Melissa McCusker

Great post Melissa. Prior to covid, I worked from home a lot. So when our company made the decision to have everyone work from home during the pandemic, it wasn’t a big change for me. However, it WAS a big change for us all in the sense of collaboration and communication in this new environment. We were all trying to figure out this new way of doing business as usual. This software sounds like it brings a sense of normalcy back to the office. One of the biggest complaints I had about working from home prior to covid was that I felt like that saying was true… “out of sight, out of mind”. Sometimes I would miss conversations or meetings, etc. because of not being right there in the office and readily available (even though I was only a call or zoom away). Now that we’re all working from home, I love the idea of this centralized way of keeping in touch with colleagues. I would be interested in know how this would work with organizations after covid and when employees return to work. I imagine there will still be employees working from, like me, so it will be interesting to see how a program like this helps everyone feel fully included.

I’ve never heard of this software before but reading your post and learning about it’s capabilities has me really excited to try an implement it at work!
I also work in the multifamily industry, specifically, I’m a Leasing Manager. When COVID first started, we closed our office doors to the public and only did virtual tours. It was the first time my company had done anything virtually–which was quite shocking to me anyway. With everyone being mobile and on the go all the time, virtual tours should’ve been implemented a long time ago!
That being said, we are currently conducting virtual and self-guided tours and I think this software could be used to help us further market these “virtual” tours. It would also really help us collaborate with our sister properties all around the U.S. to be able to learn what they’re doing differently at their properties and what we can implement at our property. It’s good to know there are softwares like this out there to help along the virtual work space and my hope is that these types of softwares will be further developed depending on the industry to really help remote work take off.

Whoooooa, what? I’ve never heard of such a thing! This is such an informatiive post, thank you Melissa! My company spent millions of dollars on our new headquarters in downtown Chicago. It is top of the line and cutting edge in every way; online conference room reservations integrated with Outlook, Innovation tech labs, open concepts, ergonomic and function appropriate work spaces, the works. Once COVID hit, I was so sad not have this space to go to every day. My teams’ interactions are reduced to Webex meetings and virtual happy hours. Having something like this sounds so interesting and valuable for that in-person connection. I don’t know how long the company has been around but similarly to my company within my industry, they sound well positioned to service the abrupt and immediate needs COVID created in the new ways of working. Now I’m curious if my company could benefit from such a service. I have to imagine that companies all over the world are looking at long term solutions as the pandemic causes an evolution in the way we work.. Companies all over, while scrambling to reduce costs, are taking a hard look at their leases and office work space rental. While offices sit empty due to shutdowns caused by COVID, the commercial real estate investment industry also took a major hit; approximately 29% or about $321 billion in the first 6 months of 2020 over that of the prior year (www.us.jll.com). I don’t think anyone is in the position of predicting what the physical work space looks like 6 months,, 2 years, 5 years from now, but I do agree with you that there is an opportunity to meet this need with a digital innovation such as Sococo!

Great post, Melissa! I have never heard of this software. But what stands out to me is the way it mimics the workflow in the office. Knock on the door, lunchroom, chat options provide a very interactive function that increases the team’s proximity (in the psychological sense) in the environment of physical distance. My question to you is, how does it affect productivity? Does it amplify or reduce it? What other value(s) does it provide? In the post COVID world, working remotely seems like an avenue most organizations take. Advanced software like the one described attempts to bring co-workers as close to “face to face” as possible. But do you think it can be a solution to replacing the office space permanently? Data shows that productivity indeed grows in working from home scenario. What has your experience uncovered? Which space do you prefer: home or office?

An interesting article about rediscovering the power of working from home:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriswestfall/2020/05/20/new-survey-shows-47-increase-in-productivity-3-things-you-must-do-when-working-from-home/#1811ccc80dc8

Melissa,
This is a really interesting tool for remote work. We have moved to almost an entirely remote work environment and one that some really like and others absolutely hate. I’m one of the ones that likes it – primarily because I’m way more efficient without the never ending string of people coming into my office. Sococo might return that string of people to entering my virtual “office”, but I’m a little lucky in that a number of the people I work with haven’t embraced varying tools for remote work. Rather, they wait until I’m on campus (two days a week) and then my entire day is filled with mask-on, face-to-face meetings. We use Microsoft Teams which allows us to video chat, create common files and work as a team remotely, as well as host larger meetings. Microsoft Office and Zoom are the two main platforms that our college uses, but there are clearly a number of great tools for the “new” remote work world. Thanks for introducing us to this tool!

This is super interesting! We’ve been struggling to find ways to stay connected with everyone working from home. The introvert in me is totally fine with being remote, but I’m definitely in the minority at my current job. I’d love to see this connect to more apps than hangouts and slack – if they created a Microsoft Teams integration we could try this!
Thanks for sharing.

Great article Melissa. My family has experienced this. My son was accepted to receive behavioral and speech therapy just prior to covid. Prior to covid, my wife and I were planning to take turns going to the therapist sessions, which is about hour commute away. It actually makes for a long day and would require us to take a day off from work that day. Luckily, the hospital where we were going to go for our services almost immediately offered tele-health as an option. This change in their process helped us immensely. For one, it saved a great deal of time in our day. Both my wife and I could attend the sessions along with our son. We are all staying safe. As great as this pivotal process change was for us at the time, there are some sessions we’re just not able to do through a virtual experience. With that in mind, it will be interesting to see if we can work with the therapist to pivot, innovate and transform even further.

Melissa- awesome post. The customer journey for therapy definitely had to take a major shift due to COVID. To answer your question, I do think therapy sessions could benefit from being virtual. I agree with you that the comfort of your own home if a huge benefit. The convenience of having a session virtually is also a huge benefit; especially if you have children. It also makes scheduling an appointment much easier around work schedules. Post COVID, I feel that there should be an option to choose whether you would like to have your session in-person or virtually. Some people may like the in-person conversation while others may feel more comfortable sharing while in their own space.

Mental health places a $238 billion strain on the US healthcare system. All too often, the system does a poor job of helping those in need. Due to the pandemic regulations have been eased, and more patients are comfortable within the telemedicine environment. I believe the shift from traditional medicine has been accelerated.

I like having processes in place for design. For example, creating an official style guide and making it available to everyone in an organization helps prevent the wrong logo version or font from being used. One thing I’ve run into though is a conflict in client priorities. For example, they might need a website yesterday, but their branding isn’t fully in place. In those situations, I find that it’s sometimes ok to run forward with what we have. Then later, once they are in a more relaxed state, they are ready to circle back and address some of those more foundational elements. Flexibility in process is a great trait to have to make sure people’s urgent needs are addressed first.