Watch: sessions worth your time

Nobody watches every recording. Filters only find what you already know to look for. Watch shows sessions like these:

• A trial user hit a failed request on the billing page and gave up.
• A new admin moved between settings and the invite screen many times, but did not send an invite.
• A checkout hit an error twice. Then the customer asked support for help.

The default rubric weights four questions: Worth watching, Friction, Hit an error and Product bug.

• A weighted yes-or-no question adds its weight times the probability of yes.
• A weighted scale adds its weight times how far up the scale the session sits.
• Watch uses your current weights each time it loads. So a weight change re-ranks every judged session at once, without re-judging.

• On a busy project, a session can take longer. Each check queues at most 500 sessions.
• When the day's judging allowance has run out, a session also waits longer. See Allowances.

• need a look counts the Watch now, Watch, Review now and Review rows.
• routine counts the Maybe rows.
• too close to call: see Too close to call.
• Hover over the header to see "Judged N · M pending". Judged and pending count the last 7 days, whatever your date range.
• If any of those sessions were judged with an earlier rubric, the line ends with "· K judged with an earlier rubric".
• After you use the thumbs, the header adds "Right X of Y you checked". See Thumbs below.

First line

• The session and its badge on the right. The badge says Review instead of Watch when you cannot play the recording now: there is no recording, it is still being processed, or it expired. It also says Review when your Sequential server does not report if there is a recording, while Sequential checks the recording of the row, and when Sequential could not check it. The score and the cut-offs are the same.
• After the badge: No recording, Processing · ready by 14:05 (with the time when the recording is ready), Expired, Couldn't check recording or judged with an earlier rubric, when they apply.
• Up to 200 rows get their replay state with the list. The other rows get it when they come into view. Until then, from the moment the list appears, a dim "…" ("Checking recording…") shows in place of the chip. This is also true for a row without a recording. The badge says Review now or Review, the row shows Open events, and the session id opens the Events page. When the state arrives, the row changes without a reload. If Sequential cannot read the state, it tries one more time, about 30 seconds later. Meanwhile, a row with an index of a recording counts as playable, and the other rows keep "…". If the second try also fails, those other rows show Couldn't check recording, not No recording. The recording can exist.
• A Processing row checks again after the time in its label. When the recording is ready, Review changes to Watch without a reload.
• The Worth watching tile on Dashboard shows the top 3 rows of the last 7 days, with the same badges and chips. Its rows get their replay state and check again in the same way.
• Hover the badge to see the score, the Worth watching probability, the friction level and how many signals the row shows. The score is called Attention there.

Second line: the reason

• A friction meter.
• The JavaScript errors and failed requests of the session, when it has them, for example "2 JS errors · 1 failed request".
• A sentence, for example "Severe struggle — probably switched to support".
• What the user came to do, for example "wanted to buy or subscribe · 99%".
• Up to three signals.

+N or More opens the full judgment.

When the Watch area is 880 pixels wide or more, Watch shows two parts. The list is on the left. A preview of the selected session is on the right. The preview stays in view while the list scrolls. When the area is narrower, Watch shows the one-column list from What a row shows.

The list

• Each row shows the user, a line of facts and the duration. The line names the JavaScript errors and failed requests first, then up to two signals of the verdict, then the verdict sentence. For example: "2 JS errors · 1 failed request · rage clicks — Probably gave up at payment". The row has no badge, because the group heading tells how much the session needs a look. A row has no buttons and no thumbs.
• The first row is selected when the list opens. Click a row to select it.
• The sessions that are too close to call come after the ranked rows, under the heading "N sessions too close to call". They are not collapsed.

The preview

• The user, the badge, when the session started, its duration, and its number of pages and events.
• The verdict sentence, the friction meter and what the user came to do. Also judged with an earlier rubric, when it applies.
• Moments: each moment that the judge placed confidently, in time order. Each has its time and its kind: Struggle, Left the flow, Reached the goal, or the kind from your rubric. When you can play the recording, each moment has Play from, which opens the replay just before it, on the Insights tab. If there is no such moment, the preview says "No moment stood out."
• Problems and signals: the problem chips of the session, the same as on Latest, and all the signals of the verdict.
• The recording chip, for example No recording or Processing · ready by 14:05.
• One button: Watch from m:ss, Open replay or Open events. See The Watch from button.
• The thumbs, after "Worth watching?".

Keys

• J and K work anywhere on the page. When a row does not have the focus, a screen reader says which session is now selected.
• To use Enter, first click a row, or press Tab until a row has the focus. The list is one Tab stop: the selected row.
• The keys do nothing while you type in a text field, while a select or an editable area has the focus, or in a dialog. They also do nothing when you hold Ctrl, Alt or ⌘.

With the default rubric, Watch picks the moment in this order:

1. Where the user struggled.
2. Where the user gave up.
3. What the user came to do.

• If there is no clear moment, the button reads Open replay.
• If recording started after the session's first event, playback opens late. See Limits.
• A session that you cannot play shows No recording, Processing · ready by and a time, or Expired. Its button reads Open events. Sequential still judges and ranks it (Session replay (web), Mobile apps).

The Insights tab's key moments jump to the event itself.

The thumbs answer one question: was this session worth watching?

• If it was, press 👍. If it was not, press 👎. Answer the same way whatever the row's badge is.
• Thumbs never re-judge or re-rank a session.
• Feedback and calibration compares your share of 👍 with the stated Worth watching probability.

The header then shows "Right X of Y you checked". X is the number of 👍 you pressed. Y is the number of thumbs you pressed.

• The count covers the whole project, whatever the date range. It includes your thumbs on Ask results.
• Apart from Ask's thumbs, only thumbs under the current rubric wording count. So if you reword a question, the count starts again.
• Sequential saves a thumb on a row marked judged with an earlier rubric, but does not count it. After a reload, the thumb does not show as pressed.

The Too close to call lane uses the questions with the Intent and Outcome roles. A rubric with neither role never uses the lane.

Reading a verdict explains how to read an answer when the judge was not sure.

In the Watch messages, a belief is a session's stored judgment.

• "N waiting" counts every session in view that has no judgment.
• "Not yet judged: N" under a list counts the same way.
• Both include sessions that will never be judged: too short, too old, or failed.

The judge also reads the session's error counts, when Sequential measured them.

• Make events readable. Send clicks with text or an id, page views with a path or screen name, and errors with their message (Events).
• Name your milestones. Custom events such as invite_sent or plan_changed show if the user reached their goal (Send custom events).
• Keep DevTools capture on. It is on by default. In the default rubric, Outcome, Friction, Hit an error and Product bug read the session's error counts. Only recorded sessions have error counts (DevTools in replays).
• Tune the weights. Owners and admins can do this under Settings → Projects → your project → Insights. Set Watch score % on a yes-or-no or scale question.
• Ask your product's questions (Customise the rubric).
• Keep a question with the Worth watching role. Without one, rows have no thumbs. Then Feedback and calibration has no thumbs to compare.

Background judging

• When the allowance runs out, Sequential retries waiting sessions every hour. It judges them after the allowance resets at midnight UTC.

Insights tab

• The first time, the tab judges the recording on demand. It reuses the result for up to 7 days.
• Its allowance is separate from the background judging allowance.
• When it runs out, the tab says "On-demand judging has used this project's daily allowance." It also says when the allowance resets (00:00 UTC).
• The recording still plays. Insights that the tab already calculated still show.

• Sequential does not rescale the weights to a total of 100%. If you raise the total, sessions move into higher badges. If you lower it, sessions move into lower badges.
• Worth watching has a weight of 45% by default. If you turn it off and do not raise other weights, no session can reach Watch now or Review now.
• A reworded or new question applies only to sessions that Sequential judges after the change.
• Earlier sessions show judged with an earlier rubric. They score nothing on a new question, so they can rank lower.