How is The Collective integrating technologies into the different aspects of your experience? As an owner-developer-operator, you have quite a bit of autonomy of when and where to embed different technology solutions. Could you take us through what that looks like from the development to construction phases, all the way through to operations?

Andy Caddy (AC): Today we have three buildings in operation in London and New York, with two more close to launching in both cities, and then others in construction and planning. So we’ve got a big portfolio ahead of us. Looking at what we’ve done to date, we’ve tried different ideas to get an understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Since I arrived, I’ve been working closely with our development colleagues to design the blueprint of future developments. I think we’re uniquely placed because we start from scratch when designing and building, putting in a lot of effort to ensure we create brilliant spaces and facilities. We have always considered technology to be a necessary part of the building and looking to the future we want to create a connected journey for our members. How do you remove friction points at every opportunity? How do you create an environment that just works for people?

This is key for me as when we talk about member experience in a building, it is about truly understanding how members feel, and what they want to do in the space we give them. We don’t want to know everything about our members but we want to know enough that we can always be relevant to them. From a building perspective, it is about considering what will be in- room, versus what is in the rest of the building. So, if we understand how members use the building and how those two things interact, we can be much more cognisant of how we should design properties in the future, and how we can create relevant experiences for them.

As we look out across our portfolio of developments over the next five years, sustainability is also something which is going to become a leading consideration. For us, it’s about our brand, as well as what works for us in terms of how we operate our buildings. How we want to speak to our members and our investors about the sustainability of buildings is incredibly important to us too. So, we’re starting to think about intelligent power management, green credentials, sustainable appliances - all of these things are coming. It’s not there today, but it’s definitely a conversation we’re having more and more.

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Ed Thomas (ET): I think Andy captured it really effectively. Technology is obviously so much more than just member experience. To help you understand how we think about technology from a member experience perspective, we can consider the two main reasons members move in, both of which are intertwined. First is to have a hassle-free rental experience which, in comparison to other standard houseshare experiences, is better in every area. Not only can you move in quickly with short notice, but your rent is wrapped up into one bill and you don’t have to worry about big deposits and cleaning, for example. Second is the opportunity to become involved in a diverse community, where you are always meeting new people, making new business connections, and learning new things - technology really helps us to meet those needs. When we’re thinking about technology, we are always viewing it through that lens. I think it’s easier to do on the former point around removing points of friction but we need to be careful when we’re thinking about bringing people together because it’s not a replacement for in-person connection - it can really help facilitate it, however. That’s a really exciting challenge for us - to use technology to bring people together. Success almost looks like when we make technology redundant in a way, because everyone’s coming together in person via the facilitation of technology.

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On the development and construction phases you’re talking about as well, the sustainability parts are very much on the tip of your tongue. You’re thinking about innovating on those sides of things. Could you get into some of the conversations you’re having with the architecture and development teams on those kinds of innovations?

AC: If you took everything in our buildings - how we have large amounts of washing and linen equipment, hundreds of screens, and lots of facilities that generate a lot of power - we’ve got a responsibility to operate that efficiently. When we think of building management systems for the future, which is one area we’ve started looking into, we’re really thinking about how we can understand our power usage, and ensure we can report on that in a transparent way.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could tell our members on a regular basis how the power in the building works?
Not in a dull way but in a manner that informs them about the power saving that we’re putting in place, that informs them how they’re contributing to a building that is significantly more efficient than somewhere else they might stay. That’s a reasonably unique perspective on what living is about.

Imagine a situation where every piece of electrical equipment that the member interacted with was rated and had a QR code. Then there would be a way to say “in the last month, you used these 10 pieces of equipment and you were 23% more efficient than someone who was doing this somewhere else.” There’s a real feel-good factor in being able to provide those figures. I think people are taking much more interest in that and understanding that having a really expensive plasma screen burning every minute of every day is not a great thing for the environment.

If we can show people that the choices we’ve made are a better alternative to the competition, that’s a win for everybody.

ET: We know our members really care about this as well, and I think there’s a lot more we could do to make it a core part of our proposition. So you could say that by choosing The Collective, you are choosing a better, more responsible way of living. At The Collective Old Oak, for example, we’ve got 550 rooms that would normally entail 550 washing machines and 550 dryers, potentially. Here, we have 10 that are shared. We could really understand and quantify the impact that is having, and incentivise members to change their behaviour based on sharing data, and then make that a core part of why people would move in. I can really see that becoming a third pillar in why people choose to live in our buildings. It’s community, convenience but also impact. It’s about connecting those devices, understanding the impact and surfacing it back to members.

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You have been developing in-house software to manage your operations and facilitate community engagement. From our understanding you have both an in-house PMS and a customised mobile app. Could you explain the challenges of developing that technology, as well as the different features these solutions have?

AC: It’s an interesting point. Historically, we did develop some of our own property management software. Our intent of building in-house - to understand and be better for our members and customers - was correct, although we ended up building out a billing and management system, as opposed to any unique IP. We’ve pivoted a bit

to be thinking much more about data and how that works. So, we’re trying to piece together the data journey for our members and really lead the way in this space on how you understand that. When I was at easyJet I had a hundred million pieces of data about people taking a flight or a holiday. That was great but it was only for a day, a week, or weekend. Here, I’ve got a few thousand pieces of information but about someone for 18 months. That really is a privilege - I’ve got information about how they live their life. At previous roles I’ve had to try and second guess that demographic - where they live, what they do. At The Collective I know all of that through the data which they provide to us. So how can I use that to be really relevant, and how can I improve their life experience on a daily basis? That’s the challenge we’ve got to solve, and we’re right at the start of that. We are currently just ensuring that we have all that data and making sure our systems are all fit for purpose.

As we design and build going forward, it’s really about how we can apply leading data practices, machine learning, and AI in a way that allows us to truly be differentiated in how we look at our members. We know enough about them and we should do it because they live with us. But how can I start to second guess what they really need? How can I be relevant? How can I detect when they’re thinking about leaving? What can I do to the spaces and their experience to be more engaging? All of those things. That’s a position that not many companies and brands have. We’re uniquely placed to tackle that challenge. And as we move forward and we go from thousands to hundreds of thousands of people who’ve had an experience with us, we will just continue to learn and understand more and more about what works with people in certain situations.

It’s a really exciting journey ahead of us, and I’m trying to focus us on that as well as running technology for an operating business. We launched a new app recently and we’re now at the point of learning from our members and listening to them really carefully about what they need from that platform in the future. We want something that absolutely works within the palm of their hand that allows them to interface and communicate in the best possible way.

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So just to clarify, you’re moving away from developing an in-house PMS system, but focusing on the customer, the data capturing and also the front facing app. Does that mean you are white labeling other solutions, or integrating some other solutions?

AC: We’re building the data solutions ourselves - I think that’s what would differentiate us. Regarding PMS and other solutions around how we operate a building, we are going to get best-of-breed products in, and we’ll use those because I think that’s not a problem we need to solve - there are other people that can solve those problems better than we can. How we tie them together, pull the data and give a seamless experience - that’s where we need to spend our time. From their access control to how staff interact with them, how they report faults, to the events they attend - that should all just be one experience for members. Preferably through the app in a way that they see a consistent communication, tone of voice and brand experience.

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That’s a great learning of how you’re transitioning into what you think is really important, where you can also put your resources, your experiences and knowledge into, and not doing things that you shouldn’t be doing essentially. You only learn by doing in the end. So to move on, how do you use customer insights to improve your in-house technology solutions, and in return, how do you collect this data to then enhance the overall community experience? What are some of the insights you are looking for, and how can those insights be captured using different technologies?

ET: The process here is really important, and so is the relationship that we have with our operations team. So we are constantly speaking to them and hearing from them - what’s working well, and what’s not working well. We use these forums as opportunities to identify what are the quick wins that we can tackle because we are creating something fundamentally new, and every day, there’s a new challenge that we need to respond to. The last 12 months have been a really good case in point, where we’ve had an unprecedented global pandemic and we’ve had to learn very quickly based on what we’re seeing and experiencing.

Alongside that continuous conversation with our team, we are in regular communication with our members. I’ve already spoken to two of them this morning, and that is a unique opportunity that we have. Andy touched on this earlier - we’ve formed very close bonds with the people that live with us. Some of them have been living with us nearly five years now. So, it’s a great opportunity to hear from them about what’s working well and what’s not working well. We also capture qualitative feedback through focus groups. We’ve got a focus group coming up in the next couple of weeks with the product team and architects looking at the fitness experience in our buildings. We are also continuously surveying our members who provide us with a lot of valuable data that we can sort through to identify interesting opportunities and make recommendations to various teams.

When creating the app we really responded to the insights that we’ve seen, and put customer feedback and behaviours at the centre of it. Not necessarily by competing with something like Facebook, but, for example, we observed that lots of people were creating WhatsApp groups based on interests. That was great if you’re already living in the building but if you’re a new member, you can never find those groups. There was no single place where it was all stored. So now the app offers different clubs. You can join a club, you can create a club, and you can find clubs that are interesting to you all in one place.

So that’s one example. We’re looking for those behaviours. We’re looking for those unmet needs and wants initially, then establishing what’s feasible using technology and what’s viable financially. This human- centred design approach has served us well.

AC: As we look forward, I think this understanding of our members is so powerful, combined with the idea that we operate at scale - I think this is an advantage we have. As a member you might have an interest that only one in a hundred people have. It might be Cuban cinema. Who knows, in 700 people you might find seven other people that like Cuban cinema - that’d be awesome! Let’s have a Cuban cinema evening.

The other day someone came down to the piano in the lobby at Old Oak and started playing - they were very good. I thought it was really impressive that there were two professional musicians who came down to the lobby to play. That’s incredible! You have this richness and diversity of people in your building. Imagine a world where we could capture that and be able to suggest learning to play the piano, and we found 10 other people who would love to learn piano. Should we set up a piano teaching evening? We want to give people fulfilling experiences, and we can do this more effectively through a deeper understanding of our members.

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I remember when I also lived and worked in Old Oak, I really felt this cultural richness and diversity while I was there. Being able to facilitate and capture that I think has always been a goal of The Collective, so it’s nice that you guys are getting closer and closer. That said, managing a coliving building also necessitates different types of technology solutions to ensure seamless operations. What are some of the third party technology solutions you are working with and who have you been partnering up with to enhance your building operations?

AC: Historically it’s been quite bespoke per building. Canary Wharf was quite different to Old Oak, and very different to Paper Factory in the US. It hasn’t necessarily been a one-size-fits-all but I think there’s a real opportunity to do things differently across our portfolio and be a bit more standard in some respects, while trying new things out around the edges - that’s where the excitement is.

There are some things that just need to work, and there’s certainly lots of things we can experiment with. On a basic level, the access control we use is SALTO, and we’re working with them on how we can make that process more mobile friendly. How can we integrate and give maximum flexibility, so that we can make access control - which is a sort of basic human need in a coliving building - as seamless as possible?

Then on the property management system we’re using, we’ve just signed a deal with res:harmonics, who are a smaller, much more coliving-orientated property management system provider. We like everything about them and what they’re doing, so we can see there’s going to be a good opportunity to extend some of our facilities and join up the picture a bit better.

I hesitate at smart buildings - no one picks a place to live because they can control the TV with their phone. Right? These are small factors that may or may not make your life easier. However, increasingly, as that becomes easy and frictionless, we will start to look at it. What I’m not interested in is putting in place technology for technology’s sake. So putting in place things that are fiddly, hard, don’t join up, just so that we can say “hey, isn’t it cool that we’ve got a voice control TV?” That doesn’t interest me, but what I really like - and we’ve talked to some of the providers around - is when that stuff becomes really connected in a true way, so you don’t have to say, “I’m going to go with Phillips, Google or LG”. When that all starts to work together we can really talk about how to utilise it in the best possible way, then we’ll engage in that.

An example would be with our Williamsburg property thermostat control. That’s a very small thing but it means that when you check-in at reception, you can get the heating turned on in your room plus we get to control the power more efficiently - those kinds of easy things, which are more hotel features, starts us down the route of being able to control the environment in a smart way. I look forward to the point where we can do more in that space, working with proptech companies and people who are really trying to conquer some of these problems. That’s the bit I’m really looking forward to over the next few months: understanding what the possibilities are.

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SALTO and res:harmonics are also in this edition, so it’s exciting you mention them. It’s great The Collective is starting to explore your relationship with res:harmonics as well. I think the benefit of having a startup in this space is the adaptability of the product and having quite close customer service on their end with you guys. So really creating a tailored product for the needs of The Collective and its members.

AC: We have a range of different needs with forthcoming buildings, so it’s unlikely we’re ever going to find a complete one-size-fits-all solution. What we like about res:harmonics though is that they are really adaptable and they’ve certainly managed to merge short-stay and long-stay very effectively. They’d already thought about member event management groups, billing in different ways, and convenient integration with access control - so that was great.

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Finally, do you have any pointers for smaller coliving businesses looking to develop their own in-house technologies? What are the dos and don’ts when it comes to developing these kinds of solutions?

AC: I think there are some basics to follow, and that is not to get caught up in the shiny stuff. Like I said, I don’t think anyone’s choosing where they live based on the technology in the room. It’s very easy to get excited about things like that because it can send a message, and it looks good. For me? Getting the fundamentals right, so that where I’m living, the basics work. It sounds dull but if you can get into your room and are billed properly, for example, those things that make your life easier - and it’s really aggravating when they don’t work. You just have to nail them. Unfortunately, those are not the exciting or interesting bits. But, get that right so that once you’ve got happy members, you can really concentrate on what to do after that - there’s no doubt about it. It’s never been a more exciting time to be in this area because, as IOT matures, and as smart buildings become a thing - not just talked about, but a real thing - then I think that the opportunities to do really exciting things with technology, with people, over the next five years are endless. But you can only do that when you’ve nailed the basics. That would be my message.

ET: I couldn’t agree more with Andy on that. It’s tempting to get excited by the flashy stuff but it is so important to meet those basic needs. People are moving in for a comfortable roof over their head, and to meet other people. Ultimately, it’s going to seriously hinder your community building work if your members have slow WiFi.

I would also add that, from my experience, there’s so much to learn from members and one can really find the best solutions working directly with them. I think the kinds of people that live in coliving spaces are typically of the early adopter mindset, and often work in technology. I think sometimes fantastic solutions can be created in partnership with members. It may get slightly harder as you get to the scale of The Collective but I think smaller coliving providers have a real opportunity to come up with some innovative solutions to real problems that members feel everyday; and particularly problems you may not have initially considered as an operator. I remember when I was staying in a coliving building in San Francisco, there were 59 software engineers and me living together in an ex-brothel, with four floors and two bathrooms on each floor. There was constantly a problem with not knowing when showers were available. Everyone came together and created an app that, using sensors, showed you what bathrooms were available. So you didn’t walk up and down the building for 10 minutes every morning, trying to find the only free shower.

I just remember thinking how genius that was. It may not be a bit of the flashy technology but there’s a lot to be learned from the people that live in your building. Something I’d love to do as we scale is to make sure we host events like hackathons, where we can come up with solutions to problems in collaboration with our members.

AC: My one last final piece of advice is never, ever skimp on WiFi. I think it’s like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - it’s right there, and you will be burnt the moment you let people down on that. It’s like trying to say, can we get away with 190 volt sockets? It just doesn’t work.