Disrupting Office Space - WorkEverywhere
Methods & Outcomes
- Strategic research and discovery
- Customer journey mapping
- UX design and prototyping
- Messaging and investor narrative
- Algorithm design and implementation
Team
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What happens when real estate innovation starts with human needs, not just buildings?
Highlights
WorkEverywhere is a startup rethinking the way enterprises and individuals access office space. With two products in development, OfficeX and Joie, the company turned to DFFRNT to shape their product direction, clarify value propositions, and design user-centric experiences.
DFFRNT conducted foundational UX research, mapped customer journeys, and designed a proprietary algorithm that powers the platform’s matchmaking engine. Beyond product definition, DFFRNT helped refine messaging for investors and clients, always centering the real users, decision-makers and workers at the core of the platform design.
The Client
WorkEverywhere is a business-to-business digital marketplace for commercial real estate. The founder, Shegun Holder, is a seasoned executive with experience at Knotel, a major competitor to WeWork. He envisioned WorkEverywhere as a flexible, experience-oriented alternative to legacy real estate models, but needed help translating that vision into usable, market-ready products.
The Challenge
With only early-stage ideas in hand, WorkEverywhere needed to define and validate two products:
- OfficeX: a scalable office space marketplace for enterprise clients
- Joie: a discovery platform for individuals seeking nontraditional workspaces
The commercial real estate sector lacked digital maturity, and users—whether enterprise HR leaders or freelance creatives—had diverse and under-met needs. DFFRNT needed to cut through assumptions and create usable, human-centered solutions from the ground up.
“I started this conversation as a real estate person and I would talk strictly about bricks and mortar but DFFRNT kept bringing the conversation back to users and intentionally forcing me to think about the real purpose of this product. What is its impact on humans, both the ones making decisions and the ones experiencing the workspace?”
The Solution
DFFRNT began with strategic research to understand both the B2B and B2C sides of the market. For OfficeX, they mapped customer journeys for decision-makers in HR, operations, and legal, focusing on how to remove friction from a trust-heavy, fragmented real estate process.
DFFRNT then helped define multiple use models and developed a matching algorithm that connected enterprise clients with appropriate spaces based on a mix of preferences, brand needs, and operational requirements.
For Joie, the team explored how workspaces could be reimagined as cultural or community hubs, enabling individuals to work in spaces that matched their lifestyle. The algorithm for Joie uses AI and machine learning to pair users with spaces that align with their interests and behaviour.
The Outcome
DFFRNT delivered a prototype, strategic messaging, and product architecture for both platforms. They also created core intellectual property, namely the unique matching algorithm, that forms the foundation of WorkEverywhere’s competitive differentiation.
WorkEverywhere is now positioned to scale both OfficeX and Joie as distinct but complementary solutions: one focused on enterprise relationships, the other on individual experience and lifestyle alignment.
Key Takeaways
- Transformational innovation starts with understanding user behaviour
- Commercial real estate is ripe for disruption through digital experience design
- Matching algorithms are most powerful when shaped by real user needs
- Product vision is strengthened when paired with investor-ready narratives
- User research can challenge founder assumptions and unlock better solutions
“I know a lot of design firms could claim they focus on the customer and the user, but DFFRNT’s willingness to push me to really think about the user of my product and their insistence on research sets this firm apart. They did not just accept what I was saying about the market. They went looking for insights rather than accept my thoughts and my biases as fact.”
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