It's obviously been an incredibly interesting year for everyone,
there's a lot going on - that's probably a bit of an understatement,
but what is Bluebeam's normal approach to product development and
and how has that approach really had to shift and adapt and change because of
everything that's been going on with the pandemic?
What's unique about this is the fact that I've never met the people in person
and what's not unique about it is the fact that you know we're very comfortable
running globally distributed teams, that you're usually dealing
with in a video call or phone call or email so I
think the software development industry in general
is probably on average in a much better position to
deal with the remote nature of the work.
Your customers have had a really tough year - there's
been a huge shift towards remote working, there's been sites that are
struggling with productivity there's been clients pulling products /
accelerating projects. How has Bluebeam responded to customers
needs in amongst all this? Well in addition to
our products allowing projects to move forward on a remote basis
we're doubling down on that - we're building more features that make
working remote not only impossible but more efficient. We're trying to make
working remotely the least painful it possibly can be
and continue to add new great features around that.
So 2020, like no other year has been challenging for everyone and our customers in
the construction industry are no different. I think the
big focus on Revu 20 and really this year has been around
collaboration as you've described. I think collaboration, more than ever has
been more important in today's remote world that we're in where you
know folks are, it's even more challenging to see each other
face to face and get together that way.
It was challenging before, but certainly in this world and it's even more
different and that was really one of the big focuses
in Revu 20 is thinking about collaboration
thinking about remote global workers working on enormous projects together
and really needing that information real time
being able to and having a simplicity in workflows and an ability to really
collaborate that way that was really a big focus of Revu 20
and candidly it'll be a big focus for us moving forward in the
2-3 year trajectory that we have in front of us,
because in my view I think what 2020 has done for a lot of industries -
all it's done is really accelerated
different themes and different things that were already happening in the industry,
and I think for 2020 collaboration and the need for
software to really bring interconnectedness on the job site
is more critical than ever and it'll be it's a focus in Revu 20 it'll continue
to be a focus for Bluebeam moving forward.
The needs of Bluebeam's customers this year are extreme; there's been a
real shift to remote working, people are trying to progress
projects in the face of a lot of obstacles and challenges.
How do you engage customer feedback and insight into the product development
process? Is it a case of you create these
products in a dark room somewhere and then try and sell them to the market or
are they produced kind of hand in hand with customer
insight? Well before anything is even coded or a feature is
really the requirements are gathered, we're doing a lot of customer interviews
a lot of surveys, a lot of understanding usage,
and a lot of really just making sure that we understand exactly what is
valuable in the product for our customers.
When we think about workflows and features and everything else, we don't
we prototype them, we talk to our customers about them, we
have a BUG group that is very active (BUG being
the Bluebeam User Group) that is incredibly popular around around the
around the world, really. So I think that approach
and that focus on research, understanding the user,
understanding what their day-to-day is really like and a focus on that before
anything even gets on the roadmap, I think really makes a huge impact.
What is the kind of people that you look for? Is it fantastic
software engineers or is it people who can understand that process and have
that adaptability and have that flexibility they can bring into the product?
You need both. You need people -
I've always found that the best, whether you're engineer or a product manager,
anyone in the kind of product development cycle, you obviously need a
specific skill set to get the job done, but I think the most important quality
and I think we really have that in abundance here Bluebeam, is just a
curiosity about what it is that is interesting for
user, what it is that drives them, the value
and all that and in the curiosity, an ability to be objective
and not bring your own concepts of what you think the user wants
into that thought process.
I mean it's an extraordinarily uncertain period of time, we've got no idea
whether the pandemic's going be a second wave or if there's going be a vaccine or if
we're going to return to normal or new normal
and the markets are up and down all over the place,
in that context - an impossible question - where do you see
this industry headed in the next 12 months? There's probably going to be a
lot of business for the construction
segment. It might not be the type of business it's
historically seen over the last 10 years of boom economy, we might not
build too many more soccer stadiums or crowded subways, but I do see us
remodeling and reproducing office space to where maybe it's
you know more spread out. I do see people spending more time
in their homes whether that's working or you know just doing social activities in
their home. So I think there's some opportunities
for, a lot of opportunities for residential
construction remodeling and then the list goes on and on
and but at the end of the day who knows it's anybody's guess.
It seems like the industry, just like a lot of industries, is really trying to
understand and grapple with the interconnectedness that's ultimately
needed on a job site across solutions, across workflows
and all of that - and the efficiency amongst the interconnectedness to ensure
that your work product is moving along with
you, regardless of what solution you're working with
and I think that trend is just going to amplify itself in this new world
because you know when you are working remotely like this
you're even less connected to individuals and solutions
you know as you were in the past, right, so the ability to really interoperate
with solutions, understanding that customers don't just
rely on one tool, they rely on a host of tools to really
ultimately do their work and ensuring that those things all talk
to each other efficiently - that I think is going to be more
important than ever in this world and it's a trend that was always
that was continuing even before 2020 of course but I think this world today is
really going to accelerate that.
Working in construction businesses at the moment, under that extraordinary
pressure, that are trying to grapple with
all kinds of challenges coming their way, on a good day then alone in 2020, what's
the value of of products like Revu 20 and other
products like it on the market? Is it just an extra cost, is it
just something to get trained-up on, or can it make a real difference to what
they do? We allow people in the field, in the build
industry, to ultimately focus on what's most important to them,
where their skill set is best applied and help them with sort of the
the other tasks that ultimately take a lot of time