When Teulo last sat down with Jake in 2022, Warren and Mahoney was on a huge post-COVID growth trajectory, and Jake was focused primarily on the intersection between training and technology. What his role encompasses now, three years later, is a bit different. “One of the big changes has been a shift to more of a project focus, which I hadn’t done for a while. The current needs of the practice have given me the opportunity to get back on the tools. Before, I was focusing on developing workflows, content and practices that I hoped would make our teams more efficient; now I’m getting to validate that work. I can be a bit of a disruptor when I’m fighting for the things we need, and it’s vindicating to use all the tools I fought for and demonstrate that they’re working really well.”
Jake’s Data Support Team includes a person in each Warren and Mahoney studio who helps to deliver the practice’s most ambitious initiatives. “My team and I thrive on bold thinking and new ideas. We bring together amazing specialists in data, automation, training, and content, which allows us to act at speed. We’re considered world-class by international firms such as Autodesk and Chaos Group.”
The challenge and the opportunity, Jake says, is to learn how to support a new workforce in a rapidly changing market. “When we last spoke, we were growing incredibly fast; I onboarded 190 people that year. There was a huge influx of talent into the industry post-COVID, which brought a lot of new creative energy, but not the technical and commercial skills that practices need to foster internally. That hiring boom meant that some of our new staff never had the opportunity to be mentored by a senior architect.
“Since then, I’ve produced a library of video and audio training materials for our team, and I’ve worked to pair up staff who can support each other’s growth. But I know that there’s no substitute for really good mentorship; I’m helping to solve that training gap now. By stepping into a more project-focused role, I’m able to lead by example and be that senior person who provides knowledge and inspiration for the juniors. ”
The practice is also responding to a growing imperative for data-driven decision-making across the industry, Jake says. “There’s been a lot of change and uncertainty over the last few years; we’re all having to do more with less. A lot of my work now is around analysing inefficiencies - how we deliver and what we can do at the front end of a project to give our team a starting point that’s closer to the finish line. Because everyone is more risk-averse, we’re having to validate and prove ROI on everything that we do, which can be a barrier to creativity.”
Jake believes the key to meeting both the creative aspirations and the commercial necessities of the 2025 market lies in the combination of data, content and training. “We can look at the data - people’s skill sets, technical knowledge, financial performance, delivery speed, project quality - and start to identify gaps and correlations. That’s how we determine where the greatest need is. Then we can create content and training practices to help our team achieve better outcomes.
“In particular, we’re looking at what we call high-skill projects, things like stadiums, hospitals, or apartment buildings that require really high levels of repetition and discipline. These projects are creatively challenging, with more of a focus on process. Through the data, I learned that we were treating them like every other project, with each element being unique and highly bespoke. But the project fees and timelines didn't actually allow for that level of flair and individualism. My job is to take that data, understand what’s going wrong, and then shift to content and training. For instance, if we create a series of standardised series of components that we can pull from as a starting point, then we can inform the team about first steps and train them how to use that content and shift their mode of thinking. Yes, a standardised approach can bring new constraints, but that’s where creative solutions come into play.”
In his Teulo Talks session, Jake will further explore this relationship between content, training and data. “I’ll be discussing how those three pillars can work together to help industry professionals make more informed choices and respond in ways that are more meaningful so that we can deliver projects more efficiently. I’ll also cover real-world strategies for balancing productivity, growth and retention in today’s challenging environment, and look at practical steps to build thriving teams.
“Working with Teulo has unlocked some personal and professional growth for me,” Jake says. “At my previous Teulo Talks session, I connected with Teulo’s MC DK, who urged me to give my content more of a people focus. We became friends, he invited me onto his Creative Welly podcast, and he supported me in an application to present at TEDxWellington last year. In the five weeks between acceptance and presentation, my ideas totally shifted. I thought I would get up there and talk about technology, and what I ended up talking about was loneliness in the context of urban development. It changed my perspective on the relationship between people and architecture, and it ignited a desire to inspire the next generation of architects coming up.
“When I first started, the industry and company culture were just baked in. We were in a small office space working on awesome projects that everyone was passionate about. There was this idea that we’re all in the industry because we love architecture and we want to create amazing work. That was the centre of our culture, and it’s what I’m trying to get us back to. I’m passionate about working with young people and finding ways to inspire them and unlock their talent. Ultimately, I want to remind people why we do this. At the scale we’re working at, architecture has the ability to affect the lives of people we’ll never meet in incredible ways. We get to shape entire cities and form the future of the places we live.”
To learn more and connect with Jake, visit https://wam.studio/, register for his upcoming Teulo Talks session, and view his 2024 TEDxWellington presentation here.
