In this episode, ThinkLab explores disruption in commercial real estate and the sector’s entrée into design services. We focus on JLL’s new solution to simplify the design process and accelerate the time from design to build.

First, we speak with Thales Teixeira, former Harvard professor and co-author of Unlocking the Customer Value Chain: How Decoupling Drives Customer Disruption. Drawing on his work in consulting and his book, Thales shares his advice on how to avoid disruption, including staying vigilant for trends outside your own industry.

Then, we discuss JLL’s latest product offering with its head, Lori Louis, and global product lead Christine Hong. They explain how coming up with the new service actually led them to reconsider the traditional design buying process. They realized that JLL serves two different user groups — economic buyers and end users — whose needs diverged during the pandemic, and described to us how they tailored the service accordingly.
 
In this episode:
[14:01] Thales explains how and why the buying habits of consumers and B2B customers are converging.
[23:54] Christine describes JLL’s human-centered approach to design, focused on the end user.
 [24:40] “What people say and what people do are very, very different things. And we're trying to design for what we think people will end up doing.”
[31:24] Lori discusses how the new offering helps companies test and pilot design solutions during this time of uncertainty.

Connect with our interviewees on LinkedIn:
Thales Teixeira
Lori Louis
Christine Hong
Bill Wittland

This season of Design Nerds Anonymous is brought to you by Mannington Commercial, Keilhauer, theMART, and NeoCon, companies doing big things to move the design industry forward.
 
To take part in the conversation, we invite you to join us on Clubhouse in our club, Design + Data w/ThinkLab, on Fridays at 9 a.m.
 
Download our leading-edge playbook: 100 Ways to Create a Phygital Sales and Marketing Strategy.
 
Finally, thanks to Hannah Viti, our audio producer, and Blue Dot Sessions for providing the music for this episode.