Interview with the IIeX North America 2019 Competition Winner, UXReality

One of the first lessons an entrepreneur learns is that your business plan is brilliant until you actually start the business; the best strategy in the world must adapt to the reality of empirical evidence and experience. What this often means is leaders learn to adapt and pivot as needed. They refine their vision as they go. They persist, learn, iterate, and get better. And often, the version of the company that is successful is pretty different than the original. No company is a better example of that than CoolTool, and recently their hard work paid off as they won the Insight Innovation Competition at IIeX North America. After four previous submissions, they nailed it with their breakthrough product UXReality!

Here is a description of the product from their submission:

“UXReality is a unique technology that turns any smartphone into a full-fledged tool for collecting passive and active user behavioral insights. Using the device camera and AI, the tech can “understand” where consumers look at the screen, device interactions and both conscious and nonconscious reactions.

UXReality gives digital businesses the tools to stop churn, improve UX, and optimize conversions by combining multiple best-in-class tools for understanding customer experience on mobile. Labs and hardware-based solutions are expensive and bulky, while digital tools like Google analytics or Hotjar only trace consumer behavior without explaining “whys” behind it. UXReality delivers both. UXReality allows marketers and UX researchers to see the full picture of customer mobile experience at scale and at a fraction of the cost. With UXReality you can understand user behavior (passive measurement), screen attention points (eye tracking), emotional valence (facial coding) and reactions (voice recognition).  Data collection is natural & purely digital: technology could be used for in-house tests, online (via respondent panels) or integrating into websites, apps, or platforms. “

It wasn’t just the panel of judges at IIeX that were impressed though; the product recently won accolades as “Best Conversion Rate Optimization Technology” at the MarTech Awards in NYC earlier this year.

I’ve followed CoolTool for years and have been impressed with their forethought; they have always seemed to be way ahead of the industry in thinking through how technology, especially nonconscious measurement, and AI, can drive real value. In the past year, I’ve been able to get to know them personally in an advisory capacity, so I’ve gotten a firsthand look at how smart and driven the team is and the great tech they have been creating. Trust me when I say that their win of the competition was both hard fought and well deserved!

In this interview, I chat with CEO and founder Dmitry Gaiduk and Director of Business Development Lana Babii about the CoolTool story and how it led them to UXReality.  It’s a fun and engaging discussion that is well worth a listen to!