Overview

Autodesk is a global leader in design and make technology that spans architecture, engineering and construction, product design and manufacturing, and media and entertainment, empowering innovators everywhere to solve challenges big and small. We have partnered with Autodesk for many years on various research and design projects across their different products and domains. This long-standing relationship enables us to deliver unique value to Autodesk’s experience design (XD) strategy through a balance of outside perspective and surfacing knowledge from past projects.

Our expertise thrives in Autodesk’s complex domains and problems

Our love for complexity and thorny problem spaces has been a great match to partner with Autodesk’s XD team. Autodesk has trusted us with strategic research projects such as the future of AutoCAD in cloud ecosystems, expanding Revit’s reach into evolving project spaces, and utilizing AI to improve efficiency of workflows. We flex our expertise in Enterprise UX to tackle Autodesk’s complex solutions and deeply technical domains. With our long-standing partnership, we continue to build our depth of knowledge about Autodesk’s products and ecosystem.

Flexible engagement models to meet Autodesk’s dynamic needs

One key to our successful working relationship is the flexibility we are able to bring to meet Autodesk’s needs. Depending on the ask, we have partnered on a per-project basis, or engaged in longer-term contracts. We communicate regularly to understand their UX roadmap and project demands and discuss our changing availability. Together we work to define project scope and given our long-standing relationship, are able to quickly align on project goals to ensure we’re tackling the most impactful problems from the outset.
When we have a particular scoped design or research ask we choose a project-based approach. For example, we conducted a 4-week study to assess market trends and unmet needs for design in the rail industry. When the problem is less well-defined, or when there are multiple needs that will likely change in priority over the short term, we'll structure our engagement as a long-term member of a specific team, taking on whatever projects come up during the contract period. For example, we partnered with the AutoCAD research team for a year, participating in prioritization and research team meetings, developing relationships with the PM team, and tackling various sized research projects across that span.

Long term relationship enables a balance of historical knowledge with the fresh eye of an outsider

Having worked with Autodesk for so many years and on their various product lines, we’ve built up an institutional knowledge of their user ecosystem. We bring this knowledge to each subsequent project and are able to make connections between past and current projects. This outsider’s perspective is beneficial to our Autodesk partners as in their day to day, they don’t necessarily have the time or ability to be deeply steeped in projects happening on other product lines. For example, in a project exploring user needs for utilizing AutoCAD in the cloud, we were able to shed light on how users collaborated within an organization based on past research we had conducted on Revit usage, providing a more complete understanding of the behaviors being researched.