Last week, the nooQ team set out to Amsterdam to present our new user interface design to the audience at Social Now.
In the midst of some of the most influential journalists, bloggers, speakers and enthusiasts, we were thrilled to scoop all the product awards available at Social Now. Both the judges and audience voted nooQ to win “Coolest Tools”, “Coolest Features” and “Best Fit For Your Organisation”.
Social Now was founded by Ana Neves to give 12 social software vendors the chance to demonstrate their tools live with no sales pitches. Using the same fictitious company, each presenter shows how they deal with fixed use cases, allowing the audience to see exactly how these tools solve real life working examples.
This unique format really resonated with our team as it cuts through the noise and wasted time at the majority of these events. Taking a practical approach to finding the best social tools, this concept helps attendees explore their own problems in context of a fictitious company.
Day One
Day one was good to get familiar with the format, watching other demos and getting a feel for the judges questions. After an interesting day immersing ourselves in the event, we went back to the hotel to finalise some last minute changes.
After watching demos, listening to a few keynote speeches on the state of the modern workplace and exploring the future of corporate communications, we wanted to ensure no stone was left unturned. The judges were tough on user experience, information overload, discovery of new topics and having a flexible data structure to support taxonomy and folksonomy – all areas that nooQ excels in.
We made 20 builds the day before to ensure the launch of our new user interface displayed nooQ at its full potential. We were so keen to get everything right that we were even making development changes minutes before going on stage. This really was a completely new launch for us.
So after months of preparation and lots of last minute changes, we kickstarted the demonstrations on day two. And the reception was phenomenal.
Day Two
nooQ was extremely well received by the audience. To have keynote speakers and industry analysts such as Stowe Boyd, Luis Suarez, Phill Kropp, Pedro Custódio and Carsten Rossi praise our product was very humbling.
Coolest social enterprise network tool 2015 = @nooqsoftware #SocialNow Check it out!
— Marvin der Meer (@mdermeer) April 21, 2015
@nooqsoftware people see value of individual contributions thru ratings. Shown as bubbles @pedrocustodio ‘1st bold & sexy tool’ #socialnow — Paul J Corney (@PaulJCorney) April 21, 2015
Nooq is the only tool here that has a NEW UI idea. I love it!!! #socialnow
— Carsten Rossi (@rossi_kkundk) April 21, 2015
This is a testament to the hard work each and every member of the nooQ team has put in. Thanks to the feedback from our panel of testers, we have been able to continually adapt our software to produce a platform that supports real life teams. nooQ was born out of a desire to improve the way teams work, so it means a lot that against bigger, more established companies, the audience at Social Now were most excited to integrate nooQ into their workplace.
Social Community
Social Now has a real strong sense of community between all participants, attendees and judges. As we promote collaboration, transparency and building communities in our offering, it comes as no surprise that this event gave us a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with the inspirational people we have been interacting with online. It also gave us the chance to meet new people with a whole range of experiences, who were just as passionate and keen to share their insights and learnings.
One thing we love about Twitter is the way it brings together people who were previously strangers. Graeme was fortunate enough to arrange a meeting with Alistair Croll – author of Lean Analytics, one of the best books for startup entrepreneurs.
Graeme had spoke to Alistair on Twitter for over a year but the two had never met in real life. Meeting up in Freddy’s Bar allowed us to sample the highly recommended Fortaleza Tequila before unleashing some extremely valuable advice in a 1-to-1 session. nooQ was ripped apart with surgical precision in order to make it better. It was unlike any other grilling we’ve ever had and as a result, nooQ will become stronger. Some founders don’t seek or like such intense scrutiny, but although a tad painful, such expert insight can only improve your product offering. We actively encourage others to seek out the harshest critics to throughly test your beliefs.
Amsterdam was a phenomenal experience for all of us at nooQ. But it’s not the end for us. We have a whirlwind of events over the next few weeks, including Las Vegas for Collision Conference. Get in touch if you’ll be there – we’d love to meet up.
To see more from Social Now, check out our Instagram feed.