Design is the Differentiator: Bringing New Design Innovations to a Very Antiquated and Very Large Industry
Summary
Technology and design are at the heart of the innovations Compass delivers to thousands of real estate agents. Compass Founder and CEO Robert Reffkin and Sr VP of Design & UXR Greg Petroff chat about the industry and the opportunity for design to make a difference. Learn how technology and design make Compass stand out and deliver digital innovations in a massive industry. Hear about the Compass culture of learning and collaboration that is at the core of high-performing design teams. See how design scales its efforts with the help of product and engineering partners and a powerful set of entrepreneurial principles.
Key Insights
-
•
Focusing on maximizing strengths instead of compensating weaknesses was a pivotal career realization for Robert.
-
•
A solutions-driven culture avoids killing ideas with 'no' and instead proposes alternative paths to keep momentum.
-
•
The 'movie montage' mindset is a mental trick to positively reframe hard work and persistence in challenging periods.
-
•
Compass views real estate agents as entrepreneurs who orchestrate complex, collaborative workflows involving many stakeholders.
-
•
Designing for Compass users requires accounting for extreme diversity in age, experience, and socioeconomic background.
-
•
Collaborative workflows that integrate multiple roles and views will define the next decade of design in real estate tech.
-
•
Robert champions learning from reality by asking customers what they want and integrating existing ideas rather than inventing blindly.
-
•
Compass’s four key design focus areas are building a mobile-first platform, video-first content creation, AI-based recommendations, and seamless collaboration.
-
•
Having a CEO actively involved and invested in product and design accelerates innovation and user empathy in Compass.
-
•
The 'rocking chair test' encourages considering long-term life satisfaction when making day-to-day work and personal decisions.
Notable Quotes
"Stop trying to make your weaknesses a strength, just minimize weaknesses and maximize your strengths."
"People say no, and it sucks the energy out of the room. Instead, offer three ideas to keep the ball moving."
"I live my life like it’s a movie, visualizing the montage of hard work turning into transformation."
"Real estate agents are entrepreneurs at the center of the most collaborative workflow I know."
"There are 700 software providers selling to two million agents; most didn’t work until they did."
"The greatest advantage you have in life is the speed at which you learn."
"Most business winners are not the inventors but great integrators of existing ideas."
"Mobile-first is critical because real estate is the largest mobile profession without a full app for business."
"Collaborative workflow with permissions, task assignments, and multiple stakeholders is the next big design challenge."
"The rocking chair test helps you evaluate if you’re living a life you won’t regret when you’re old."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"We’re not trying to change behavior, but help researchers in their existing processes to make research faster."
Kate Towsey Basel Fakhoury Oren Friedman Graham GardnerParticipant Recruitment and Management Tools
March 12, 2026
"We saw documentation time reduced by 64% after six months of using the AI tool."
Jennifer KongJourneying toward AI-assisted documentation in healthcare
June 5, 2024
"Having a business background is almost the oldest form of product management, but great product requires balancing design and tech too."
Kevin M. HoffmanTheme 2: Enterprise Team Journey
June 3, 2019
"Making your chief legal officer your best friend as a designer makes a lot of sense."
Amy MarquezINVEST: Discussion
June 15, 2018
"That’s the kind of feature that never would have made it to the top of anyone’s backlog without design."
Gretchen AndersonScaling the Human Center
June 8, 2017
"The division between haves and have-nots is real, but history shows periods of immense innovation and progress can follow."
April ReaganLook, Think, Act: The Futures-Smart Design Organization
October 1, 2021
"Only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job onboarding new employees."
Dante GuintuHow to Crush the Talent Crunch
September 8, 2022
"If you organize your design system device agnostic, you can update one component with all desktop, mobile, and tablet versions inside."
Jaime CreixemsBest Practices when Creating and Maintaining a Design System
June 7, 2023
"Wireframes don’t add value to the product, customers don’t buy and install wireframes. The true value is the wireframing process."
Billy CarlsonPrinciples of Team Wireframing
October 2, 2023
