Let's break it down.  

The total number of flight participants is determined by the following:

In our sample flight, 42 participants were invited to participate (the number of participants includes the Flight Creator).  35 out of 42 participants participated in Stage 1 (88% overall participation and 83% Stage 1 participation) and 37 out of 42 participants participated in Stage 2 (88% Stage 2 participation). 

Below are the top five balloons for one question in a sample flight:

Let's go through the numbers:

1) Balloon Score

2) Pump Score

3) Approval rating

4) Percentile

At the end of the flight, each balloon will receive a Balloon Score, as seen in the green box.  In the sample flight, we have Balloon Scores of 81, 66, 65, 50, and 41.

The Balloon Score is used for the overall ranking of balloons in the flight for a given question. The Balloon Score takes into account the raw Pump Score and broad approval of the flight participants. When comparing two balloons with the same Pump Score, the one that received pumps from more people will have a higher Balloon Score.

The Pump Score is simply the total number of pumps a Balloon has received. 

All flight participants can pump up each Balloon zero, one, or two times.  To learn more, check out our articles on Pumping Balloons, Why can balloons only be pumped up?, and Is there a limit on the number of pumps?

In the sample flight, we have the following information for the top balloon:

Since we have Stage 2 Participation of 88%, we know that 37 out of the 42 participants in the flight participated in Stage 2.  The Approval rating of the top balloon is 95% so we know that 35 out of the 37 Stage 2 participants pumped this balloon.  So we know that 35 of the flight participants interacted with the top balloon and collectively pumped 55 times.

When to use the Pump Score

The Pump Score is a simple way to gauge support across a collection of balloons.  It is handy for when you need a quantitative metric to compare two balloons.  Depending on the use case, the Pump Score can be used to compare two very different balloons or two similar balloons.

The Approval Score reflects the percentage of Stage 2 participants who pumped a given balloon at least once.

In the sample flight, let's breakdown the Approval Score of balloon #4 with a Balloon Score of 50.  We first need to take the Stage 2 Participation rate (88%) and calculate 37 out of the 42 participants in the flight participated in Stage 2.  For balloon #4, the Approval Score is 68% which means 25 of the 37 Stage 2 participants interacted with balloon #4.  

When to use Approval Score

The Approval Score is helpful when you care about team alignment and buy-in.  Do you need to get everybody on the same page before you can move forward? Is there something that needs to be addressed that is on the minds of a large percentage of the flight participants?  The Approval Score can also help measure the distribution of buy-in across balloons.  For balloons with low Approval Scores, those areas may need additional discussion or more attention.

The Percentile Score is calculated by ranking the balloon in relation to the Balloon Score of the other balloons it supersedes.  In our sample flight, balloon #5 with a Balloon Score of 41 supersedes 339 other balloons.  The percentile of the fifth ranking balloon would be calculated by the following numerical inputs:

(# of balloons below) / (# of total balloons) - 1

(339) / (364-1) = 99 percentile

When to use Percentile

For flights that generate a large number of balloons, the Percentile Score can help the team understand where a given balloon ranked in the distribution of all balloons for a given question.
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We hope that this article was helpful! If you still have questions, don't hesitate to contact us at success@getballoon.com