Today, Agile Partners is proud to announce that our entertaining new app–Second Opinion, which you can use to ask any “yes-or-no” question, and get the “real answer” through crowdsourcing–is now available in the App Store.

What is it that got me thinking about developing an app like Second Opinion?  Focus groups.  You know, the kind where someone is paid to interact with or critique someone else’s work.  These studies can be great, providing multiple, anonymous and–most importantly–unbiased data points from unrelated 3rd parties.  The kind of responses you can’t get get as easily from co-workers, employees, or consultants; where politics cast shade, even when there’s the best of intentions.

Having designed and participated in a number of these studies, one “gotcha” is–because for the participant, this is not an anonymous experience–participants sometimes feel social pressure to answer a particular way. To seem smarter, for instance.  A common focus group observer “trick” is to “watch what they do, not just listen to what they say,” to compensate for this effect.   Remove all relationships between the “asker”, “answerer” & “moderator”, and the truth finds its way to the surface more easily: the model behind Second Opinion.

So, let’s make it personal–I have questions. Usually it’s about something outside of my areas of expertise (I’m better with power tools than picking outfits; I can critique the heck out of a film, but won’t know if the wine I choose will offend my vinofile friends).   I wanted my own focus group … and Second Opinion became my tool for everyday crowdsourcing.   The wisdom of the crowd provides the “real answer” (i.e., what is commonly perceived to be true) in a way that friends and experts–by their very nature–may not.

And, while Second Opinion can be a really useful tool for getting others’ opinions  in a crowdsourcing sense, we learned something else about it: it is an absolute blast to use!  Both answering questions and asking questions is addictive fun.  We’ve put together a few videos to show you just how much fun:

We’re very excited about the Second Opinion launch, and are curious to see what people will ask–and learn.  Why not give it a whirl: download Second Opinion from the App Store (free, with optional in-app purchases).