{
 "@context": "https://schema.org",
 "@type": "Report",
 "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#paper",
 "aboutThisFile": {
  "whatThisIs": "A research brief: a structured summary of one paper, prepared for seanrintel.com from the paper's full text.",
  "howItWasMade": "This brief was prepared with AI assistance and published by Sean Rintel. It is not the authors' published text.",
  "whatIsVerbatim": "Only 'quote' fields, figure captions and 'abstract' are the authors' own words. Research questions follow the paper's wording where it states them. Takeaway, summaries, answers, definitions and method are the site's plain-language paraphrase.",
  "howItIsChecked": "Before publication every quote is matched against the paper and every number in the brief is found in it. 'verified' is the date of the last check.",
  "howToUse": [
   "For a quick answer, use 'takeaway' and 'questions'. For evidence, use 'findings' (each has a verbatim quote, its location in the paper and a 'url' anchored to that finding on the paper's page).",
   "Locations such as '§5.2, p. 9' refer to the version at 'pageNumbersReferTo'.",
   "For anything not covered here, read the paper itself: 'fullTextSources' lists free versions first.",
   "If 'researchOverview' is present, the paper is part of one of Sean Rintel's research overviews: it gives the overview's thesis, the claims this paper is evidence for and its role in each, and the other papers in the overview.",
   "To find other papers by Sean Rintel, use the catalogue at https://seanrintel.com/publications/index.json."
  ],
  "authorship": "Sean Rintel's role on each paper: lead author when he is first author, sole author when he is the only author, and otherwise senior author. Senior author here means the senior researcher on the team, whatever his position in the author list.",
  "howToCite": "Cite the paper, not this file: use 'citation' or the ready-made 'bibtex' (DOI where given) and name every author. Attribute paraphrase to the paper's findings, and use quotation marks only for 'quote' text."
 },
 "name": "Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19",
 "author": [
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "@id": "https://seanrintel.com/#sean-rintel",
   "name": "Sean Rintel",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/",
   "sameAs": [
    "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0840-0546",
    "https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xc25GRgAAAAJ",
    "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q102369654",
    "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/people/serintel/",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanrintel"
   ]
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Priscilla Wong"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Advait Sarkar"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Person",
   "name": "Abigail Sellen"
  }
 ],
 "datePublished": "2020-10",
 "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html",
 "citation": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research.",
 "bibtex": "@techreport{rintel2020methodology,\nauthor = {Rintel, Sean and Wong, Priscilla and Sarkar, Advait and Sellen, Abigail},\ntitle = {Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19},\ninstitution = {Microsoft Research},\nyear = {2020},\nmonth = {October},\nurl = {https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html},\nnumber = {2020-10-FOW-SIM1},\n}",
 "abstract": "This report explains the project data collection methodology and participation demographics for a diary study of Microsoft employees coping with all-remote meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic from April through August 2020.",
 "fullTextSources": [
  {
   "kind": "freeAccess",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.pdf",
   "label": "Author's Copy"
  }
 ],
 "fullTextAvailable": true,
 "takeaway": "A sudden shift in work can be studied as it unfolds by combining guided diaries with weekly polls that react to emerging findings. Each entry can pair rotating prompts with the same ratings. Rolling recruitment captured people at different stages of working from home, though most diarists dropped out early.",
 "whyItMatters": {
  "stateOfTheArt": {
   "summary": "The sudden shift to mandatory working from home in March 2020 created an unprecedented opportunity to study exclusively all-remote meetings over time. Diary studies have captured information workers' longitudinal experiences well.",
   "quote": "This presented an unprecedented opportunity for the longitudinal capture of experiences of the exclusive use of all-remote meetings.",
   "location": "§1.1, p. 4"
  },
  "contribution": {
   "summary": "This technical report records the study's logistics, data collection instruments (onboarding survey, guided diary, weekly polls) and participation demographics.",
   "quote": "This report covers logistics, data collection, and participation demographics.",
   "location": "§1, p. 4"
  },
  "whoCares": {
   "summary": "Designers and developers of meeting technologies, and researchers using the study's data.",
   "quote": "Understanding how meeting technologies are used in this broader context is crucial to future design and development.",
   "location": "§1.1, p. 4"
  }
 },
 "researchQuestions": [
  "RQ1: What are the benefits, challenges, and opportunities of exclusively non-hybrid online meetings, conducted from home, in a global crisis?",
  "RQ2: How do the above evolve over time?",
  "RQ3: What development is required to support more effective, engaging, inclusive, and sustainable online meetings?"
 ],
 "concepts": [
  {
   "term": "All-remote working",
   "definition": "The condition the study captured:",
   "quote": "all-remote working (i.e., conducted online, where no team members are physically co-present)",
   "location": "§1.1, p. 4"
  },
  {
   "term": "Guided diary",
   "definition": "The study's main instrument:",
   "quote": "each entry consisted of (a) a guided freetext response with rotating prompts (detailed shortly), and (b) a set of 5-point Likert items with the same prompts for every entry",
   "location": "§1.6, p. 6"
  },
  {
   "term": "Pulse questions",
   "definition": "The diary's quantitative measure, with items such as feeling effective, tired or comfortable in recent meetings:",
   "quote": "At the end of every diary entry participants also answered the same eight questions to capture a quantitative 'pulse' of their experiences.",
   "location": "§3.3, pp. 18–19"
  },
  {
   "term": "Weekly polls",
   "definition": "Optional, alongside the diary:",
   "quote": "The weekly polls asked focused questions reactive to the ongoing mandatory WFH situation, with questions based on early findings or exogenous issues.",
   "location": "§1.6, p. 6"
  }
 ],
 "method": {
  "design": "Longitudinal diary study with an onboarding survey, a guided diary of 24 entries in three cycles of eight topics, per-entry Likert pulse questions, and ten optional weekly polls.",
  "setting": "Knowledge workers at a global technology company during mandatory working from home in the COVID-19 pandemic.",
  "sample": "Rolling self-selected recruitment via an opt-in advertisement sent to 10,000 randomly selected employees and internal mailing lists. 715 participants filled in at least one diary entry.",
  "n": 715,
  "duration": "Mid-April to mid-August 2020. Diary prompts approximately every three days for two months.",
  "analysis": "This report covers logistics and participation (demographics, completion and poll response counts), not substantive findings."
 },
 "findings": [
  {
   "headline": "Broad reach across the company.",
   "summary": "Recruited through an opt-in invitation sent to randomly selected employees and to internal mailing lists, 715 employees filled in at least one diary entry, from almost all regions and operational groups of the company.",
   "quote": "715 participants filled in at least one diary entry",
   "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s3-5-1-p-21",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research. (§3.5.1, p. 21)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Most stopped before the end.",
   "summary": "Participation dropped off and varied over the two months. Of the participants, 266 completed the first cycle of eight entries, 140 completed two cycles and 106 completed all three. Others filled in scattered entries without finishing a cycle.",
   "quote": "Given the size of this diary study and the situation in which it was conducted we expected a drop-off in participation",
   "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s3-5-1-p-21-2",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research. (§3.5.1, p. 21)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Polls drew a steady minority.",
   "summary": "The ten optional weekly polls, on topics such as parallel chat, turning video off and hybrid meetings, averaged 131 respondents each, ranging from 79 to 198.",
   "quote": "The 10 weekly polls averaged 131 respondents, with the lowest having 79 respondents and the largest 198 respondents.",
   "location": "§4.2.1, p. 41",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s4-2-1-p-41",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research. (§4.2.1, p. 41)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "About half answered a poll.",
   "summary": "357 people answered at least one weekly poll, which the report gives as just under half of diary participants. 13 of them filled in polls but no diary entries.",
   "quote": "357 unique participants responded to the weekly polls, representing just under half of the diary participants (49.9%).",
   "location": "§4.2.2, p. 42",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s4-2-2-p-42",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research. (§4.2.2, p. 42)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "A loyal core, until hybrid meetings came up.",
   "summary": "Later polls were answered mostly by a 'hardcore' group who took four or more polls, with few people taking part only once. The final poll, on the future of hybrid meetings, broke the pattern:",
   "quote": "The final poll on hybrid meetings shows a big spike of one-timers, suggesting that a lot of people were motivated to weigh in on this.",
   "location": "§4.2.3, p. 44",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s4-2-3-p-44",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research. (§4.2.3, p. 44)"
  },
  {
   "headline": "Start date didn't predict poll-taking.",
   "summary": "Whether participants joined early or late in the rolling recruitment was not correlated with filling in polls.",
   "quote": "There was no correlation between the date participants started the study and filling in one or more polls",
   "location": "§4.2.3, p. 45",
   "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s4-2-3-p-45",
   "cite": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research. (§4.2.3, p. 45)"
  }
 ],
 "questions": [
  {
   "question": "How do you study a change in work while it is happening?",
   "answer": "With a longitudinal diary. A study of remote meetings at a global technology company asked employees for a guided entry about every three days for two months. Entries cycled three times through eight meeting topics, so each could be revisited. The same eight ratings ended every entry.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research.",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s3-5-1-p-21"
    },
    {
     "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s3-5-1-p-21-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "How many people keep up a long voluntary diary study?",
   "answer": "Fewer as it goes on. When employees of a global technology company kept a voluntary diary of remote meetings during the pandemic, 715 made at least one entry but only 106 completed all 24. Many others contributed partially or irregularly.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research.",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s3-5-1-p-21"
    },
    {
     "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s3-5-1-p-21-2"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "Do optional extra surveys reach the same people as the main study?",
   "answer": "Partly. Just under half of the people keeping the diary answered at least one optional weekly poll. Most polls were answered mainly by a 'hardcore' group who took four or more, and 13 people answered polls without keeping a diary at all.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research.",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.2.1, p. 41",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s4-2-1-p-41"
    },
    {
     "location": "§4.2.2, p. 42",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s4-2-2-p-42"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "question": "What brings occasional participants back into a study?",
   "answer": "Perhaps a topic they care about. In a diary study of remote meetings at a global technology company, later weekly polls drew mostly a loyal core. But the final poll, on the future of hybrid meetings, saw a spike of one-time respondents, apparently keen to weigh in.",
   "source": "Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research.",
   "basedOn": [
    {
     "location": "§4.2.3, p. 44",
     "url": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.html#at-s4-2-3-p-44"
    }
   ]
  }
 ],
 "cites": [],
 "quantitative": [
  {
   "measure": "Participants who filled in at least one diary entry",
   "value": "715",
   "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Completed one, two and three full diary cycles",
   "value": "266; 140; 106",
   "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Weekly poll respondents: average, lowest, largest",
   "value": "131; 79; 198",
   "location": "§4.2.1, p. 41"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Unique weekly poll respondents (share of diary participants)",
   "value": "357 (49.9%)",
   "location": "§4.2.2, p. 42"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Pearson correlation between start date and entry count",
   "value": "-0.14",
   "location": "§4.2.3, p. 45"
  },
  {
   "measure": "Diary participants who were men; in North America",
   "value": "59.9%; 53.7%",
   "location": "Table, p. 19"
  }
 ],
 "implications": [
  {
   "summary": "Rolling recruitment meant participants started at different points of mandatory working from home, which the authors considered valuable as a possible filter during analysis.",
   "quote": "The differences in start and end points was considered valuable",
   "location": "§1.6, p. 6"
  }
 ],
 "limitations": [
  {
   "summary": "Participants self-selected and were not obliged to continue, so participation dropped off.",
   "quote": "we did not oblige participants to continue",
   "location": "§3.5.1, p. 21"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Because of rolling recruitment, not all participants could answer every poll.",
   "quote": "Having a slightly different subset of participants responding to the different poll questions was considered a reasonable trade-off",
   "location": "§1.6, p. 6"
  },
  {
   "summary": "Some groups, including human resources, legal and very senior employees, could not take part."
  }
 ],
 "figures": [
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19/fig-1.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 1: Distribution of journal completions. X axis is the journal entry number.",
   "alt": "Bar chart of the number of participants who completed all journal entries up to each entry number, falling from 691 at entry 1 to 266 at entry 8, 140 at entry 16 and 106 at entry 24.",
   "location": "Fig. 1, p. 22",
   "credit": "Figure 1 from Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research."
  },
  {
   "src": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/figures/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19/fig-2.webp",
   "caption": "Figure 2: How many people filled *at least* N entries. The X axis here is the count of journals completed, not the journal number.",
   "alt": "Bar chart of how many participants filled in at least N diary entries, from 715 for at least one entry down to 106 for all 24 entries.",
   "location": "Fig. 2, p. 22",
   "credit": "Figure 2 from Sean Rintel, Priscilla Wong, Advait Sarkar, and Abigail Sellen. 2020. Methodology and Participation for 2020 Diary Study of Microsoft Employees Experiences in Remote Meetings During COVID-19. Microsoft Research."
  }
 ],
 "pageNumbersReferTo": "https://seanrintel.com/publications/methodology-and-participation-for-2020-diary-study-of-microsoft-employees-experiences-in-remote-meetings-during-covid-19.pdf",
 "verified": "2026-10-25",
 "studyFigure": {
  "about": "The opening figure on this paper's page, made for the site with AI assistance from this verified brief. It is not the paper's own figure. Evidence entries index this file's quantitative, findings and limitations arrays.",
  "study": {
   "kind": "single",
   "summary": "A report on how a diary study of remote meetings was run, and who took part, at a global technology company during compulsory working from home in 2020. It does not report what diarists wrote.",
   "steps": [
    {
     "label": "Open invitation",
     "detail": "An opt-in invitation went to 10,000 randomly selected employees and to internal mailing lists."
    },
    {
     "label": "Rolling recruitment",
     "detail": "People joined between mid-April and mid-August 2020, so each started at a different stage of working from home."
    },
    {
     "label": "715 diarists",
     "detail": "In all, 715 employees filled in at least one diary entry."
    },
    {
     "label": "Participation counted",
     "detail": "The report counts who took part, completed entries and poll responses."
    }
   ]
  },
  "tool": {
   "heading": "The method",
   "steps": [
    {
     "title": "Onboarding survey",
     "text": "Each participant first completed a survey."
    },
    {
     "title": "Guided diary",
     "text": "Prompts arrived about every three days for two months, giving 24 entries in three cycles of eight topics.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Same ratings each time",
     "text": "Every entry included the same short rating questions, so changes could be tracked over time.",
     "part": true
    },
    {
     "title": "Weekly polls",
     "text": "Ten optional polls reacted to emerging findings, on topics such as parallel chat, turning video off and hybrid meetings.",
     "part": true
    }
   ]
  },
  "findings": {
   "legend": null,
   "stages": [
    {
     "title": "Who took part",
     "sub": "reach of the recruitment",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The diary drew 715 employees from almost all regions and groups of the company.",
       "detail": "Of the diarists, 59.9% were men and 53.7% were in North America. Some groups, including human resources, legal and very senior staff, could not take part.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[0]",
        "quantitative[5]",
        "findings[0]",
        "limitations[2]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "Staying with the diary",
     "sub": "completion over two months",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Of 715 diarists, 106 completed all three cycles of eight entries.",
       "detail": "Of the diarists, 266 completed the first cycle and 140 completed two. Taking part was voluntary, so participation dropped off.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[1]",
        "findings[1]",
        "limitations[0]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "In this study, starting later was weakly linked to filling in fewer diary entries.",
       "detail": "The correlation between start date and number of entries was minus 0.14, a weak link.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[4]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    },
    {
     "title": "Weekly polls",
     "sub": "optional polls alongside the diary",
     "items": [
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "Of 715 diarists, 357 answered at least one weekly poll.",
       "detail": "The report gives this as 49.9% of diary participants. Another 13 people answered polls but filled in no diary entries.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[3]",
        "findings[3]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The ten weekly polls averaged 131 respondents each.",
       "detail": "Responses ranged from 79 to 198. Later polls were answered mostly by a core group who took four or more polls.",
       "evidence": [
        "quantitative[2]",
        "findings[2]",
        "findings[4]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "The final poll, on the future of hybrid meetings, drew a spike of one-time respondents.",
       "detail": "The report suggests a lot of people were motivated to weigh in on hybrid meetings.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[4]"
       ]
      },
      {
       "dir": "none",
       "text": "In this study, joining early or late was not correlated with answering polls.",
       "detail": "Because of rolling recruitment, not every participant could answer every poll.",
       "evidence": [
        "findings[5]",
        "limitations[1]"
       ]
      }
     ]
    }
   ]
  },
  "keyTerm": "guided diary",
  "takeaway": "A guided diary, pairing rotating prompts with the same ratings, plus polls on emerging findings can capture a sudden change in work as it unfolds. Rolling recruitment can reach people at different stages, though many may leave."
 }
}