Lab Polls – Collective Wisdom Resulting From Healthy Debate

I’m planning to post the results of a recent Lab Poll -- but, first, a little background. It used to be the whole staff all fit in one room, shared the same conversations ... and I could pretty much tell you where “the company” stood on various topics. The collective opinion took some healthy internal debate to achieve; but, once settled, it was at least clear to everyone. These days, we’re by no measure a large company; but, the mindshare is spread out a bit more and there’s just that much more expertise to pull from. So, when someone says “what’s Viget’s definition of Web 2.0?” or “what’s Viget’s favorite Chris Farley movie?” it’s not always as easy for me to say anymore. Hence, the Lab Poll. It’s nothing fancy; it's still informal -- and happily inefficient. When a topic comes up that would benefit from the collective wisdom of our staff, we pose the question via email, tally results, and discuss the topic over lunch during our weekly staff meeting. Some questions are yes/no, while some require some explanation. Some results surprise me, and some are just what I’d expect. Regardless, Lab Polls always generate some good points, and we’ll do our best to share them here.