How PMI UK increased survey response rate 10-fold
Hear about Merv and his MentiNinjas, and how they are using Mentimeter to interact with stakeholders and collect high-quality data in engaging environments.
By using Mentimeter, PMI UK helped raise the survey response rate in a webinar 10-fold - just one successful example of how they are increasing meaningful engagement within their community. In addition, PMI UK supports project management professionals and helps members learn and develop within their respective fields.
It was a pleasure to sit down on Zoom with Merv and his colleague Mark Fulton, volunteer at PMI UK digital events team. We talked about how they use Mentimeter in different contexts and how vital the right digital tools are to creating engagement and collecting data. PMI’s UK Chapter has over 3,000 members within multiple industries. Mentimeter has become crucial in supporting its efforts to set the project management community for success.
Alongside his role as Program Director, Merv is a true Mentimeter superuser and relishes the moments he can receive live feedback from his audiences. Within PMI UK’s non-profit commitments to members, Merv has discovered the vast possibilities of using Mentimeter in events, webinars, conferences, presentations, and workshops, both for online and in-person gatherings.
At the beginning of our chat, Merv shared how he creates real connections when engaging with his audience. “In different scenarios when using Mentimeter, I have produced powerful interaction, and everyone seems to be smiling. As well, Mentimeter enables us to collect high-quality data points.” PMI UK leverages Mentimeter smartly and manages to keep its community members happy by giving them a voice while collecting valuable data they can then act upon.
Merv detailed how, in October 2018, he first used Mentimeter in a hybrid event to launch the UK Government Project Delivery Standard, and the amazing results he was able to achieve. The webinar had over 50 people in the room, including the CEO and 350+ civil servants and other project professionals online, providing responses and posing questions for a lively panel Q&A session.
Merv says, “This year PMI UK has launched its inclusive #HybridFirst event strategy using its all-in-one Hopin platform, with Mentimeter interaction providing the heart and soul of audience engagement.”
As a volunteer and member of the Association for Project Management (APM), Portfolio Management Specific Interest Group, Merv became involved in organizing their triennial survey, first conducted in 2012, with the aim of providing insight into the portfolio management discipline.
Merv says “For this specific project, we discovered that the most recent survey had suffered from significant administrative difficulties in collecting meaningful data, with low response rates, from those in the know. We reworked the survey, incorporating it into a popular on-topic webinar, entirely run in Mentimeter, with the result that we saw the number of respondents increase from 17 to 171 (10 fold)! Interspersing survey questions into a webinar presentation is a game-changer - as you can imagine we use this approach as often as we can!”
Mark told me his first experience with Mentimeter was as an audience member in both webinars and live events. At PMI UK he received a license and learned how to use the tool himself. In line with collecting high-quality data points, the next step would be to follow up on those to make the right decisions and recommendations as a consultant.
Mark recently used Mentimeter for this specific purpose during a webinar where he consulted four different partners for a market decision:
“We used Mentimeter in the webinar with 8-9 different questions to understand different opinions with around 130 people. It helped us tell a story and helped them create recommendations to make a final decision. Mentimeter is a really good tool, and we couldn’t have done it without it. We engaged effectively with 90 different companies, and the results helped them go forward with the right recommendations.”
PMI currently has a team of 25 engagement specialists within the global organization (+700,000 members) that uses Mentimeter regularly. Merv likes to call themselves MentiNinjas as they push the boundaries of how the tool can be used. Mark noted that, “Merv uses Mentimeter successfully in the team context. It is very effective how his Mentimeter usage drives engagement and brings people inside, who normally would be outside of the fence.”
Mentimeter is more conversational than PowerPoint, and it is easier to check in with people’s feelings.
Merv also mentioned that his colleague, Crystal Richards, presents with Mentimeter for PMI events in the US. Here is one example to illustrate how she, early on in the presentation, checks in with her audience regarding their agile experience:
We are delighted to see super users like Merv and his MentiNinjas using Mentimeter and be curious to learn more. If you also liked their story and want to educate yourself further, explore our free courses at The MentiAcademy. If your organization needs multiple seats to collaborate with all advanced features to create engagement just like Merv and his colleagues, check out our Enterprise page to set up your team for success.
