In 2024, MRT Jakarta wanted to mark its anniversary with something more engaging than a celebration. They came to Whiteboard Journal with an open ask: help them get closer to their commuters. Rather than lead with spectacle, Whiteboard Journal saw an opportunity for something quieter that could still leave an impact. The result was Insight Machine—a personality quiz that doubled as soft research. At its core, the goal was simple: understand what kinds of people actually use the MRT, and what kind of events they’d care about. The quiz lived both online and on-site, blending playful archetypes with direct questions about user behavior. The framing was deliberately light, but the outcome was strategic: a format that collected insight without feeling extractive.

The activation ran for a month online and took over Blok M BCA Station the weekend before Hari MRT (MRT Day), marking the first time Insight Machine appeared in a fully public setting. Offline, the quiz was simplified into 12 fast-tap questions to avoid clogging foot traffic, but still ended with a personalized result. Archetypes—like Orang Pusat (the corporate commuter) or Jaksel Perjuangan (the aspiring creative)—were tied to MRT stations, blending behavioral quirks with cultural references to make each result feel playful, oddly accurate, and worth sharing. Each came with a sticker for your MRT card and a custom playlist. To claim their rewards, visitors had to follow both MRT Jakarta and Whiteboard Journal, converting foot traffic into digital growth. With 200–300 people interacting each day and many bringing friends, Insight Machine disguised user research as something fun, showing that data can be something people want to share, not something taken from them.