Tracking Project Emotions Using MercuryApp

23 November 2010

I’ve been trying out MercuryApp as a way to track how I’m feeling about a project we’ve just started. I’m tracking once a day, usually at about 4pm.

We try to run regular retrospectives on our projects, this gives us a chance to reflect on how the project is going. We often include a segment where each participant draws a ‘sparkline’ of how they were feeling over the period of time leading up to the retrospective. This let’s us see how various events effect peoples emotions.

This time I had my sparkline already. MercuryApp had been tracking this data for me all week. The surprise for me though was that I seemed to be more upbeat about things than I remembered. If I hadn’t had MercuryApp I’m sure my sparkline would have been less positive.

I suspect that the negatives I perceived were something to do with my mood at the time of the retrospective. It as towards the end of the day so I was tired, and I’d had a tough day.

I’m guessing that had my day been better, and I was in a more positive mood then my sparkline may well have been influenced in the other direction.

Having real data is great, not only is it more accurate when thinking about the previous week, but looking at how it differs from your perception gives you the chance to reflect on your mood right now! Liking the results from MercuryApp so far.

Disclaimer: Eden Development have been working with the guys at MercuryApp, but I have not been involved in the project.