Reel highlights, also known as highlight reels (HLRs), are essentially curated collections of video clips.
According to the provided reference, a highlight reel is defined as:
A curated selection of video clips edited on an insight platform. Highlight reels can include multiple video clips from the same feedback session or clips from multiple sessions.
In simpler terms, think of a highlight reel as a 'best-of' or 'most important moments' compilation created from video content.
Key Characteristics of Highlight Reels
Based on the definition, several key characteristics stand out:
- Curated Selection: Clips are specifically chosen, not randomly selected. This means someone has reviewed the original video content (like a feedback session, user interview, or meeting) and picked out the most relevant, insightful, or impactful moments.
- Video Clips: The content consists of short segments or clips taken from longer video recordings.
- Edited on an Insight Platform: The editing process is often done using specialized software or platforms designed for analyzing and managing video feedback or qualitative data. These platforms typically allow for easy clipping, tagging, and compilation.
- Flexible Sourcing: Highlight reels can contain multiple clips taken from a single source video (e.g., showing different important points from one long interview) or combine clips from various sources (e.g., pulling similar feedback points from several different user tests).
Why Create Highlight Reels?
Highlight reels are valuable tools for sharing key findings or showcasing specific examples from video data quickly and effectively. They are often used in:
- User Experience (UX) Research: To share compelling user feedback or behavior with stakeholders.
- Market Research: To present customer opinions or reactions.
- Training & Development: To demonstrate best practices or common issues.
- Sales & Marketing: To showcase testimonials or product usage.
By compiling important moments into a short, easy-to-watch reel, teams can save time and make insights more accessible and impactful than sharing hours of raw footage.
For example, imagine you conducted five user interviews. Instead of making your team watch all five hours, you could create a highlight reel showing:
- Three different users expressing confusion at the same point in a workflow.
- Two users praising a specific feature.
- One user suggesting a crucial improvement.
This reel distills hours of content into a few minutes of actionable insights.
