ThinkLab

I'm your host, Nathan Manuel.

And this week, we're joined by Amanda Schneider, founder and president of ThinkLab, host of the Design Nerds Anonymous podcast, and bestselling author out with her new book, Work for What's Next, Why Workplace Culture is Failing and How the Next Generation Can Fix It.

You got into design through what?

Yeah, I would say my entree into the design world is probably opposite of yours.

So I like to say I'm a researcher by trade, and I have spent my career studying the business of the built environment, like how people who design, build, really sell in this industry, and ultimately use space are changing.

These days, I lead a little bit of a dual life.

ThinkLab is kind of where my foundation was, really studying the built environment, again, how all of this changes.

I have a top 1% podcast, Design Nerds Anonymous, and spend a lot of time talking about to this industry about how the world of work is changing and what that means for all of us.

[upbeat music] Welcome to Design Nerds Anonymous, the podcast that sparks curiosity at the intersection of business and creativity.

I'm your host, Amanda Schneider, founder of ThinkLab, speaker on ted.com, and bestselling author of the new book, Work for What's Next.

If you're new on this feed, you're likely joining us after hearing Oprah's recent podcast.

Our guest today, Jean Twenge, was the featured guest on that episode, and for good reason.

Welcome everyone to Blue Maranga's podcast on creativity.

I'm very excited to introduce you today with Ana- Amanda Schneider, who is a founder and president of ThinkLab, and that is a market research and strategy firm for architecture and interior design ecosystem.

And she's a bestselling author of the recently published book, Work for What's Next, and host of Design Nerds Anonymous podcast, which is rated in the top 1% podcasts.

So welcome, Amanda.

Um, and I think organizations often make the same mistake, you know? Um, I think too many organizations, especially today at this pace of change that's only gonna be accelerated by AI, are accidentally optimizing creativity away.

They're becoming so focused on the score, the KPIs, the utilization, the efficiency, um, in the design industry, the billable hours, and they forget the real objective.

And, and it's something that we're exploring a lot in our research at ThinkLab right now, is, you know...

Uh, I, I spoke at a, a Future of Work conference with an organization called Worktech, um, and one of the most alarming things about that conference, um, that was just a few months ago, um, is that some of the speakers were talking about AI and efficiency, and then the next speaker would be, like, about the human side of things and, and the recommendation is hold hands.

[laughs]

Talk about actually how ThinkLab began.

Absolutely.

So if you haven't listened to my TED Talk, I would invite you to watch that.