James Deeley

Working with CBRE Global Workplace Solutions department to provide digital product development and customer experience design expertise across multiple product and services.

​

CBRE is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment company, operating from 100 countries with 450 offices worldwide. and boasting an exceptional reputation. They required digital product development strategy and experience design expertise to support the growth of the GWS team and their expanding range of service offerings.

​

​

The strategic objective

As the initial ​product was already in development, time was a factor when we first partnered with CBRE. Delays were being caused by a disconnect between development and production. A way of rapidly designing was required deliver on schedule. To address this, a new team working approach was essential, creating a fully integrated project team based in the client environment. This approach enabled us to quickly catch up with planned timelines.

​

Our approach looked to provide:

• Product development strategy support, adding ambition to the project scope and potential

• Conceptual product development and driving new ideas

• Customer experience design expertise

• Ability to share design progress with global stakeholders

• Ability to continuously test designs with a wide audience

• Product brand identity development 

• Standards and guidelines for development

• Support and guide technical development team effort

​

​

The solution

Creating and installing a retained client based design team to guide and design a range of digital products and services for the Global Workspace Solutions team to launch and market, and act as partner to advise the brand positioning and programme of work. 

​

Our role delivered:

• Strategic planning of the product roadmap from MVP launch to full product fidelity 

• Collaborative design workshops to capture initial stakeholder thoughts and ideas based on requirements, translating the KPI's into design concepts

• Establishing of consistent design architecture, structures and patterns that would be foundational to all products and services 

• Rapid development of new thinking and functionality to iterate, learn and validate designs through browser based design programmes (reducing documentation and project lag)

• User experience and interface design for mobile first design approach for app and website development through an 'atomised' approach to design components over pages to increase reuse and distribution

• Creation of clickable prototype for design development and continuous user testing, sharing with internal stakeholders and directing the development team

• Supplying of design standards and guides to inform development teams and direct future content and feature development

​

​

The outcomes

The ongoing engagement provides expertise and partnership to the CBRE GWS team, leading to the development of six products and services, and the GWS brand identity.

 

Our design led thinking method was fundamental in redefining the approach to internal stakeholder engagement and of the product development, installing the understanding of looking at the customer experience as a vital start to communicating the brand message and to shaping how products and services were designed to be true to the CBRE brand.