The founders Waber, Olguin, Kim, and Jaanu, met while completing their Ph.D.s at the MIT Media Lab in Professor “Sandy” Pentland’s Human Dynamics group. Sociometric Solutions Inc. was incorporated on October 26, 2010 as a research and consulting firm. In 2015, the company was rebranded as "Humanyze" and transitioned from a consulting firm to a software company. They raised $4M in Series A financing from Romulus Capital and launched their people analytics software, Humanyze Elements, at the end of 2016.
Sociometric Badge
While at the MIT Media Lab, Humanyze’s founders developed a sociometric badge, a high-tech I.D. card. With the sociometric badge, they pioneered ways of collecting in-person collaboration data. This badge has sensors to measure the frequency and duration of face-to-face interactions. It does not record content, web activity, or personal activities. It does not have GPS.
Products
Humanyze's people analytics platform, Humanyze Elements, measures corporate communication data to uncover patterns on how work gets done. Human resources, operations, and corporate real estate professionals use the platform to analyze workplace data in real-time to make better decisions around organizational health, workplace strategy, and business process optimization. It is a web-based dashboard. A variety of data sources can be plugged into the Elements Platform including Microsoft Office Exchange, Google Suite, Skype, Humanyze Badge, and HID Bluvision I.D.
The company has been covered in the media by various news and technology sources including New Scientist, The Boston Globe, CBS News, Businessweek, NPR, CNN, and the New York Times. Humanyze's clients have included Bank of America, the United States Army, NASA, and BCG. The company's research has supported the importance of face-to-face interactions and communication, and building larger networks among peers.
Research
When Humanyze’s founders were researching their Ph.D.’s at the MIT Media Lab, they tested whether measuring all communication content from emails, texts, and in-person conversations would provide more insight. They measured over 100 MB of data per person per day. With all of this data, they found that it was difficult to extract communication patterns. So, they tested measuring the frequency and duration of communication instead: timestamps of communication, length of conversations, and which teams talked to which teams. They found that the degree of accuracy was negligible; measuring content was extraneous and unnecessary. Humanyze's founders have published 50+ research articles. One finding from the firm's research was that simple physical changes such as having larger tables in a cafeteria facilitated more interaction and collaboration among colleagues than smaller tables. Another finding emphasized the importance of group breaks and office spaces which facilitate such breaks as having an important effect on employee morale and efficacy.
