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How NEXT Works

Use this page when you want the clearest overview of how customer feedback moves through NEXT, from connected systems to AI-assisted analysis.

This is the core model behind the product: source systems bring data in, NEXT turns that data into reviewable evidence, and your team organizes that evidence into themes and questions you can keep exploring over time.

The Core Flow​

The most common flow in NEXT looks like this:

Data Subscription -> Recording -> Highlights -> Tags -> Clusters -> Chat

Here is what each step means in practice:

  1. Data Subscription brings source data into NEXT.
    • A data subscription defines what NEXT should keep importing into a teamspace from a connected source.
    • In practice, this usually sits on top of an integration to a system such as Gong, Zendesk, Zoom, or HubSpot.
  2. Recordings are the source objects in NEXT.
    • A recording can be audio, video, or text-based source material such as an interview, sales call, support conversation, or survey response.
  3. Highlights are the atomic evidence units extracted from recordings.
    • Each highlight captures a specific moment, quote, or idea that your team can review, share, tag, and reuse.
  4. Tags add lightweight structure across recordings and highlights.
    • Tags help your team label evidence by theme, product area, customer segment, or any other shared taxonomy.
  5. Clusters group related highlights into a larger theme, insight, or work item.
    • A cluster turns many individual highlights into something your team can revisit, refine, and share as one topic.
  6. Chat helps you analyze the evidence in context.
    • Chat can answer questions, compare patterns, summarize a slice of feedback, or help you go deeper on highlights and clusters.

What Changes At Each Step?​

  • Import changes outside data into something your team can work with inside one teamspace.
  • Recordings keep the original source context.
  • Highlights reduce long source material into evidence your team can review quickly.
  • Tags make evidence easier to filter and reuse.
  • Clusters turn labeled evidence into bigger themes and outputs.
  • Chat turns that structured evidence into analysis, synthesis, and follow-up questions.

Important To Know​

  • Not every workflow starts with an integration. Your team can also upload recordings manually.
  • Not every workflow needs every layer. Some teams go from recordings straight into highlights and chat before they create clusters.
  • Tags and clusters solve different problems. Tags label evidence; clusters package related evidence into a larger topic.
  • Chat is strongest when it works from well-prepared highlights, tags, and clusters, but you can also start chat from selected recordings or highlights.

Where Should New Teams Start?​

Start by making sure your source data is arriving correctly and turning into usable recordings and highlights.

Once your team has a reliable stream of highlights, define a small tag system for the topics you care about most. Then create clusters for the themes worth tracking over time, and use chat to analyze those themes, summarize them, or answer focused questions.

FAQ​

Q: What is a data subscription?​

A data subscription is the import rule that tells NEXT what source data to keep bringing into a teamspace. It usually works through a connected integration.

Q: Are highlights the same as clips or quotes?​

Often yes in practice. A highlight is the reusable evidence unit in NEXT. It can include transcript text, media context, a title, and tags.

Q: Why do tags come before clusters in the model?​

Tags are the faster way to label and filter evidence. Clusters come later when your team wants to turn several related highlights into one larger theme or work item.

Q: Does chat work only on clusters?​

No. Chat can work from teamspace data more broadly, and it is often started from selected recordings, highlights, or a focused slice of feedback. Clusters simply give chat a stronger thematic structure to build on.