Hi,
Our annual Examine team retreat was a couple weeks ago in Toronto.
We now have over 40 people on the team, nearly double the number we had two years ago. About 20 team members were able to come to the retreat. Here’s where we all live, by the way:
Despite the nearly doubled team size, everybody somehow still likes each other. Or at least they’re really good at pretending. Examine remains chock full of quirky, kind individuals.
Pictured below are some of these people:
(Photo credit: Nick Milazzo, team lead in charge of page updates)
Here’s a small selection of what we talked about at the retreat:
Brands: Our policy has always been to avoid brand names and focus on ingredients studied in randomized, controlled human trials. Other companies run lab analyses of branded supplements to assess label accuracy and contaminants, which we have neither the money, expertise, or need to do (since other people do it as their main focus).
But we can maintain our focus and objectivity while still mentioning a small number of branded supplements that we’re asked about the most. We just need to finalize talks with our attorney to make sure we don’t get sued by angry supplement companies, and then we can get this ball rolling. We take reader feedback seriously, which is why we’re working toward answering these brand-specific questions.
If we’re able to make enough revenue over the coming months, we may also consider a top secret brand-related project. This project does not involve making our own supplement. It’s in our founding charter that we’ll never ever sell supplements, even though we’d make waaaaaaay more money that way than we do analyzing evidence.
That hasn’t stopped our very clever team from tricking a few of our readers when we pretend to sell supplements on April Fool’s Day (with novel formulations such as Re-Brain™, Adamantium Bone Broth™, and ZombioticPro+). We can never be sure whether we’re being too obvious or not obvious enough in these posts, but just remember that we cannot and will not ever actually sell supplements!
Finding information on Examine: For a website so rich with useful data, it’s not easy enough to find what you’re looking for. Here are some of our solutions, from most to least exciting:
First, our tech team is developing an AI chatbot that’s trained only on Examine’s own information, so it’ll be unsullied by inaccurate information that can leak into other AI chatbots on the web. This should make it much easier to get answers without clicking around the site. This will not affect our published work, because we will never use generative AI to write about or analyze studies — there’s just no replacing a human brain when it comes to health. But a chatbot will help our readers find exactly what they’re looking for in the Examine knowledge database and archives.
Second, we’ll make some changes to our menu system and top-of-page area to make it easier to find what you’re looking for. Our entire goal for the next few months is to polish up our UX/UI, and allow you to personalize your experience so you can get the information you need quickly!
Third, we’ve been working on a frontend rewrite that is coming out very soon. Visually, nothing will change, but the entire website will feel much snappier and load much faster!
Lastly, we’re going to make it easier for new users of Examine to dive into the website without getting overwhelmed by information that doesn’t apply to them.
New products: We don’t release a lot of new products, even though new products are a great way to bring in more money, which means a bigger team that can better serve our readers.
Actually, we don’t really release any new products because we rolled everything up into the Examine+ membership a few years ago. Everything we offer is in there.
But there are two products we’re figuring out that are aimed at different types of readers, and which don’t fit into our existing model.
First, a product for health professionals that’s specifically designed to help them help their patients or clients.
Second, an Examine certification that teaches you about evidence in quite a unique way.
Tons of details are left to figure out for these two products, but we have the scaffolding set up and are working on filling everything else in!
Thanks for reading this far. In case you couldn’t tell, Examine tries to be transparent not only about the evidence we cover, but also how business is going and what’s coming down the pike. I’m thankful that some readers find us useful enough to also be interested in these things.
As a reward, I’ll leave you with a picture of Helo, my co-founder Sol’s senior (15-year old) dog who joined us for some of the retreat, and who has one of the sweetest dispositions of any pup around. As you can see, he was clearly enthralled by the discussion.
(Photo credit: Nick Milazzo)
Sincerely,
Kamal Patel
Co-founder, Examine
Quiz of the week
Question:
Answer: Dry eye syndrome
Hyaluronic acid is used to treat dry eye syndrome because it is hydrophilic, which means it can attract water. Drawing in extra water decreases the viscosity of the natural ocular fluids and helps lubricate the eye. It is often added to products that are used as artificial tears and may be found in combination with other hydrating fluids, like saline. Learn more about hyaluronic acid.