incredible highlights, while at the same time we've had to manage with some unprecedented challenges. Like many of our customers, the year has been transformational in more ways than one.
Some of the highlights include:
Expanded Sales and Services
We closed out a record-breaking 2019 this time last year with a relatively small team. We knew that needed to change and so throughout 2020 we've turned up the heat!
Headcount has grown by 50% during 2020, with many of those people joining our sales and services teams. While we've previously been able to support our global customers exclusively from Canada, Recollective has now expanded internationally with teams in the US, UK and South Africa. We're looking to further extend those capabilities into Latin America and Asia Pacific in 2021.
Video, Video, Video!
Since launching in 2011, Recollective has built a reputation for innovative online qual, but we'd kept the functionality limited to self-paced asynchronous work. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic changed all the rules, we had planned to introduce live video capabilities.
That started with Live IDI and scheduling (introduced in February 2020) and was rapidly followed by Live Group Chat with Video in the summer. These two new capabilities have dramatically expanded what's possible in Recollective. We've been amazed at how quickly customers have embraced those new tools and introduced live activities into their online research. We've captured thousands of hours of live video this year alone and seen standard video uploads more than triple!
New Offices
It might seem strange during a year in which everyone has been exclusively working from home, but we've also been busy refurbishing new offices for our growing team. We've relocated back to downtown Ottawa and are thrilled at the prospect of finally settling into our new digs in early 2021!
Pictured above, this new space really showcases our company to customers and employees, so if you're ever near Ottawa, come visit!
More Diversity
As a technology company, we've been a little clichéd and had a historically male-dominated workforce. During 2019 and 2020 we've been fortunate to find some incredibly talented women to join our company and help lead us into the next chapter of Recollective's growth.
The job is certainly far from finished, but a stronger mix of people and personalities, backgrounds, ethnicity and genders mean we can speak to our customers better, tackle problems in innovative new ways and offer a more inclusive, fun place to work.
And Speaking of Fun!
We ran almost 4,000 projects in 2020, covering countries such as the ever-busy US and Europe to as far afield as Indonesia, Singapore, Japan and Thailand (supported by our expanded set of 28 languages!). Australia and China continue to grow in demand for online research along with Brazil and Mexico too.
During 2020 we massively scaled up our ability to support customers with research services needs - from recruiting and moderation to research design and community management - delivered through a growing global network of Recollective Certified Partners.
I said last year that it's staggering how much research is being done on Recollective and I'm even more astonished this year. So from everyone here at Recollective, we'd like to again give a huge thank you to every one of our customers for your trust and support. We're all counting down for 2021 to begin and look forward to continuing these great partnerships friendships!
All the best from everyone at Recollective!
.jpg)
.svg)
