Lauren Xandra's guest appearances

Lauren Xandra

Everything VR & AR

XR for Business

Dave Beck

Anne-Marie Enns

Brandon Naids

Sikaar Keita

DJ Smith

Alan Smithson

John Buzzell

Talon Simulations

Lou Pushelberg

Julie Smithson

Terry Schussler

Jason Yim

Rori DuBoff

Kris Kolo

Jeremy Dalton

OwlTail

There’s not a lot of good coming out of the current situation affecting the globe, but if there is an upside, it’s the rare opportunity to learn from something this unprecedented. Through her work with National Research Group, today’s guest Lauren Xandra has been able to study newly-emerging work-from-home behaviours, and how that applies to XR adoption. Alan: Hey everyone, I'm AlanSmithson from the XR for Business Podcast, and today we're speakingwith Lauren Xandra, vice president of strategy and innovation atNational Research Group, a leading global insights and strategy firm,about the original research on XR, AR, and collaborations in a timeof Covid-19. All that more coming up next on the XR for BusinessPodcast. Lauren, welcome to the show. Lauren: Thank you so much forhaving me, Alan. Alan: It's my absolute pleasure.I'm in day 22 of my quarantine. Nothing really has changed in mylife, because I work from home anyway. So how are you doing? Lauren: I'm doing well. It's ahealthy adjustment for me, but it's rather timely that we're heretoday, because I'm excited to share new research, looking at howdifferent demographics are adapting to our work-from-home reality,and to share some exciting findings that we see in the space withnew, broader, addressable audiences for virtual solutions in light ofall of this. Alan: Well, the timing on this couldn't be any better. Some dedicated, hard-working people in this industry have banded together this week to pull together an XR Collaboration guide, talking about everything from security to device management to vendor selection to feature lists, and really put a lot of effort into creating a tool online that will give people the opportunity to figure out how these tools can be used for their business or school or education, and which one is the right one for them at the time, for the need they have. And so we're really excited about that, and the information on that will come out on XRCollaboration.com. So, Lauren, please tell me, what is the basis of this study? Lauren: Sure. So, when suddenlymillions of people -- seemingly overnight -- became remote workers,we're faced with these huge questions about productivity, state ofmind, social and cultural impact of the situation, and the lastingimpact, too. We really set out to understand how people are adapting,what pain points are felt across work-from-home, and in doing that,we can better understand and address whitespace to solve for thesepain points, to ease our adjustment to this new -- and bizarre --reality. I'd love to walk you through some ofthe key findings, perhaps starting with generational differences inadapting, and then perhaps looking at more industry-specificchallenges and opportunities. Alan: Sounds wonderful. Let'slet's dig in. Lauren: So we see that thepre-Covid-19 context really impacts different generations' concernsand expectations for the future. Probably one of the mostcounterintuitive insights is that the youngest in the workforce isactually the least well-equipped for work-from-home. The digitalreliance of this generation already makes them victims of socialdistance pre-Covid-19, and for them, the effects of isolation areamplified. The impact of Covid-19 on culture is really theirfront-of-mind concern. And here we're thinking about culture in termsof how we connect, how we collaborate. Gen Z has really struggled todisconnect from technology. They're citing irritation from too muchscreentime, bad work/life balance, well ahead of other groups. Andthis impacts mental health, with already about half of Gen Zprofessionals saying that staying home all day makes them depressed. And further still, they're lacking thenecessary technical and environmental setup to be as productive. Wesee this as a really key audience to benefit from potential that ARand VR presents. Firstly, AR and VR has a big base of Gen Z users,with about 40 percent identifying as users of both AR and VR. They'rejust waiting for the experiences. I would love to learn more aboutwhat's on that collaboration list, because there's so manypossibilities for how AR and VR can viably engage employees, maintainfocus, enhance creativity and connection -- particularly for thisyoung group that's suffering from missed face-time and interactionmentorship. Alan: Being able to regain somenormalcy in places that are familiar; I think there's going to be abig need for companies to recreate their traditional workspacesdigitally. Like, when you go to office, you feel like you're in theoffice. When you're at your home, it's not the same. Everybody hasbecome their own I.T. department, which is terrifying. Lauren: Yes, I'm sure we've allseen amusing examples of colleagues' children running towards thescreen and being blurred out into the Zoom background and the rest.Some really interesting virtual solutions have emerged, and willcontinue to. A personal favorite is Spaces. I love the concept ofusing virtual cameras as a webcam, so you can make use of equipmentthat's not actually available in your real-world environment, like aVR whiteboard, and communicate progress and integrate into existingapps like Zoom and Google Hangouts. I think we'll really continue tosee exciting solutions like that present themselves. Alan: It's an amazing storyactually. I know the guys at Spaces. They went from a company 100percent focused on location-based entertainment -- and of course, alllocation-based entertainment is shut down -- and they pivoted in avery short amount of time to create a tool that allows you to be inVR and see your Zoom calls, and the Zoom call people can see you inVR. And they pulled that off in weeks, from pivoting fromlocation-based arcade games to a business tool that we can use. It'sreally incredible. That team is very talented. Lauren: Yeah, that's fascinatingto hear about that fast pivot. And there's certainly -- beyond thisyounger generation's collaboration tools -- so many otherdemographics and industries [that] stand to benefit from othersolutions. When we look at more mature professionals like X-erswho've already lived through layoffs and significant hardship withthe recession, they're much more concerned about the economy by agreat margin, while ahead of concerns about culture, social, or theirpersonal life, their own professional development. But there's somesilver lining too; they're more pro-work-from-home, because they'remore self-sufficient. They generally don't mind staying inside forlong periods of time, and might enjoy the benefits of freedom andconvenience. Alan: Everybody, as they getolder and have kids and stuff, they move out to the suburbs, so theygot a little bit of extra space. Living in a 500 square foot condo ispretty awesome. The whole city is your living room. But when yourliving room is your living room, people are going to go nuts. Lauren: Yes. And you're right. Imean, this group has more space, generally-speaking, and is morelikely to be parents, of course. But parents generally, we see thatthe top paying point is distraction. And that makes sense. Alan: I keep muting myselfbecause my kids are banging around upstairs, I'm not sure what'shappening. But I can tell you from a distraction standpoint -- mykids are older, so I don't have to deal with them all the time.They've got things that we've given them to do -- but I can tell you,if you had a two-year-old running around? There's no way you could beproductive at home. So the new normal is a culture shock to people. Lauren: Absolutely. Yeah. Andthe need for e-learning to improve is sudden and significant.Families adjusting to school closures, through to medicalprofessionals who are continuing to practice important proceduresfrom remote locations. Alan: The amount of use casesfor this technology are endless, and they're not difficult to createthese scenarios, and the tools for creating rich, 3D scenarios arestarting to become easier and easier. So I think we're going to seeboth the adoption of the headsets much quicker than we would haveanticipated, but also the ability to create experiences and createfrom within experiences. I think this is going to be a hugeopportunity for the whole industry to shine. Why don't we talk about some realnumbers? Can you maybe walk us through the numbers of this? Lauren: Sure. So, this wasfielded March 14th to 15th, so we're a few weeks deep. And we'replanning a second wave as well in a couple of weeks' time. We surveyed over 1,000 people here inthe US, with criteria being that they must be either currently workfrom home or have worked from home in the past, and it's across 18 to54 years old. So it's a professional audience here in the US, areasonably-sized base, 1,010 -- a nationally-representative sample.Any other questions around size? Around the audience for this? Alan: Well, audience size, younailed. What did you ask them, and what were the results? In addition to better understandingwhat areas were front-of-mind concerns -- which we touched on alittle bit here [on the podcast] -- how certain audiences are moreconcerned about the economy or the market, particularly more matureaudiences. Alan: That's interesting thatthe age groups have different concerns at the same time. Where doeshealth concerns fall? If you to compare health concerns vs. economicconcerns? Lauren: We actually didn'tinclude health concerns, thinking that health concerns would bereally front-of-mind for all audiences. It would be interesting tobetter understand that, but we kind of thought about it across theframework of more kind of "Macro vs Micro." Alan: Maybe you could includethat in Wave 2: rank these concerns. Because I think the health careone. My prediction... I mean, I don't know. But my hypothesis wouldbe that younger people would rank health less, because they're notfearing of it. As you get older, the fear goes up. Lauren: Absolutely. Alan: The ranking getsreprioritized. Lauren: Absolutely. Yeah. Imean, what we did look at was in terms of more how health careprofessionals are adapting to this remote work norm, and how theirexperience is similar and different to other industries going throughthis. And we actually see that their concerns are pretty closelyaligned with those of education professionals. They're strugglingboth with distraction, but also missed access to the devices thatthey have at work, which makes a ton of sense. And of course, part ofthat is e-learning, which we are just speaking about. And another is,of course, turning to VR in 3D formats to better approximatereal-life interactions. Because crossing the chasm to virtualrequires a major practical shift in how business is done for thisgroup.  Alan: How are the opinionsdifferent in healthcare and education, as opposed to the businesscommunity? Was there a breakdown of that at all? Lauren: Yes. So we see that thetypes of experiences that they are gravitating towards are muchhigher for learning experiences, and then a range that makes sense inapproximating real-life interactions. So, things like travelinganywhere in the world in VR, visiting remote sites as if you werethere; 3D object identification and training to, of course, improveworkflow processes and engage with 3D objects virtually in real time;then thirdly, holographic communication or communicating inreal-time, to get close to real social exchange. Alan: So one could almost say"XR Collaboration."  Lauren: Yes, XR collaboration iscertainly broad brush strokes to capture their needs. Theseprofessionals too are much more secure about their own career andprofessional development. Of course, this is a real time of need forthem, but that's not true at all across the board. When we look atretail, hospitality professionals, other areas who rely uponin-person business but who are suffering more financially, already wesee two and three have heightened concerns about their own career andprofessional development. And of course, I think everyone's comeacross research by Harvard Business School that the averagesmall/medium businesses have 27 days of cash. Right? And Main Streethas an average of 16 days, making the speed of adjustment to newnorms really urgent. And another finding through this is that, whenwe look globally -- and this is based on some other research we'vedone tracking Covid-19 -- the impact globally, we see that thefinancial concerns of employees across geographies sort of correlatewith where they sit in the Covid-19 curve cycle. So here in the US,57 percent of employees believe the current situation is gettingworse economically, whereas in France and Spain, they've potentiallyreached the bottom and may foreshadow the trajectory for the US andothers. They're starting to see and feel a financial return -- itmaybe early to say -- but we kind of see these early economicindicators that are quite interesting, too. Alan: Incredible. The wholeworld is adjusting to a new normal. Now, how we adjust and how weadapt will dictate the future of the next exponential age ofhumanity. And I really kind of think this -- philosophically -- atleast we're giving the earth a break before the real pounding begins.And what usually comes out of recessions and the hard times and everytime we've gone through something like this global challenge -- neverbefore have we, first of all, had a combined challenge againsthumanity -- so hopefully this brings us together rather than pushesapart. I think there's an opportunity here for the whole world toband together, not only to get out of this and be successful; PeterDiamandis predicts more wealth will be created in the next 10 yearsthan all of previous human history. And I think this is more so thanever, because what this will do is give us an opportunity to realizewhat's important: what is important to our families? What do wereally need? What is an essential service? And also, we're going tofind efficiencies where there were none. Every time you go through ina recession or depression, businesses find new opportunities forefficiency. And I think A.I. automation, robotics, virtual/augmentedreality -- all of these things coming together at one time, and youhave everybody pushing on these levers, and the whole thing grinds toa halt. But people are still working on these technologies and it'sgonna get amplified. So when the economy comes back online, wheneverit is -- maybe it's a month, maybe three. Who knows? -- but when itstarts to come online again, I believe this will be the beginning ofexponential growth as we know it. Lauren: Absolutely. And I lovehow you emphasize how this growth really starts from a place ofindividual growth, from a place of reprioritization around whatmatters. Across broad research that I've done in the AR and VR space,one of the really unique benefits of this technology is aroundself-improvement. People see it as a medium for learning, fordiscovery, for becoming better versions of themselves. And in a smallsense, we see, of course, a trend towards fitness in these times.Even in recent weeks, usage of Beat Saber for fitness is seriouslyramped up. But in a bigger, broader sense, how we communicate -- howwe collaborate -- is quickly changing. And I hope that this medium,and this time period for reflection, will enable more meaningful,more thoughtful interactions. Alan: If we can't see each otherin person, the next best thing is being in a virtual space. And Ithank you, Lauren. Is there anything else you want to share about thestudies you're working on? Lauren: Sure. So the I'mthinking about how develop these solutions that can bring us closertogether, now that we're further apart. I'm also investigating, inthis next wave of research, looking at the changing services marketin light of Covid-19. So how our share of time and consumption ofcontent and services are changing, and even our tastes; the tone ofcontent that we're interested in in these moments. What habits arelikely to stick? These are all areas that will be coming out in acouple of weeks' time. And also later in the year -- this one isrelevant for the XR community -- we'll be producing a study on thefuture of devices; what the new state of normal is, so to speak. Isit dual screen? Post-screen? One device for all? So we're looking atthat across entertainment, productivity, all kinds of contexts, forhow we live and work. Alan: It's wonderful, being inthis XR industry at this time, seeing how everybody's pullingtogether. And most people that I talk to -- even on this podcast, andmost people that I talked to in my daily business -- everybody'sconcern is our health care first, and then our children's education,and then the economy. It seems to be in that order in this industry.Anyway, it'll be interesting to take a survey of just people workingin this industry, and see how the mindset is different, because Ithink everybody I've spoken to in the last two weeks sees this as thebeginning of a new way of working that XR are fundamentally drives.So I'm very excited about it. Lauren: Absolutely happy tocollaborate with you on that. Alan: And we're going to startto be doing LinkedIn Live sessions. So, conversations like this, andthen we'll be posting them as part of the podcast, so that we canjust bring more information across a broader range of people. Somepeople don't listen to podcasts. Maybe they're sitting looking atLinkedIn. Maybe they're on Twitter. So we're going to try to spreadthis out as many places as possible. Lauren, I always ask one last question;I think it's more prudent than ever. What problems in the world doyou want to see solved using XR Technologies? Alan: I think I would love tosee XR solve for a more connected community globally. I think it'sreally powerful to see how accessible XR can make certain experiencesfor people who wouldn't otherwise be able to enjoy those experiences.Whether that's travelling anywhere, speaking to anyone withoutlanguage barriers, the possibilities to connect with people inunexpected ways we wouldn't otherwise. That's a future I'm excitedfor. And I think it is very timely right now, in that creators haveto think about developing for the long haul, in terms of virtualcommunication. And the longer this situation lasts, the real benefitis that the more pervasive these effective solutions for connectingwill be. Alan: Well said, Lauren, thankyou so much. Thank you, everybody, for listening. This has been theXR for Business Podcast with your host Alan Smithson. And don'tforget to subscribe, so that you don't miss any future episodes.Thank you again, Lauren. It's been wonderful. Lauren: Thank you so much.

Exploring XR Collaboration Statistics in Real-Time, with National Research Group’s Lauren Xandra

 Tyler and Sophia connect with Lauren Xandra, Director of Strategy &amp; Innovation at the National Research Group. Lauren goes into detail about NRG's recent report, "Me and the Machine", about trends in immersive technology and how 5G will play a big role in widespread consumer adoption.  Read the full report here: https://www.nrgmr.com/news/me-and-the-machine   Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenxandra/   Visit the VR/AR Association at www.TheVRARA.com for more information about how you can get involved with this worldwide organization to help gain exposure and share ideas and best practices with other experts in the industry.  Subscribe to the podcast wherever podcasts are found or listen to past interviews at www.TheVRARA.com/podcast

Tyler and Sophia connect with Lauren Xandra, Director of Strategy &amp; Innovation at the National Research Group. Lauren goes into detail about NRG's recent report, "Me and the Machine", about trends in immersive technology and how 5G will play a big role in widespread consumer adoption. Read the full report here: <a href="https://www.nrgmr.com/news/me-and-the-machine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.nrgmr.com/news/me-and-the-machine </a> Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenxandra/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenxandra/ </a> Visit the VR/AR Association at <a href="http://www.TheVRARA.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.TheVRARA.com</a> for more information about how you can get involved with this worldwide organization to help gain exposure and share ideas and best practices with other experts in the industry. Subscribe to the podcast wherever podcasts are found or listen to past interviews at <a href="http://www.TheVRARA.com/podcast" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.TheVRARA.com/podcast</a>

Lauren Xandra, The National Research Group