Measurabl

A TurboTax® approach to sustainability reporting

Project Synopsis

A data aggregation and reporting platform dedicated to measuring the carbon footprint and sustainability practices of large organizations.

The Problem

Sustainability reporting has become an important aspect for organizations looking to provide transparency around their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

Commercial real estate organizations were trying to submit reports to the two major sustainability reporting platforms (GRESB and CDP) and were struggling. Each platform asked for similar data but used different language and computations. Collecting and computing data across teams and the two reporting platforms was time consuming, confusing and inefficient.

Goals

• Give Portfolio Managers at commercial real estate companies an easy way to collect and compute building energy and sustainability data and submit reports to the GRESB and CDP reporting platforms
• Make it easier for Portfolio Managers to share information and collaborate with staff (building managers, sustainability officers, etc.)
• Release beta product two months prior to GRESB and CDP reporting deadlines
• Have initial four pilot participants submit sustainability reports to the GRESB and CDP reporting platforms utilizing beta product
• Achieve a net promoter score (NPS) of 50% or better
• Sign up ten new accounts in the quarter following reporting deadlines, using testimonials and success stories of pilot participants

It needs to be TurboTax® for sustainability reporting! ~ Matt Ellis, CEO Measurabl

Process & Contributions

• Conducted interviews with founder to gain insight into how the industry approaches sustainability data collection and reporting
• Conducted interviews with real estate portfolio managers and sustainability officers to gain insight into their responsibilities, current practices and common challenges — created user roles and personas
• Created user story/workflow maps highlighting data collection methodologies, key decision-making points and common challenges
• Conducted team design exercises to build user empathy and understanding around existing workflow and challenges
• Developed low-fidelity interactive wireframes - used to guide team design sessions and conduct usability testing sessions
• Wrote foundational front-end code of product - used as working prototype for ongoing usability testing. Resulting HTML and CSS became product build templates in Angular
• Managed a junior level designer, design team goals and workflow within an agile development team

Design exercises with team members built user empathy and a common understanding of the problems we were trying to solve.

Low-fidelity, interactive wireframes were created throughout project to guide team discussions and conduct user feedback sessions

A step-by-step approach, much like TurboTax® was incorporated to collect and compute sustainability data for each reporting platform

Outcomes

• Initial usability testing generated rapid internal adoption amongst team members
• Delivered a beta product allowing pilot participants to submit reports to the GRESB and CDP reporting platforms
• Each of the pilot participant groups estimated time saved for completing the entire reporting process to be 50% or more using measurabl
• Beta version was delivered on time and the four pilot participants completed and submitted their reports by report submission deadlines!

“This is so much friggin easier!” ~VP of Sustainability, CBRE Global Investors

• Achieved a NPS of 100
• Sales team signed up 16 new accounts the following quarter utilizing beta success stories and pilot participant testimonials. Exceeded goal to get ten new accounts by 60%!
• Measurabl has gone on to become the industry leader in the sustainability monitoring and reporting space. Intuit is now a client and claims Measurabl is indeed the “TurboTax® of sustainability reporting”!
• Much of the initial platform design is still utilized and built upon in the product today

A simple dashboard gives users a holistic view of energy and water consumption, as well as carbon and waste output

Report surveys are presented in a simple, interview format. Location within section and completion status of each module is presented every step of the way

Building analytics gives users a year-over-year comparison of their portfolio

Response Check involved Measurabl reviewing survey answers for improper computations and answers that might result in a lower score. We took responsibility for the content of client’s reports and ensured the best scores possible

Users can upload data from spreadsheets or connect to common energy data resources

Profile and subscription management. Simple :)

What I Learned

• Initial user feedback sessions taught us Portfolio Managers weren’t sustainability experts. Offering pre-computed answers and computation examples for the trickier questions were standout features. This spurred a service called, Response Check. Measurabl reviewed reports for inaccurate computations and answers, ultimately taking responsibility for the quality of a report (resulting in a premium billable service)
• We developed a concept of “the coach” early on to help embody our product personality. For example, “Your numbers are below average for a building this size. Well done! Give the building management team a round of high fives!”
• Learned the importance of relying on user-centric data to inform product design — solutions for the many rather than the most vocal
• Portfolio Managers appreciated knowing what they were getting into so they could select a manageable task for a particular amount of time. This resulted in time estimates and progress indicators throughout survey workflow
• Gained a lot of domain knowledge around commercial real estate, sustainability practices and reporting goals
• It felt really good to help organizations improve their carbon footprint and become better global citizens!

The team getting ready for our pitch at SXSW

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