It’s… that time of the year again! 

No, not Christmas — we’re way past that. Nope, also not your birthday. 

It is the New Year!!! 🎉

At meldCX, we’re starting off 2022 with a grateful heart. 2021 has been a mixed bag of really high wins and truly difficult challenges. With the current state of the world, just as we thought we had it all figured out and under control, we realized we were very wrong.

Sometimes it may feel like things are at a standstill. However, there is always one thing that keeps us going: our team spirit!

Despite everything, 2021 was the year our team made crazy innovations. We tested, failed, and tried again. We banded together and tackled problems that looked like mountains. We shook (virtual) hands to new partnerships. We expanded to new regions. 

On top of it all, we also opened the stage for our team members to share their precious ideas. And theirs are truly a goldmine (or should we say, goldmind). 🧠✨

Now, before you start mistakenly writing ‘2021’ instead of ‘2022’ in every date column, we’ve handpicked articles you must read so you can keep up with the latest and greatest from meldCX, tech, and design. 

Are you ready? Let’s start:

AI on the Edge: Bridging the gap between research and production 

In a rapidly growing organization (including ours), people build with a “launch now, think later” attitude. However, there is one other factor that is revered equally, if not more, than speed. That is — precision and accuracy. 

Indeed, in the product build cycle, the research process shouldn’t be just an afterthought. So how can AI teams innovate and scale at speed, with a care for reliability and precision? 

Our Machine Learning (Argo) Team shares their two cents.

6 Powerful Lessons I Learned as a UX Engineer 

Thinking of entering the world of UX? Here is an inside view into the inner working process. 👩‍💻

In this article, our UX champion Chynna Sevilleno shares her journey navigating the dynamic world where product development, market research, and design intersect. 

In Their Own Words: Making mental health a priority 

What to do when everything seems to be going wrong? 

And then…the pandemic happens. And the world falls into a seemingly endless cycle of lockdowns and isolation. 😞

Nino Rey Jandayan, our Senior Experience Designer, shares his experience overcoming stress, anxiety & depression. Plus — lots of resources that can help! 

This article is quite the introspective piece, and so worth your 5 minutes. 

How Organizations Break Through AI Barriers with Ethical Synthetic Data 

• 🚶 Anonymous audience measurement 
• 🚙 Vehicle analytics 
• 🛍️ Programmatic advertising 
• 😊⭐ Manufacturing line quality control 

…and more 

At the heart of every feature of our vision analytics product, Viana™, is the care for individual privacy and harnessing data responsibly. 

This is why we’ve decided to teach our machine learning models with synthetic (not based on actual/identifiable persons) data. See how we do it!

RBR, Intel & meldCX: Turn data stories into actionable insights

A lot of businesses spend big money on digital signage and in-store advertising but have very little to no visibility on how it is performing.

In other words, a lack of ROI attribution model means a lot of marketing budget is going to waste.

In this webinar, our EVP of Global SaaS Thor Turrecha joins Intel’s Product Marketing Manager Dr. SB Ngoo and RBR’s Senior Research Analyst Gillian Shaw, to discuss at length how Westpac managed to increase their campaign engagement by 87% in just three months.

What’s their secret? Go find out. 👀

Data Storytelling: Learning to Design Data Stories 

When building a good product, data is the main ingredient and good design is the seasoning that binds it all together.

Our Experience Engineer, Ann-Louise Kathrin ‘Kath’ Gaynor laments on the greatest challenge of her job: how to design compelling data stories, transforming raw data into boldly told narratives that appeal to the viewers’ both logic and emotions.

In Their Own Words: Combating Work Burnout

It’s true, we have an obsession with the hustle. However, trying to juggle everything at once only achieves one thing: exhaustion. 😪

meldCX Senior Data Engineer Maskio Abendaño says there is one activity that makes him better at his job: spending time on his hobbies!

Sounds counterintuitive? Read on.

Yellowfin BI & meldCX: Computer Vision and AI Increases Customer Conversion for Retail 

Think brick and mortar retail is dead? Think again.

Instead, the retail industry is ripe with the opportunity to offer customers a more curated and connected experience! 

What if…you can gather real-time insights of your physical spaces like you would a website?

• 🚶 Mapping customer journey in-store
• 📈 Tracking sentiment & engagement
• 🛍️ Planogram compliance
• 👨💼 Back-of-house efficiencies to reduce loss
  

Sharing the stage in this webinar is our CEO Stephen Borg and VP of Strategy & Development Joy Chua. Available on-demand for your afternoon end-of-the-day viewing — just need to add a glass of wine! 🍷

---

Phew! If you’ve gone through the above list, know that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

We’ve been busy last year, and several articles don’t do enough justice of all the amazing things the #meldCXATeam is up to! 

If you’re looking for some more binge reading, we’ve got you covered. While you’re at it, don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter, so you can get all the new stuff straight to your mailbox! 💌

Oh, and if you’d like to also do cool things (and write about it when you do 😉), check out our open vacancies. We are always looking for new talented team members to join in on the fun!

‍