Project Goal:

Google’s Real Estate and Workplace Services team is responsible for all aspects of the company’s physical workspace. A majority of the team’s effort is related to commercial real estate activities. Within REWS is a Global Services Team focused on data deliver, especially on real estate data quality and integrity.

Problem:

• Real Estate Global Data Team growing quickly (along with entire REWS organization)

• Increased demand for metrics - gathering and using data to inform business decisions for real estate purchases, project budgeting, move management, etc.

• Lack of communication left people frustrated (on the team: working hard but getting no recognition. Outside the team: confusion of what data exists, how to find it and how to use it).

Solution:

• Identify and implement tools to identify and organize data, communicate available data along with current processes and procedures for using it, define and communicate team accomplishments (get recognition and justify further resources).

• Interface with various groups within the organization to identify and clarify data needs for decision-making and define special data integrity projects.

Outcome:

• Created a number of topic glossaries to clarify and define important terms for real estate planning, space classes and measures, construction project management, etc.

• Document and visualize existing processes to facilitate team discussions about what works and needs improvements, as well as clarify to external teams what services are offered, and how to interact with the team. The document was converted to an employee-training manual. 

• Increased communication throughout the organization.

• Developed a glossary so that people are now unified in using the same terms.

• Created decks to communicate key concepts and processes right when they were needed.

• Created and socialized a location taxonomy (street, city, state, country) for all Google properties, worldwide, which were adopted across the organization.