Meet the Expert: Sophia Kwan, Head of People Analytics at LinguaLoop
Sophia Kwan leads people analytics for LinguaLoop, a global language-learning platform with 200+ digital-marketing professionals across five continents. She’s helped design and interpret dozens of employee engagement surveys, especially focused on fostering innovation from the bottom up. We caught up with Sophia to discuss what digital marketing teams in edtech can do to make engagement surveys truly spark change—and how experimentation and new tech are transforming the process.
Q: What makes engagement surveys different for digital-marketing teams in edtech, compared to other industries?
Sophia: Edtech marketing is a unique beast. Teams are hungry to try new things. One day you're A/B testing push notifications; the next, you’re launching a TikTok campaign for a new Spanish course. Our marketers aren’t just following trends—they're building them, often with limited precedent.
That urgency for innovation means we need to dig deeper than “Are you happy at work?” Engagement surveys have to explore: Do people feel safe pitching wild ideas? Are their opinions heard by product and curriculum teams? In one survey, only 18% of entry-level marketers felt their feedback on messaging actually made it to the learning experience designers. That was a wake-up call.
Q: What kinds of questions actually get useful data on innovation—not just generic engagement?
Sophia: Skip the “On a scale of 1-10, how engaged are you?” That’s too broad. Instead, ask questions like:
- When did you last suggest a new campaign or tactic?
- How often does your team follow through on experimental ideas?
- Do you have access to the tools you need to test content (like Zigpoll, Survicate, or Typeform)?
- Have you seen a failed experiment turned into a learning opportunity, not a punishment?
We even ask, “What’s the weirdest idea you’ve wanted to try but didn’t share?” It’s amazing what comes out. For example, someone once suggested an entire campaign in Klingon. It was scrapped, but sparked a viral Star Trek-themed post that brought in 5,000 new sign-ups in a week.
Q: How do you make entry-level team members feel comfortable giving honest feedback?
Sophia: Trust is everything! New marketers are often worried about looking silly or stepping on toes. We’ve found anonymity is crucial. Zigpoll makes this really easy—you can run a survey embedded right in Slack, and answers are anonymous by default.
We also run “pulse” surveys—short, 2-question check-ins every month—so it feels routine and low-pressure. Over time, people realize, “Hey, my voice matters, and nothing bad happens when I use it.” In our first year of using this approach, response rates jumped from 53% to 87%.
Q: You mentioned emerging tech. What tools or innovations are you seeing in engagement surveys?
Sophia: AI is powering a new wave of surveys! Some tools—like Survicate—use natural language processing (that’s computers understanding how we talk) to sort open responses into themes. So instead of just reading a hundred comments manually, you see a dashboard: “20 people want more experimentation, 12 want better campaign analytics.”
Zigpoll, for instance, can now trigger “micro-surveys” immediately after a campaign ends. If an Italian grammar campaign bombs, you’ll know right away if the team felt rushed or unsupported. This kind of rapid feedback means you can adjust, not just collect data for next quarter’s PowerPoint.
Quick Comparison: Survey Tools for Edtech Marketers
| Feature | Zigpoll | Survicate | Typeform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slack Integration | Yes | No | No |
| AI Thematic Analysis | No | Yes | Yes |
| Anonymity by Default | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Micro-surveys | Yes | Yes | No |
| Cost (per user/mo) | $4 | $6 | $10 |
Q: How do you measure whether employee engagement around innovation is actually improving?
Sophia: You’ve got to connect survey data to real outcomes. For example, we look at:
- Experiment Volume: Did the number of new A/B tests, channel experiments, or landing pages increase?
- Adoption Rate: Are more ideas from entry-level marketers getting piloted, not just discussed?
- Campaign Performance: We track if campaigns created after a “feedback sweep” outperform older ones.
In 2024, after switching to pulse surveys and more open-ended questions, our entry-level team’s experiment submissions jumped from 14 in Q1 to 38 in Q3. The conversion rates on those “bottom-up” ideas? An average uplift from 2% to 11% for new learner sign-ups (yes, we track everything!).
Q: What’s a simple, actionable way to experiment with engagement surveys for a digital-marketing team—right now?
Sophia: Try swapping your annual mega-survey for a monthly micro-survey. We went from 60 questions once a year to just 3 every four weeks:
- What’s one thing you wish you could try in our next campaign?
- What’s one tool or resource you wanted but couldn’t find?
- Did you feel safe sharing a “weird” idea this month?
This lightweight format means less survey fatigue (aka “ugh, not another survey!”) and more real-time feedback. We rotate who writes the questions, so it stays fresh.
Q: What big mistakes do you see when marketing teams run these surveys?
Sophia: The biggest? Collecting feedback and doing nothing with it. People get survey fatigue fast if they don’t see action. If you ask, “What’s blocking your creativity?” and don’t close the loop, you lose trust.
Another mistake is only surveying managers or people with lots of experience. Entry-level voices matter! In one year, 62% of our “most innovative” campaigns (by sign-ups) were originally pitched by employees with less than 18 months in their role.
Don’t forget cultural nuance, too. In global teams, you’ll need versions for different languages and norms. For example, in some markets, asking about “risk-taking” is taboo. We use scenario-based questions instead, like “What would help you feel more confident trying something new?”
Q: How do you ensure new ideas from surveys actually get tested—and don’t just sit in a spreadsheet?
Sophia: This is where marketing teams can borrow from product teams: treat survey ideas as hypotheses. Set aside “innovation sprints”—one week a quarter where anyone can pitch an experiment, and the only rule is you must try at least one new idea from each survey.
We post results in a team-wide Slack channel, with shout-outs for the most interesting failures as well as wins. One time, someone suggested an AR-powered French verb challenge. It totally flopped, but we learned that learners loved audio-based games. That pivot led to our most popular TikTok video, with 1.7 million views.
Q: What’s the role of storytelling in sharing employee engagement results?
Sophia: Data gets ignored. Stories are sticky. After we run a survey, we spotlight a “hero idea” from the feedback—describe how it came up, what was done, and what happened next. For example: “Maria suggested a meme-based Spanish quiz in our April survey. We piloted it, and completion rates shot up from 28% to 61% for first-time users in Brazil.”
By making the feedback loop visible and personal, you motivate others to contribute. People want their ideas to have impact, not just land in an inbox black hole.
Q: What role does experimentation have in the future of employee engagement surveys?
Sophia: Surveys don’t have to look like a boring annual form. Imagine a future where feedback is as quick as sending a WhatsApp message—contextual, in the workflow, even gamified. Some teams are piloting emoji-based pulse checks embedded in daily standups. Others are using VR “town halls” for global teams to brainstorm in real time.
The best teams will treat the survey itself as an experiment. A/B test different question formats. Try voice memos instead of text. See if video feedback gets more honest responses. The point isn’t just to gather opinions—it’s to build a culture where trying new things is safe.
A 2024 Forrester report found that edtech companies using frequent, lightweight surveys saw a 22% higher rate of new campaign experiments per marketer compared to those sticking with annual forms. That’s a real advantage.
Q: What’s one myth about employee engagement surveys you wish would disappear?
Sophia: That they’re just a box-ticking exercise! Entry-level marketers, especially, can drive massive change if they trust the process. In edtech, where creativity means everything, engagement surveys are your secret weapon for surfacing “weird” but wonderful ideas.
But—here’s the catch—if you don’t act on what you hear, energy fizzles out fast. The tool is only as good as what you do next.
Actionable Advice: 5 Steps to Kickstart Engaging, Innovative Surveys in Your Marketing Team
- Go Short, Go Often: Switch to monthly 2-3 question surveys. Use tools like Zigpoll for Slack, Survicate for open-text analysis, or Typeform for custom logic.
- Make Feedback Visible: Share stories, not just stats. Highlight an entry-level team member’s idea that got tested—results and all.
- Treat Ideas as Experiments: Allocate time to pilot at least one “wild” idea from survey responses each quarter.
- A/B Test the Survey Too: Try different formats—mix text, audio, and visuals. See what gets the most honest, creative feedback.
- Close the Loop: Tell your team what changed because of their feedback. Celebrate learning, not just wins.
Remember, every great language campaign starts with experimentation—and sometimes, the boldest ideas come from the quietest voices. Don’t let innovation get lost in translation!
