Ophelie Harbonnier 5:57
I love my introduction and Minersville super special. What a gorgeous, thank you so much. It was really and you did it all on your own. I didn’t write anything down for you.
Rolando Rosas 6:10
Oh, wow. And we had some help from somebody internally that we call Eddie Eddie is our our vert or cheap, chatty PT, we call him and he’s just a chatty PT is just too hard on the tongue. And around here, we call it Eddie. And Eddie helps massage the words that we have does a really good job writing. So I can’t get all the credit. I can’t think I can be honest and take all the credit. Well,
Ophelie Harbonnier 6:35
it was fantastic. I felt definitely flattered. So thanks very much for the introduction. Thank you for having me on the show.
Rolando Rosas 6:42
We are so honored to have you on on the show today, we want to dive into a number of things with your expertise today talk about what is it like in the office, you know, the office today, if we were you and I were sitting down in 1945, and talking about the office, the experience is going to present itself in a certain way. If we were talking about the office in the 90s. And what the office means we would talk about it in a certain way, and what it means to people in the office. And now today, the office really means something different than it did in all those eras. And so that’s why we wanted to chat with you. Because there are some things that are just happening really fast right now with what the office should look like, what should be in there, what the experience should be like, what are users saying that they like or don’t like? And we found some amazing examples that surprised us when we’re talking about user experience. What is surprising you today when you talk to folks about the Office experience? Well,
Ophelie Harbonnier 7:47
now that we people are started coming back to the office, they are really expecting the office to have the same simplicity of use, that they have back home, right. They they’re we’re so comfortable working with a laptop and maybe a little camera, maybe a headphone, sometimes they didn’t. But at least they were in their environment that was a laptop that they they know. And coming back into the office with maybe certain meeting rooms with technology. That is from what I hear sometimes just not even inviting visually, because you have cables all over the place. You don’t trust that it’s going to be working because other people have been using it before you and maybe done flip something to change the source on the on the on the screen, there is a lot of apprehension going back into the office for that, you know, the a lot of people don’t trust the technology because they feel that it’s not going to serve them. So that’s one thing, but at the same time, people need to get back into the office because of that social aspect of connecting with individuals just having a coffee and talking about other things, you know, other than work, it’s just very beneficial.
Dave Kelly 9:06
Sure. Do you see do you see a change with kind of the modern office design? You know, so we’re trying so so some organizations are trying to accommodate a future a worker from the future? You know, it’s 2023 it’s not 2020 They’re trying to get people productive spaces to try and to lower them in. Have you seen any changes with the modern office layout and design? Absolutely.
Ophelie Harbonnier 9:36
One thing already I mean, this is this is going back to what you were saying Ro about, you know, like going back to the office but being interrupted all the time. And it takes that scientific proof is that 23 minutes of getting back mentally into what you were doing when someone just walked by. And if you don’t have a headset on your head because That’s a sign that you might be in a call. If you maybe just like reading something, they’re gonna come up to you and say, Yeah, did you watch the football game last night? Did you watch the basketball game now like, yeah. And then you start being dragged into that conversation and you forget what you were doing. And then maybe you might be switching to another email, which is something else. And as we say, in French, there might be holes in the racket, which means that you might have made some mistakes in what you were doing because of that interruption. And it is definitely stressful. So what it is that you can do to prevent that from happening, it’s definitely to have a visual cue to the people around you. Like a headset, right over your head. Sometimes I just have one, I don’t even I’m not even have a call, but I just don’t want to be interrupted.
Dave Kelly 10:49
It’s a nice indicator. You know, you touched on something. So I just want to break into it here. So you mentioned you know, switching from one task to another. The Harvard Business Review did a study recently that revealed some some pretty interesting facts, employees can switch between 22 different apps nearly 1200 times daily, that mental juggling takes a huge toll. It increases stress it slows productivity undermines focus. So now enter Global Teck Worldwide, two decades of experience in business communications, they’ve mastered the art of unifying communication tools, from voice to SMS, video, email, and more. And by integrating these disparate systems, they cut through the clutter efficiently and helping to reduce the effects of context switching. So if you’re ready to liberate your team from that toggling texts, tax and supercharger efficiently at your efficiency, check out global-teck.com and book an appointment and consultation so that they can see if they can help eliminate those effects of context switching and do some consolidations on your, on your communication platforms. But yeah, you know, going in between, you know, one item to the next, if one of those things is a coworker, interrupting you to see if you watch the big game last night, it’s okay, just because you have nothing to do doesn’t mean I want to be interrupted. But now that you’ve interrupted me, it’s going to take me 15 minutes to refocus on the task at hand. Yeah, those sorts of distractions, I can see how leaving a headset on and almost pretending like you’re on a phone call when those people walked by that might help. You know, it’s funny, we used to, we used to sell the busy light. So within the
Ophelie Harbonnier 12:50
guy was gonna talk about those the little cubes that show the color of your status used to something on Sky. And now you can still some of us don’t have those. So it’s when it’s red, you know that the person back there you just like, cannot talk to you because they’re in a call. Yes, that’s what you were talking about. Dave, right.
Dave Kelly 13:09
That’s what I was going to talk about. But in my opinion, in my experience, and my experience, you can have a you can have nine strobe lights that are saying do not do not do not. People that are going to interrupt are just going to stand there and wait and watch for it to turn off.
Ophelie Harbonnier 13:30
Alright, so here is actually one thing that you guys can do. And that is something Yes, absolutely pro tip for a pro tip is to it’s to equip some some very small areas with video conference in units. And it hasn’t we call them like a phone booth. That could be called bubbles and whatever, whatever you want. There are tiny areas that nobody’s gonna really like knock on the door bother you because you really in there on your own. And you really nicely focused on what you have to do. All right, so, of course, I’m in the front Poly house. And we have some really awesome devices to help you get to being productive in small areas, even those who don’t have like lighting or maybe want to stand up and still be visible even though you’re setting up and without readjusting the camera angle or spinning off. So if you want to check out I mean hey, gotta give a huge shout out to my, my some of my products. The PDF team is really great. It’s a collaboration bar that is that that gets its intelligence from being plugged in to your computer has an awesome camera. You can even actually use it with a couple of people. And trust me when you’re in those bubbles, you really save from a hoard of those same common grapes in support.
Rolando Rosas 15:03
Yeah. And so that’s I just want to remind you, because I love the suggestion on the P 15. So the P 15. is a wonderful, that’s a huge upgrade. Thank you, Ori. It’s a wonderful camera. And if you want to check out reviews on that we did deep dives on, it works, what you look like what you sound like, and how to get the best view on that, because there’s some tweaks with the software that will take the actual viewing experience, from ordinary to extraordinary. So you don’t look blown out and washed out when folks watch you on camera. So go ahead, check those out. And if you hit rewind a few times, and you got to go through play by play or step probably will up your game when you’re on video. So thanks for that reminder. Love that. Check out those episodes. So one of the things that you’re hitting on is that new experience had like a phone booth, where you can essentially be left alone. So you don’t have the experiences Dave was talking about? Yeah, he’s in office. And I know that in an office yet like this right there. There’s no like, there’s no, it’s semi private. These offices look great. They look awesome. What we uncovered were some things that really surprised us when it came to different offices. So LinkedIn recently did a whole redesign. And who wouldn’t want to work in an environment it’s just, I can imagine if I’m coming out of college, I’d want to be there you got in probably an organic coffee shop and deli and we got this this nice little patio kind of French setting. French gardens of sort. This is killer. It is beautiful, beautiful. You know what what struck me was what happened earlier this week. WeWork announced they were going bankrupt. I don’t know if you caught that. No way. Yes, they filed for bankruptcy. What’s surprising about that? Yes, I know. What’s surprising about that already, go ahead and put up some of the the images there from WeWork. offices, I want you to tell me what you’re seeing here because what happened to WeWork, I would happen to WeWork, they received $10 billion in investment. The biggest contributor was Softbank, along with some of the other investors like Benchmark Capital JP Morgan, Chase, Goldman Sachs, to name a few that went in and invest look at these offices,
Dave Kelly 17:34
all your true Darden.
Rolando Rosas 17:37
Luxurious. But still, even with all that backing, the I’ve been in them, and I love going in I’ve had clients that had office spaces there, they just Uber luxury, everything that you think office worker wants, whether it’s super casual, ultra luxury, you know, couch is all the things that people have been talking about the last few years that they want in an office, we work at, you know, you could you could pour yourself a beer or a drink. Now they’re bankrupt. What what say you about that, you know, I know it’s there we go, there’s the style rice as well, a couple of days ago, it hit 84 cents, they actually did a x a reverse split of 40 to one because they have to their stock has to be $1 to stay on the New York Stock Exchange. So they did a reverse split. And so you can see that they were valued at $47 billion. And now they’re a fraction of that.
Ophelie Harbonnier 18:42
I couldn’t I could imagine a couple of reasons why that happened. Number one would be that a company’s like a had a procedure and process for people to have to go back into the office at least three days a week, that could work they, you know, no longer like working five days a week. You know, I know that with hp. This is what happened. Well, they didn’t want to work for Walmart, but then they had to because COVID And then they they got you know, that routine, and they didn’t want to go back. So then the company had to implement the setup of having to get back into the office, you know, according to whatever the needs that they had. That’s one thing people going back to the office. So you have that rent that is expensive, large office, you need to make that but if you don’t force people quote unquote, saying, Okay, you need to be in the office, at least, you know, a couple of days or three days a week. They won’t they won’t go back. All right. Right. And one thing that I that I saw, what do
Rolando Rosas 19:48
you think that is? What do you think that is that so now people you said things changed. This is you know, early pandemic mid pandemic, people were getting used to do like my own private bathroom? Oh, why don’t go 90 minutes into downtown, maybe I can live somewhere else where the rent is lower, or I have a little bit more trees and open space, is this.
Ophelie Harbonnier 20:15
Right? It’s worth like work life balance. I mean, nothing stops you from working super early in the morning, and taking a shower, two hours later, nobody’s gonna know that the work is going to be done. And then you can, I don’t know, like, do laundry and then go get your kid and prepare dinner and still work. So you’re super efficient all the time. But eventually, if you look at the number of hours of work that you do when you’re working from home, you’re exhausting yourself. Because there’s, there’s nonstop of that. And I was talking to a colleague today who does, she’s she’s single, she doesn’t have any children. And it’s even harder for that type of population to put themselves or stop to work. Right? Because they feel like well, I don’t Well, you know, well, maybe I can’t do that, that call late with a US.
Rolando Rosas 21:09
It’s the kids or nothing, or a spouse or whatever, you know, I can I could be up late at midnight answering emails.
Ophelie Harbonnier 21:16
So well, yeah, that are like it happens a lot to like men and women like that. They really got to push themselves really hard, even like very young population where they really want to show off that they want to work and they’re still available. And now we have great technology to do that. I mean, we’re talking about, you know, like being a little bit isolated with with great camera, but we have some fantastic headsets. Now, we I mean, I have one let me go get it. Sure. You’re setting that? Oh, you guys. You guys have this fantastic technology we can bring like the products like Oh, yes.
Rolando Rosas 21:57
It’s awesome. Let me see. Let me get
Ophelie Harbonnier 22:01
one of my favorites. One of my favorite and look at this guy. I mean, this one
Dave Kelly 22:09
aggressive with so that
Rolando Rosas 22:13
somebody takes it home, right? They needed to withstand some abuse, right? They see you kind of twisting and turning it there, right? Yeah,
Ophelie Harbonnier 22:20
but this is what we do. I mean, we go when we drop them on the floor. I mean, this is the Voyager, the quality Voyager focus to it has a great boom and has a scent, like so much technology embedded in the booth. And I make calls on the train with this guy.
Rolando Rosas 22:38
What, wait a minute, wait a minute, you can?
Ophelie Harbonnier 22:41
Yes, you can, you can be up. I mean, I’ve been into really funky situation that I will not mention here. Because that could be held against me. But you can trust this one to do whatever you want. Nothing is going to be retransmitted people. Sometimes they’re like, Oh, you’re so lucky to be working from home. And you’re like, I’m kind of like on the train.
Rolando Rosas 23:04
On the train. You turn on the
Ophelie Harbonnier 23:07
video, and they’re like, Oh my God, you’re on the train. That’s awesome. This is this is really fast.
Rolando Rosas 23:12
I love that. I love that. Look, it’s it says if you went through our YouTube channel, because we’ve got a really funky test we did a while back ago with that same headset outside running, I took my dog and kid and we ran around a soccer field with it to kind of just just prove a point, kind of like what you’re saying. Another one that if you want to go check out if you want to see what that actually sounds like, go ahead and check out on our YouTube channel, the poly Voyager focus, too. And check out those demos. So you
Dave Kelly 23:44
know, just yesterday, I was I was meeting with Rolando, we were on video. He had that focus too on his head. And he was interrupted by his son. So his son came, he was just off frame in like half half in frame half offering. And I could tell that he was talking because Rolando was kind of looking at him and I could hear one side of the conversation. But he was not further away than three feet from the microphone on that headset. And I couldn’t hear him in the background. I could kind of tell that there was something there. But it was keeping I can see how that would be good in a noisy home office or in a noisy train. I was blown away by the noise cancellation on that microphone.
Ophelie Harbonnier 24:33
It’s true and you know what Dave I mean some people might be working along with a partner in the same house I don’t have an office that’s why I’m here in my living room. When I when I work on my kitchen table and and then I have my daughter is asking me to help them out with a homework and I’m gonna I’m gonna call I mean I know that people will see them. I could always get a black background and like Good
Rolando Rosas 25:00
wouldn’t have to be back. Wouldn’t want to have that background behind them. That’s good.
Ophelie Harbonnier 25:04
But, but at the same time, nobody hears what they’re what they say. So it’s, it’s really impressive, you have to test out and thank you for saying that. And I, you know, just remember you guys, if you have I mean, I know you know, but for the people that might be listening to what we’re talking about right now show, do upgrade your systems because they working better after the upgrades. If you’d rather have something inside your ears like little earbuds, such as these guys, I upgraded them.
Rolando Rosas 25:46
Voyager, Voyager 360. Love any display on it. I love, you know, whatever, you know what I like I really like about this, if we’re going or doubt for a second here, the display is a virtual mute button. And I’ve found that it’s just so I’ve had them in my ear. And I don’t have to look for the mute. I don’t have to do the I don’t have to do any, I don’t have to, you know, grab for clicking the mouse or the keyboard or anything. I just. And it’s especially when you’re using it on teams, or zoom or any of that stuff. Because it integrates with that makes life easier. So I can get up and walk around my computer and mute myself from the button that’s right on the display. And you know, the mutes everything out and then if I got to talk, I can just unmute by hitting that button there. So that is just like a genius feature that you guys came out with that I haven’t seen anywhere. I
Dave Kelly 26:43
gotta tell you my I gotta tell you my favorite thing, my favorite feature about the Poly Voyager free 60. Plus, I think I got that right. Ah, there’s a sensor in them if I’m listening to a podcast. So sometimes this happened last night, I’m listening to our Huberman podcast in the guest. I wanted to hear this entire podcast from beginning to end. I had one of it one year, but it might year. And I was preparing dinners. Someone came in someone from my family came into the kitchen. And I wanted to have this conversation. So I took that year. But I didn’t have the case, I didn’t even have my phone on me. It was just the earbud. And when I took it off and put it in my pocket, it paused the podcast for me. So I know that it left off exactly where I stopped listening. So I don’t have to guess that I hear that whole podcast with Huberman. So it has this that sensor in it. And then what’s so cool. After the conversation, they walk out of the room, I’m by myself again. And I just put it in my ear, and then it just resumes it just picks up and starts playing exactly where I was in. That’s just that blows me away.
Ophelie Harbonnier 27:57
That’s great. It’s pretty cool. And even even in calls and we were talking about closing teams are you there, like the sound quality is so good. And it’s not intuitive. Let’s talk a little bit about passion. Some people really don’t like having headsets over the head. Sure. All right, that is definitely more modern. So you know, for ladies that have long hair, or even men or you know, whomever has long hair, you know, having something in your ears that is a bit more modern, again, to have like, great professional features. You can use them. And here’s a little story, because of course, we’re good friends. And we love taking your customers out to dinner. And we did take our customers out to a very fancy dinner. And it did take two hours. Yes. And obviously I was, you know, I had to be in a call. And we’re stepping out of the restaurant. And I’m thinking I have to take this car because I don’t have time in their head back to back off. So they used to actually my version 360. Outside, he was raining. And the person that was over video with me could not hear anything around the rain or the customers are still with me that I had to apologize to. Like I’m sorry, I have to take this call today actually continuing on another call in the taxi cab. So I will not use these on a train. Okay, definitely not. But if you have some surround noises around you and you you really like that look and feel of very discreet little earbuds. These are right for you in that they have tons of features. As you mentioned, I really like that with those 20 without having to look for your phone. Right? Yeah,
Dave Kelly 29:39
right. Yeah, super cool. So as we talk, so we’re talking modern, we’re talking luxury. I have a question for you.
Ophelie Harbonnier 29:48
Yes.
Dave Kelly 29:48
Have you heard of the Expensify luxury lounge experiment?
Ophelie Harbonnier 29:55
Never what is that?
Dave Kelly 29:59
Rolando Wanna you want to dig into this was some of the video that we have? So I’ll do it again, the
Rolando Rosas 30:06
exists is this is another one,
Dave Kelly 30:08
just for the Expensify luxury lounge experiment. So
Rolando Rosas 30:13
did you know that so Expensify is a is a SaaS platform, right? That’s their their thing. But what they wanted to do was incentivize and Tice and bring office workers back to the office in their San Francisco offices. So they had a genius idea of making an ultra Uber work slash lounge that they dropped the crew $250 million on Oh, to put this lounge together, right. And the two, you just paid a $9, very, like easy $9 membership, the employees that a month to be able to access that lounges and also customers. And that experiment didn’t last very long. As a matter of fact, just two weeks ago, the company behind that lounge, closed it down, even though they dropped almost 200 A quarter of a million dollars to put this thing in place.
Dave Kelly 31:18
That was about last slide, I
Rolando Rosas 31:21
think, this lounge that which is ultra Uber, they had they had let me describe what they had. They had fresh cappuccinos served. And at 5pm, they would do a sabre of champagne. Forget
Ophelie Harbonnier 31:40
about it. People were not working, they were having fun. But
Rolando Rosas 31:44
wine splits. All right, so they haven’t fun. This is not work. This is fun. Again, you’re you’re the user person that you’re in touch with users. Yes, this should be in theory, something that should work, bring people back to the office. And it didn’t accomplish that goal. So show that they closed it down. Last week,
Ophelie Harbonnier 32:08
I’m going to tell you a story that actually happened. In our office, we have a special room that’s called the relaxation room. It has couches. And we have a huge screen that you can actually take games online, we haven’t football table, okay? We never go there. Because we have to work we’re too busy working, we don’t have time to go there. We never use them. The only time that I that I go into that room is when I’m so tired, that I just need a five minute piece all to myself. And I know that nobody goes there. So I can just rest for a few minutes have some quiet time. That’s the only time I go there. And when people like really feel like a little bit achy someplace, or they’re not feeling well, to actually go to go to that room is never used either.
Rolando Rosas 33:04
Do you? Do you find that fascinating? You know, if you were to ask me, or ask any employee that works in the corporate environment today? Yeah, say what could we do from an either design perspective, comfort perspective, ease of work, man, make it so that it’s easy for you to work, enjoyable to be there. Have some of the creature comforts you probably may not have at home. So that could entice people in you put all these things together. What are we missing? What? What are companies missing? Because we’ve got two good, really high profile examples here where we work can’t get any more ultra luxury from an office Commercial Office perspective. Yeah, and this other one where they dropped a quarter mil. When what are we what are we missing here? If we’re designing and we’re advising companies on the user experiences that did not bring the droves of people back to the office as anticipated.
Ophelie Harbonnier 34:02
I think although people might not feel bad about spending 20 minutes, five times a day at the coffee machine and chit chat. They still feel like they’re working. So it does not make them feel guilty. You see what I mean? If they go into a different room doing something else, they’re going to feel like oh my god, it’s like you know, we’re outside of work. And we’re doing really, you know, we’re not taking a proper break. This is not right. But if you have a nice coffee area with food and nice chairs. So what we have and I know that it works that that area people are going to gather there nationally to grab a bottle of water or a cup of tea or coffee. And each each and every one of us once in a while bring like brings out pastries and whatever you want. You know for snacks. It’s it’s a way where we can gather, but then we’re going to splint naturally Get back into our calls and, and do our things. Without, you know, it’s almost like a natural flow of work. It’s not outside work, where people are going to start feeling like they’re doing something almost like wrong. You know what I mean? It’s like, Oh, what am I doing here? I’m not doing that at all. What do you think? I think if what
Dave Kelly 35:25
are you what what’s your what’s your opinion on the we work spaces? So yes, I I don’t think video games and foosball tables in every corner. But just an area that couches comfortable seating no walls but you know, a table kind of an area for people to brainstorm you know, you put a put a nice leather chair out there. I’m all in, you know, if I can be kind of quiet. I have a space forever. Five, a big leather chair. I love that idea. But you know, they’re obviously investing. It was an experiment was a quarter of a million dollars. They wanted to lure people into the office with luxury amenities.
Ophelie Harbonnier 36:14
All right, let me ask you a question. I have a very nice couch and I love my couch is beautiful, it’s leather. Why would I go somewhere else, to use another beautiful leather chair, if I didn’t have some of my colleagues there to talk to which, which means that we have to organize ourselves to meet in that spy on the day of over here. I mean, when I when I talked to some of the colleagues and partners that I have working for Cisco, or working for Microsoft, they’re working from home all the time, and they really they miss that bond, that bonding with their colleagues, they really do, because they’re constantly behind their computer. But if you really want to meet with people, and if you don’t have an office where you could go there, and you don’t plan that out, it’s not going to happen, people gonna stay working coach.
Rolando Rosas 37:09
I love that. Okay, so it has to be intentional. That’s what it’s what I hear you saying, the gathering of people, if you leave it to just be organic, like, you know, whenever I’m just walking down the hall to go gray. That means you may not necessarily meet up with a bunch of colleagues. It’s, and you hear that expression being thrown around a lot? Oh, yeah, the water cooler conversation. That doesn’t happen all the time. Very frequently, it does happen. But doesn’t happen every day. It doesn’t happen four times a day, or 10 times a day. It may happen. It may not. But if you’re intentional about hey, one o’clock, we’ll have lunch together. What about what do you think about that? And then maybe organic conversations that so I hear you saying it has to be more intentional than just spontaneous organic conversations that can be kind of random. Is that? Is that about right? Or am I wrong?
Ophelie Harbonnier 38:02
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, in the office, though, I mean, I go probably the most with just a couple of other co workers. But it’s always nice when people come in, because they are they know that they’re always the other people. And then we can go have lunch together. And then we just like spontaneously go together. It’s not planned. Like, say it’s organic, but at least we have the main entry point where to meet. And I think that’s what, that’s what it is that people need. This is what makes them want to go back into the office, having almost like a family, into the office people that you can talk to and have a good laugh. You know, just sometimes, especially lousing is just that the best medicine ever, you know, just talking nonsense about the world makes it definitely more approachable. I mean, there’s so much there’s so much craziness happening in out there just to make, you know, nonsense jokes about things and being a little bit absurd is just, you know, you you get out of the office feeling like it was worth it. That was you know, it was worth it. It was worthwhile. I got to see this person, that person and we had, we had a good laugh. We had a good lunch. I was great. Do you think that
Rolando Rosas 39:23
so so today, right? Let’s let’s just use the phrase post pandemic because that’s what a lot of people are using today. Post pandemic. Some people are not getting that when they go to the office. I know. There’s a really good researcher, Professor Nick Blum of Stanford. He has he’s he does a lot of research now on on remote work or he’s has been for for decades now. And one of the things he says about the experience today is that people want to when it comes to their priorities now the priorities are different than they were today, three years ago, five years ago. So they cite that my priority now is to work somewhere meaningful. And to be able to have a little more flexibility when it comes to things outside of work where that before that was number four, or five or six, then it was here, it was all about work, life is all about work. So pay me the most, that used to be the number one thing. Yeah, people rate it. Now, that has take gone down to two or three, whereas now, my priority is maybe a little bit more more non work hours. I want it to mean something. And this has changed the way we work. And the future of work reflects that I have seen some news articles where Google has is reducing their leasing office profiles. So they’re reducing projects where they’re developing stuff, Amazon HQ two, which is in my backyard here in Northern Virginia, they were going to build out another tower that’s on hold, because even the first tower that went up, it’s not being utilized nearly as much is the need for rethinking the amount of office space, something you’re hearing from the enterprise folks that you’re talking to. Yes,
Ophelie Harbonnier 41:16
definitely. The business district where I work right now has tons of empty office spaces. They do and a lot of companies come because they need to move out. And usually it’s to smaller offices and further out into the into the suburbs of Paris. Because it does have that I mean, it is it is crazy. You talking about sometimes three millions a year in lease for for an office, that’s not that huge. You know, sometimes it could be just one floor out of out of a building. So imagine if you have three four floors in the building, it’s huge. So definitely yeah, and and reworking of those spaces because you still need those boardrooms. But there is a need also for much smaller spaces before to five people and sometimes just into individual like little areas.
Dave Kelly 42:17
What about some of the fun stuff, you know, bars and the foosball table and the champagne Fridays? You know, I used are you see are people thinking that this is a new idea? Like hey, you know, what if we gave some cappuccino machines that are really bring them in if we put some that’s gonna bring them in? Are you seeing that on your side? Um,
Ophelie Harbonnier 42:42
they don’t talk so much about it. But definitely coffee is one thing you know, if you have a coffee machine that’s broken, you know, it’s almost like telling people there will be no fries for lunch. You know? It’s cause for a main riot and strikes although that
Rolando Rosas 42:58
means you because you all have access to great coffee being in France. Yes. You probably don’t do what we do. And you’ve been out here in the States so you know what that the typical coffee machine is the one when you pull up Yeah, big rounds right and the dropper just a bunch of ground things and you put it back in your stomach. Do you see same coffee like machine or you guys on cappuccino where you got the dials and everything? The
Ophelie Harbonnier 43:25
dials which we have the little capsule coffee I mean, folks, I can’t see their names but Italian coffee. Yeah, it was a really good Oh,
Rolando Rosas 43:36
okay. I just wondering because I know the standard for coffee over there is not what it is here. And you guys think of it just like some I’ve heard sewer water being thrown around, you know, as a term for coffee.
Ophelie Harbonnier 43:49
But then again, if you go if you go to Italy, if you guys have tasted really Italian coffee, it’s like super small and it’s very, very strong and absolutely delicious. Italians make fantastic coffee. When you when you go out there on vacation. You can like I mean last time I went to Venice with my daughters. It was like coffee coffee. Yes. Mom again. Yes.
Rolando Rosas 44:12
So good. I loved it. I was out in Rome a couple years back and love the cappuccino, love the coffee, love the gelato, even the you know what, what surprised me the most. It’s not even the coffee, or the gelato, which was phenomenal because I went there in the summer. So it tasted awesome was that you can get pizza by the pound essentially cut it to the smallest piece that you want. They’ll throw it on the scale and that’s it. You want that cool. You want bigger, you know what cut you half of the pizza pie and give it to you. And that’s just like a unusual concept here in America. You get it by the slice, or by the pie that says
Ophelie Harbonnier 44:49
yes, that’s true. But remember though, I mean because you’re a tourist and then they’ll forgive you but you cannot in Italy as an Italian Have coffee with milk past 3pm? Really was no, this is something this is just you don’t do that. Really? You told me? Why? Because it’s like a heavy theme for breakfast. Like in the afternoon you have like the nice thread cafe, you know, like some really small, very strong and that’s it. Just remember, okay.
Rolando Rosas 45:24
Remember that that was definitely a pro tip. If I had
Ophelie Harbonnier 45:27
a Cheeto after 3pm they’ll forgive you.
Rolando Rosas 45:34
Well, uh, you know, what would you say, you know, as as we move into the future, what is from a from a company perspective? Now, if you put on your HP slash Poly hat, and you’re talking to clients, where is the future going from a technology perspective? What can we look forward to, that would improve, let’s say, the in home experience, and we talked a lot about the office, you know, the corporate office side and sitting in in the newer design? What about the home user? That’s like you said, there at home? We talked a little bit on the toys, like the Voyager focus to the P 15. Where’s the future? That where’s it going?
Ophelie Harbonnier 46:15
Well, there’s definitely some AI goodies that are coming our way. You know, I mean, you were talking about that beautiful introduction that Eddie made for me. Yes, it is so impressive. Like, can you think about everything else that’s gonna come up in the future with AI? AI is, to me something really, really super exciting, a bit scary. But I think we can reconnect, we’re entering a real like revolution, of, of the human race in with it with this artificial intelligence and how they, I think technology’s really going to help us out doing better things quicker, with less failures, you know, we were talking about, you know, the, the many interruptions that that, uh, that is causing issues, sometimes emails that we might have been writing or like, I don’t know, you’re filling out, like a cell in an Excel sheet and it’s wrong, or having three or five different things that you’re doing at the same time. And you know, you’re going to do them wrong. Oh,
Rolando Rosas 47:17
that’s I love that term. That’s context switching. Classic context switching is
Ophelie Harbonnier 47:22
we had a coach one time doing that for us is like, Okay, you write write down like a, like a string string of number. And then I’m going to, like, do the same thing, but I’m going to disrupt you all the time. And then you look at the result of it, all the numbers were multi jumble. And that was a proof. It’s like, you think you can do many things at the same time? You’re wrong, because you’re gonna do them, but you’re gonna do them with a lot of errors. And he was right.
Rolando Rosas 47:50
That is true. They have what’s the number that we cited that Microsoft says the about 1200 times or 3000? I can’t remember the exact number of times the average worker does context, which was it? 1200.
Dave Kelly 48:03
So it was the average, the average worker switches between 22 apps 1200 times daily tree, that’s crazy. It’s
Rolando Rosas 48:13
crazy. And we’re not aware of it as as a person, you know, on the computer all day long, you just not aware that that’s happening. But cognitively that load takes a task on workers working from home or from the office for that matter.
Ophelie Harbonnier 48:29
I if you if you ask me, personally, you know, where I would see AI really helping me out? You know, like, all those those thoughts that just like come and bother you all the time about did you do this? Did you do that? I picture that thought process as like, like a like very old lady with the little tiny glasses like in the 1950s? Do you do this? Did you think about your daughter’s like praises did all these things. And then there was like a was an Oxford study, if I’m not mistaken, them staying like Park those thoughts, write them down. Because if you don’t write them down, they’re gonna be like swirling around your head. And I’m thinking, you know, how about AI helps you out with that being your personal assistant, saying like, you know, just on your phone, you know, just look for a president for my daughter, like, she likes Harry Potter books, like, come up with some stuff, order them on it on Amazon, for crying out loud. And it’s done. Can you imagine I would love having a personal system. I told my daughters that it would be so great. Because neuro
Dave Kelly 49:37
link, you know, some some people say our best thoughts come to us when we’re in the bathroom or when we’re laying in bed. But if I can’t reach for, I can’t reach for a pencil. I have to convince myself that what I was thinking wasn’t something I should have been thinking, but get some neuro link in your brain and then you can just you just seem to be done.
Ophelie Harbonnier 49:57
I’ve been thinking about that too. I would love to record my dreams because sometimes I come up with some fantastic art pieces.
Rolando Rosas 50:05
I swear. So you’re into art?
Ophelie Harbonnier 50:08
Yes. Very much. Like I drew that one, that one and everything else that’s
Rolando Rosas 50:13
around the favorite artist of all time.
Ophelie Harbonnier 50:16
Probably Edward Hopper.
Rolando Rosas 50:20
I’m not familiar with him, but I’ll have to ask. Maybe Eddie could tell us. Give us some works on Edward Hopper.
Ophelie Harbonnier 50:28
This guy.
Dave Kelly 50:30
Ah, oh, wait, did he paint the New York diner picture? Yes. All right. That’s, yeah, that’s
Ophelie Harbonnier 50:42
the guy. You know it. He had some amazing, amazing a lot of people think of that it’s very sad and lonely. I just think it’s so beautiful. I love these art pieces. And I went to a an exposition that he had done in Paris that was in Paris, actually, definitely, of his watercolors that were just superb. Striking and colors. So and I love Rothko as well. Okay, good Rothko. Yes.
Rolando Rosas 51:15
Oh, there we go. Look at that. So already got their
Ophelie Harbonnier 51:18
own screen. You’re such an amazing yeah, look at you already. So quite good. If you if I have this.
Dave Kelly 51:27
Here it is. I said New York. I said New York diner then says Phillies on the outside so
Rolando Rosas 51:35
one, Phillies could have been the Phillies could have been another was Phillies Blount, there may be something or Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, you know, so who knows? It could have been in the Phillies or in New York. I’m not exactly sure.
Ophelie Harbonnier 51:48
But you knew you knew who that was? Yeah.
Dave Kelly 51:52
On my stage, and my son was just showing me that picture like last week? And he said, Yes. And he said, Have you ever seen this? I said, I said, Yes. I believe there’s been 1000 Memes made out of that, where they just kind of replaced some of the people. And he’s like, No, but do you know who the artist is? And I said, No. And then he told me and I said, that doesn’t ring a bell. And then here we are. A week two weeks later, and now he’s one of your favorite artists. So how about that?
Rolando Rosas 52:22
You get a clap. That’s a path.
Dave Kelly 52:25
What is the artist’s name again?
Rolando Rosas 52:27
Edward? Edward Hopper. Okay, thank you.
Dave Kelly 52:36
I’m gonna go tell my son how smart I became today.
Rolando Rosas 52:40
So hopefully, what what did you want to leave us with today, as we wrap this episode, in any, any thoughts, anything that’s on your mind? tips, tricks, or anything else, I leave it up to you, you have the floor, I
Ophelie Harbonnier 52:55
feel like we still have so much so many more things to cover you guys make. I think technology again, can you know it has to be for human beings to use, and to be more effective with, okay, we’re not trying to make technology to bother people, or to make their life complicated. Although today I was kind of fighting with my pitcher. But, um, it is also up to us to all the makers, you know, to really try and level to most of the people who are not techies, and make it simple for them to use. And I think I mean, I have to say that a lot of HP has like done, or they did a lot of videos to show people, you know how to use something because sometimes that’s what you just need to see something I’m lucky to have a great colleague that’s always there to help me out is like, Oh, please, I’m struggling here. And he’s like, and he’s the guy who actually taught me also how to how to connect, like, electricity need hang up my lighting. So what you need people, technology is great, but you don’t have to forget that people are there as well. You know, we should not be losing that, that connection, like we’re doing right now. I don’t know if maybe one day we’ll have a chance to, to meet in person. But that technology that we’re using right now is making us have a great time. We you know, we really exchanged thoughts and and I think it’s wonderful that’s what’s great to be a human being you know, is to to be with each other. Right? Well, I
Rolando Rosas 54:40
will take you up on that offer and the next time I am on a flight over to France or the UK because I certainly would love to the Hangout. Maybe you could show me some coffee shops I am dying for really
Ophelie Harbonnier 54:51
bring you to the wire. Okay.
Rolando Rosas 54:56
Hey, and I Yes, I’m down on Undine toe allein Okay, salutely you’re on lily. Wonderful. So we’ve we’ve had the wonderful the lovely, Ophelie Harbonnier. Did I say that? Did I say that?
Ophelie Harbonnier 55:13
Thank you. Yes.
Rolando Rosas 55:15
She’s dropped wonderful knowledge about the user experience in the office, he’s told us about the future of what’s coming out. You know, AI definitely will play a huge more and more of a role as we move forward. And it’ll be, I think, in part of all of our lives, whether we like it or not, it’s just kind of the way the technology is going nuts. That’s just what’s going to happen. And if you want to nerd out a little bit more, and you want to find out how to up your game when you’re using technology like this, and you want to look your best. We had a recent episode, with the one and only Neil Fluester from Crestron, as well as Phil, I have to get his eye and I’m gonna botch his name. Dave, you want to take a stab at Phil’s last name?
Dave Kelly 56:04
Eggebrecht.
Rolando Rosas 56:06
still come back on. Fix fix our pronunciation of your name. But I know Phil and Neil will both drop some serious knowledge on how you can easily up your video presence in our episodes, so go check those episodes out. Dave and I will join you in those episodes.
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