May 2023 Update: We’re placing our smart transcript at the centre of session review
Ovida’s transcripts are already uniquely accurate. In fact we are the only transcription service that achieves 100% accurate speaker diarisation and no missed words. This month we focussed on deepening the value you can get from session transcripts. Creating and viewing moments down to word-level accuracy sharpens feedback and accelerates learning. We know security is important to our users, so we have added MFA and password expiry to our team accounts. The journal tab was previously available only to the host, but has now grown up, with a completely private My Notes space available to all users. Our drive to deliver exceptional human value with AI continues with an AI-content rating system to help us improve the quality of session summaries and actions we can deliver to you.
Add hyper-granular moments direct from the transcipt
Two insights from our users have driven a new feature that we know you will love. First, users are increasingly working with our incredibly accurate transcripts, because they are both searchable and perfectly sync’ed to the video and moments. Second, our users want the ability to be really granular about where they add a moment: they often want to pick out just a few words to comment on. With this new feature, you can add granular, by-the-word moments, direct from the transcript, enabling faster, more targeted feedback. Importantly, moment playback is linked to the exact start time of the moment, so a user reviewing your moment will be able to start the video in the exact moment you wanted.
View and navigate moments in the transcript
Our users continue to give us incredible feedback, and we keep hearing that users love our accurate transcripts, which are perfectly synced to the meeting video.
We’ve decided to lean into that love! Today we release our new moment navigation experience. From within the transcript, you turn moment view on or off (for easier reading), and you can select which moment types to highlight.
Allied with the enhanced moment timeline, this new feature has halved the time to review a session in our testing.
Delve deeper into individual moments by hovering over the moment handle (the 6 dots on the left of the moment).
Want to add a comment or edit the moment? Clicking on the handle navigates to the moment on the timeline and the moment tab.
Improved moment navigation on the timeline
Intuitive navigation of your meetings makes review faster and more effective. Moments are now represented on the timeline by coloured icons that match the moment type in the transcript, tapping into the incredible pattern recognition we all possess.
New moment type: absolute language is in Beta
It’s a truism that many people have a tendency to use absolute language when they feel anxious. Anxiety can lead to emotive responses in communication. Observing the frequency with which this happens is a useful method of developing deeper listening and communication skills.
As of May, Ovida detects absolute language on the part of both participants.
Enhanced security for team users
At Ovida we know that our users are trusting us with personal, vulnerable moments. We are obsessive about earning the privilege of helping you make sense of that data every day. For our team users, we now have Multi-factor Authentication and mandatory periodic password resets as standard.
Just two more ways you can be confident that your data is safe with us.
A place for private reflection and notes
Reflective practice is an important component of developing as a communicator, and is actively practiced by successful people across coaching and leadership. With the new “My Notes” feature, you can jot down your reflections, in the context of the session they relate to. They are always there, and always private. Each user linked to a session has a private page.
AI content ratings
We are actively rolling out AI to help you achieve communication skills breakthroughs faster than ever before. Part of that is constant iteration on our algorithms to ensure we generate the highest possible value for you. Every time your rate our AI-generated content, you accelerate our learning, and the value we can deliver to you. Please hit that rating icon every chance you get!
We’re updating our lexicon
You may already have noticed that we are updating our lexicon. Coaches are now hosts, clients are guests, reviewers are observers, and sessions are meetings. The features, functions and roles remain exactly the same as they were - all we have changed is the words. The reason? Our experience with thousands of users has validated our early hypothesis, that the principles underlying coaching have application well beyond the formal practice of coaching. It turns out that the way the world’s top training schools teach coaching translates really well into other communication settings. As executives have been exposed to Ovida, they have increasingly taken it back into their workplaces, where they are using it not just to scale coaching skills, but to help every team member master a broad range of important communication skills. This change updates our platform to reflect the rapidly growing applications Ovida is being used for.
Deploying AI to enrich the human experience
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said recently that AI will be a more transformative technology than fire or electricity. We agree. Never before has a technology with this much potential to reshape our lives been set free in a world seemingly ready-made for its adoption. Like every technology, good people will find good applications, bad people will find ways to do harm with it, and many will stumble into unintended consequences. At Ovida, we are pragmatic optimists, determined to use this remarkable tool to enhance human thriving.
We’ve drawn great inspiration from this image, that helped us imagine how Vermeer and van Gogh would capture a powerful coaching moment in a modern office. Technology will march relentlessly forward, but the power of human connection will endure, if we work at it.
Coaching and communication are timeless. Dall-E helps us imagine how van Gogh and Vermeer would capture a modern coaching session.
