Cushman & Wakefield: Workforce Values Assessment Tool
Building client relationships by establishing trust through transparency of intent and usable tools
Methods & Tools: User Research, Fly-on-the-Wall Observations, Contextual Analysis, Sketching, Design Concept Development, and Interactive Prototyping
Cushman & Wakefield is the second largest commercial real estate brokerage firm in the world. The Minneapolis office is working to expand their potential client reach by maximizing their use of technology for relationship building. A series of real estate diagnostic tools have been developed to facilitate this client and broker relationship. Our teams assistance was requested to evaluate the client facing tools.
The Goals:
1. Evaluate the real-estate diagnostic tools provided by Cushman & Wakefield and identify key opportunity areas
2. Propose meaningful solutions for usability improvements in order to optimize client connections
Process:
To begin, we made a site visit to meet with the Cushman & Wakefield team and perform a contextual evaluation. This provided insights into the users and their mental models in approaching and interacting with the newly developed diagnostic tools. The two primary user groups are commercial real estate decision makers and the brokerage team at Cushman & Wakefield. Next, a cognitive walkthrough was conducted for each of the diagnostic tools which surfaced many usability issues with consistency, visibility, and feedback.
Research Insights:
Research synthesis revealed that time, money, and trust are the key factors influencing the system of information exchange between broker and prospective client. Nurturing meaningful relationships with clients at Cushman & Wakefield is the key to making sales and delivering results. The lead generating nature of the "diagnose my..." tools is deterring use and not facilitating broker client relationships as intended. These tools are intended to serve a mutual exchange of beneficial information and that potential is compromised by usability issues and user confusion regarding the value of each diagnostic tool.
Design Approach:
The “Diagnose my People” Tool was identified as an integral component in curating trust and relationship building between Cushman & Wakefield and their client. Research synthesis brainstorming, mapping, and sketching clarified the approach and adjustments to be made in next design phase.
Here is some process work that informed my decisions in developing the proposed prototype.
The design, flow, and content of the final prototype underwent many iterations. Some directions I explored lead to a dead end. This project perhaps had more abandoned concepts than any other project that I have worked on. While time consuming, I intentionally and critically looked at each failed design approach as an opportunity to inform the next iteration in a positive manner.
