Turnz: An app that summarizes conversational turns

Why count turns?

Conversations are opportunities for sharing. Was your conversation successful in how time was shared, as judged by its attendees?

About privacy: what does the Turnz app track?

The Turnz app makes a note of the time when each speaker begins and ends speaking. That is all. Using only that information, it can summarize the total time and total number of turns that each speaker received. It uses anonymous IDs for each speaker. It uses a random string to represent the meeting itself. In other words, the Turnz app is completely anonymous. The goal is to look for patterns in turn taking versus satisfaction, not track individuals.

Benefits of measuring turns

By measuring these conversational turns, the Turnz app offers a metric, in real time, about how talk time is shared among participants. Retrospectively, it offers the results of a survey from participating attendees about their opinion of how speaking time was shared, given the purpose of the meeting.

When would I use the Turnz app?

Consider adding the Turnz app to a regularly-scheduled meeting at a regular interval, and tracking how survey data progresses.

What is the Privacy Policy surrounding the data that the app gathers?

Privacy is important. Only anonymized data is collected by the Turnz app. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How can I identify speakers (to deanonymize)?

Meeting attendees can easily identify who spoke the most, usually. But what does that benefit?

There are several advantages of anonymizing the record of turn taking, particularly in motivating change. If you wish to improve the balance of turns in a conversation, then gently seeking agreement on the ideal distribution of talk time is a winning strategy. When there is agreement about the goal, attendees are likely to pay more attention to their talk time and make space for others. That is almost the whole point: to raise awareness of "eager" speakers about the participation of others. What's more, you can point to the satisfaction survey. If all participants agree that the meeting had excellent turn-taking, given its purpose, please congratulate yourself and the whole team! If not, ask yourself and others, "What small steps can lead to improvement?"

Can Turnz be used for research?

Turnz is a platform explicitly designed to support research. Please contact the developers to discuss possible collaborations.