This is The Pro Perspective from Houzz Pro, where homebuilders, designers, and industry experts share their views on running a modern firm.

Liza Hausman: If you've been hearing terms like 3D, AR, VR, and AI more and more these days, it shouldn't be a surprise. 3D tools for design and renovation have made massive strides in the last few years. They've become more affordable and accessible for everyone in our industry, so much so that no business can ignore the opportunity. Join me as I explore the latest trends and technologies in 3D design with Sean Corral, Director of Product Management for Houser’s 3D tools. From enhancing productivity to improving client communication, Sean shares his expertise on how 3D visualization is transforming our industry.

Hi, everybody, and welcome to the Pro Perspective. I'm Liza Hausman, the Vice President of Industry and Marketing for Houzz, and I'm excited to have with me today Sean Corriel, our Director of Product Management for Houzz Pro's 3D tools. Welcome, Sean.

Sean Corriel: Thank you, Liza. Happy to be here.

Liza: We're excited to talk about 3D today and the future of 3D. I thought maybe we could start, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your background and have you share with everybody how you got into this space and this role.

Sean: Yes, sure. I'd be happy to. It feels like I've always been in this world of 3D, and design, and construction. I started my career in landscape architecture and any time you're designing a space, it's always this interplay between the world that you're building for and then the virtual, if you will, world of the tools that you're designing and planning in. For me, that going back and forth between 3D planning and then a site or a building or a space or a room has always been part of my career and practice. I have always found that interplay between the two very interesting and has a lot of potential to improve how we work and live.

Liza: I think you're being pretty modest. I'm going to share with everybody that, not only does Sean have an MBA from Cornell, he also has a master's of architecture from Harvard's Graduate School of Design. Pretty qualified to talk to us today, and I know you've been an entrepreneur, worked at Autodesk, a lot of deep experience in this field. One thing I wanted to ask you is, why are we even talking about 3D? Why is it important? Why do we even have a head of 3D tools at Houzz Pro? Tell us a little bit about why you see it important at this moment in time.

Sean: It's a great question, and I like it as a starting point. While there are certain technologies like CAD, computers that have changed a lot of how designs and planning is done, the more recent trends towards 3D visualization and particularly in the mobile side have also had a major impact. It's at a point where both for professionals as well as clients, and I think it would be good to reinforce that side, the client side particularly, that this landscape of design planning and visualization has become so important. If we start from the client side, a lot of--

To use the word technology, that's such a broad word, but so much of what we see is visual with the internet, with social media, so much design content or renovation content or house content has become so visual. The TV shows, the social media influencers, and all of this. I think that's enabled a lot of people to absorb a lot of that visual information, so they've become more visually attuned to these things. That's probably one reason why I think 3D has become so important, not just for the design and planning that professionals need to do, but also for communicating their designs to their clients. That communication piece, I think, has been the more recent leap.

Liza: Yes. When I think about it, when we started Houzz, over 14 years ago, the real impetus was that homeowners could better communicate their ideas to the pros that they hired because they didn't have the vocabulary to talk about it. One of the things that made it possible at that time was better technology to compress images so we could show tons and tons of photos on a mobile app, something that wasn't possible five years before. The technology could now support these big, beautiful, quality images, and that was a big leap in improving the communication and the process of remodeling and design.

There was always this gap in homeowners' comfort level. "I've got to spend a lot of money. I don't want to pull the trigger unless I'm comfortable that I know that the outcome is going to be great." I feel like with 3D, this has sort of become the next phase of getting homeowners super comfortable, engaged, and motivated, because they can truly see what they're going to get. I'm curious how you think about the different types of tools. You talked about mobile, but we've talked about there's VR, there's AR, there's all of these ways to present 3D. Can you talk a little bit about what those different technologies are and how they play a part in 3D and helping clients visualize?

Sean: Yes, it certainly has changed quite a bit from the desktop computer to web to mobile, and I think 3D has evolved over that whole series. I like to start from the workflow. You can get communication going with a potential client and then get on the site to look at a potential job. Right from there, now it's possible to have 3D be part of that immediate workflow. On your mobile device, if you're looking at a job, you can go ahead and scan that space, which means the app will take measurements of that interior space, save them on the web, and then be accessible as a 3D model for you to look at when you're back at the office, et cetera.

That's a big deal, being able to do that so easily on a mobile phone. Right from the get-go, of course, there's photos, but being able to capture a 3D spatial plan and 3D model from the job site is a huge deal. Then next, of course, is the planning process. That 3D model can be saved automatically and then it's available to you anytime you need it. Now you can hop on your desktop, start designing, thinking about the client's needs, thinking about the project, planning that out in 3D, and then be ready to show that back to the client in a very short time cycle.

You can even share a link to that floor plan so they can see it right away. If we pause at that, that's pretty new relatively in the history of design and client communication that you can do that so quickly. Within a day, you can scan the job, design it, and then send it back to your client.

Liza: One of the interesting things about that is the accessibility. At Houzz, I know one of our philosophies is to try to use the devices. Make things available on devices that everybody already has access to. Everybody has a mobile phone. It used to be if you wanted to scan the site, you had to have a special piece of expensive equipment and expensive software and all of these separate siloed pieces to do all of that. Whereas now, you talk about with LiDAR built into Apple phones, we've leveraged that to be able to make these types of things available right from your pocket. How quickly has that change come about in terms of these tools being accessible, with not requiring special expensive equipment?

Sean: Yes, that's exactly right. The specialized equipment, the time, and costs alone to do that, was pretty significant to have a professional laser scan. Now with an iPhone Pro, for example, as you're saying, you get a laser scan and it's processed automatically right away. That has been a significant leap over the past couple of years. Even at the beginning with mobile phones and cameras, we were able to capture a space which was a pretty big deal just via the camera and navigating the camera and the device to different points because the device also has location information and orientation information.

We were able to capture a plan and a space that way, which was a big leap. Then with little lasers going on, like the iPhone Pro, for example, and having that integrated into very powerful software, now you can capture that and have a complete 3D floor plan of that as-built right away, including windows, doors, and even furniture that it can scan and recognize. That has been a huge leap over the past couple of years.

Liza: I imagine that this essentially brings the cost of doing these types of 3D models for clients down significantly. It used to be maybe the biggest projects and the biggest budgets, and now there's more opportunity for firms of all sizes to be able to use 3D. I know what we typically hear is-- Also, it moved up in the funnel, where it might be only if you had a signed and paid project, then you'd move into the 3D phase. Now we see that firms are using it in the sales process because it's inexpensive and easier to do, are able to introduce 3D early to help close clients, and not to deliver on a project that's already wrapped.

Sean: That wow moment, I think, is something that I've heard a lot from our pros. To go back to your point about how, at Houzz, we're always trying to bring as much technology and capability and make it as accessible as possible to all our professionals. Being able to deliver 3D right up front, as part of the sales process, is a wow. Clients get wowed by it. We hear that all the time from our customers. Being able to scan that job with your phone, design it on the web, be able to share that, or show it to your client, all within a day to capture that is a big wow moment.

I think part of the effectiveness beyond the visuals is it communicates to the client, A, you care. You care about the job. You care about the quality of it. You care about wanting them to be excited, wanting to do what they want you to do. All of those things get communicated along with "Yes, I'm going to show you what this can look like. I've taken the time to show you, and here it is." It's a very professional leap. Like, "Oh, my gosh, this pro turned this around so quickly and they thought about my needs and what we talked about and it's right there and I can see it."

Liza: It's super relevant right now. We hear the market is still excellent, but sometimes it's a little bit harder to get clients over that hurdle. They take a little bit longer. We're post- COVID so that, pros are competing with basically anything that homeowners could spend their money on instead. A vacation. Some other thing that they could do that they enjoy. To get them to go into the process of a build, or a renovation, or a major project, they have to feel like, "This is worth it. This is going to be enjoyable. I feel good about the professionalism of this experience," et cetera.

I think it's become a more and more important tool, almost an expectation. from homeowners that they're going to be able to see the results even before they happen. The accessibility, and as you said, everything in the media with 3D has [crosstalk] to that, set a different set of expectations with clients as well.

Sean: I also think, zooming out a bit to where, prior to 3D, even if we had construction plans or floor plans if you put those in front of a lot of clients, they are hard to read. Professionals are very used to reading these and it sometimes can be hard to relate. I'm putting this plan in front of you. This is the house that you live in, but they can still struggle with understanding where they are in the space and what all of this means. With 3D, you can show them exactly what it's going to be like. "If we remove this wall between your living room and your dining room, here it is. This is what you're going to see."

They see it right away and then they can make that decision and they can get excited about their new home. As you say, they've got competing costs. They can immediately see what that's going to look like and say, "Yes, this is going to make my home better. I love it. I want it. Let's do this."

Liza: 100%. For folks that are not living and breathing this every day, maybe you could give us a little bit of a vocabulary lesson. VR, AR, photorealistic rendering, 3D model. What are the differences between these things and can you help us understand them?

Sean: Yes, you see a lot of this in the news and these terms get thrown around. I think for design and construction professionals, that distinction between AR and VR and 2D and 3D is very important. Let's start with AR, which stands for augmented reality, which is a fancy term. What that enables you to do, for example, what we have in Houzz Pro, on our mobile app, you can take your 3D model and then position it in the real world. What you see on your phone screen is the 3D model and it moves as you move around. It's called augmented reality because you're adding another visual layer onto what you're seeing in the real world.

It's a very powerful technology because, like we were talking about with the 2D plan and even a 3D model on a screen, there's still this leap that you have to make when you're looking at it. It's like, "What's this going to look like in my space?" Augmented reality can project that into your space. You're seeing it at the same size through the screen as you would in real life. That removes the abstraction or the work people would otherwise have to do to understand how that kitchen is going to look with an open wall. You can see through to your dining room, for example. By seeing it right there on the device, there's no more of a mental, "How's that going to look?" You can see it right away. That's augmented reality.

Then virtual reality, I think the biggest distinction perhaps is that it's a different piece of hardware. Everybody's probably seen these images of the visors or the space-age-looking headsets that you put on, which are covering your face and projecting a different visual reality through screens that you're wearing like goggles. The difference between virtual reality and augmented reality is largely about how you're experiencing that 3D visualization. With augmented reality, you're still able to look at the real world with a layer of the virtual world on top of it. With virtual reality, you're looking at the virtual world.

Then there's the mix. Sometimes you'll hear about mixed reality, which is a combination of a virtual world layered over the real world. That's close to what, for example, the Apple Vision Pro is trying to do, to get that mix. I think for design and construction professionals, that's where we live. We're designing and planning the future and needing to show them, in the real world, what it's going to be like.

Liza: That's a helpful explanation, virtual versus layered on top of what you can also still see in the real world. Maybe talk about 3D representations of 2D. What's a rendering? What's a model? What's a photorealistic rendering? What are some of these other tools that we now have at our disposal to help clients see the future of their project?

Sean: Something that's very nice about a photo-- When we say photorealistic rendering or photorealistic image, it means that you can take your 3D design and then create a real-life looking image of that, which again adds to the ability for that to communicate here's what this kitchen's going to look like with blue cabinets and seamless steel appliances and a marble floor, for example. It's going to take that 3D model and then it computationally bounces light rays across that 3D scene to create what it would look like in real life. You can see shadows and light and bright spots and reflections, et cetera. That's a photorealistic rendering or photorealistic image.

The way you can create one of those is take your 3D model, create a 3D design, and then set up a virtual camera or a view of where you want to-- You can think of it as taking a picture of your design, where you want to take the picture, how you want to frame that shot. Then it will create a photorealistic image from that, which you can use to show your client, "This is how this kitchen is going to look," for example.

Liza: That's super cool, because you become your own professional photographer pre-project of your design. You can imagine that you're moving around that room, moving around that design, taking photos from the vantage points that you think would be most beneficial to help your clients see the project. You click, and then based on wherever the windows are, as you said, light fixtures, et cetera, it represents the room, as if you were taking a photo and it was live and not virtual.

Sean: Yes. I want to spend a minute talking about how you get to 3D. I know some of our customers haven't done that before, they're new to it. That's where some of the earlier conversations we were talking about, with your phone now, you can start creating that 3D model by going into the space that you want to design, and then what's called scanning. We've touched on it a little bit, but we can go into it more if needed. The phone will capture the 3D data. Right away, you're already creating that 3D model. That's a big leap, because previously, before this was possible, creating a 3D floor plan was a lot more time-consuming. Now with tools like Houzz Pro, it's become very fast and easy to do.

Right from that room scan, that's one way that you can immediately have a 3D model. Another way is if you have an existing plan, you can upload that into Houzz Pro, and then trace that basically by drawing the walls around it, and that will automatically create a 3D model because the walls will be in 3D. Then you can start populating that with your cabinets and your furniture, doors, and windows. All of that is already made in 3D. That's how it's become so easy to create a 3D model. Previously, it was, even with CAD, quite a very time-intensive and labor-intensive and skill-intensive thing to do. Now it's become much more accessible and easier to do, faster to do.

Liza: One of the things that I've been impressed with is the level of detail that you can put into these models. We focus right now, I think of this conversation on the fundamental structure and getting that scanned in, and having that as a starting point, but you mentioned cabinets, et cetera. It's incredible. The level of detail in terms of the finish on the cabinets and the bullnose on the countertop, and very specific hardware and finishes, flooring. Maybe talk a little bit about where does all of that come from? What's the level of detail that you can put into these models these days, and the level of sophistication for any type of design?

Sean: Yes, absolutely. Within Houzz Pro, for example, there is an existing 3D catalog of items like what you're describing, which are different types of cabinets. Then within those cabinets, you can choose different styles, like a shaker door, for example, even down to the different types of knobs. That's all part-- The reason that's there is to communicate, then help pros be able to communicate to their clients exactly what this is going to be like. It's twofold. This is part of a design process where you're planning out the job, and you're able to put in that level of detail so that you know exactly what is going into that job or project.

The benefit is that as you're doing that, as you're putting in that detail as part of the planning design process, you've also got something that you can immediately show to your client and then get that buy-in from them. "Yes, I like the blue shaker cabinets with a gray quartz finish on the countertop, and this kind of flooring, a wood floor or a tile floor," for example. What a lot of people do with 3D, because it can be easy to do, is change out a finish, and have another version of that design where you've got a white cabinet and maybe blue countertops.

Now you've got two things, if your client's having a hard time making a decision or you want to make sure they have that buy-in, now you can show two versions of that very easily and it will help them understand how to make that decision, because those can be difficult decisions to walk the clients through and get that buy-in from.

Liza: It makes a lot of sense. In our homeowner surveys, when we ask people what they regret from their renovations, it's always what they didn't do, what they were too conservative about. I think professionals know this as well. The goal is to try to sell the bigger ideas because they know that the client's going to be happier with that. That includes structural changes. This makes it that much easier to say, "Hey, if we push out the wall, here's what it's going to feel like and look like to walk through that space with the extra square footage you have, or to have more room to maneuver around the island in your kitchen or change whatever idea you're looking to sell in," this is a much easier, lightweight, way to be able to show that option before there's a big investment made in structural plans, et cetera.

Sean: Exactly.

Liza: When you think about all the things that are happening now, and it feels like technology is always accelerating, and that's what's accelerating. What are you most excited about in terms of the things that are coming, high level?

Sean: There's a lot of excitement about being able to be collaborative, either within your teams, or with your clients, and both within 3D. Again, why is it important to do it in 3D? Everybody could see what they're looking at and it's easy to understand. There's less room for miscommunication or error, which as everybody knows can be very costly, both emotionally and financially on both sides, On the business side, as well as on the client side. That ability to be collaborative, for example, within Houzz Pro, we have commenting features. You can comment right on a 3D model and you can comment to your client, "Hey, here's what this looks like with the couch here."

They can receive that, click on it, and look right at that 3D design. They can comment back. "No, I don't like it there." Okay, now you've made a decision. The pro can save some time. Move on to the next thing. The client's in the loop, they know what you're doing, they're getting more buy-in. Everybody can be doing this without waiting. The pro can keep going on with their design, and keep working and the client can be quickly checking something on their phone and not delaying the job. That ability to keep things moving, to keep it collaborative, through a 3D design can be very powerful.

The ability for that design to be everywhere and anywhere, like on your mobile app, on the web, on a desktop, you don't need special devices. It goes back to what you were saying about, at Houzz, we're trying to make this as accessible as possible to everybody. You don't need special hardware or special software for the client to view that floor plan. They can view it right through a link that you share with them from Houzz. I think that collaboration piece is exciting. We've talked about room scanning, the ability to capture a space so quickly, so easily, right on the spot, is absolutely a game changer for both, in terms of time-saving, as well as being able to get started with your design.

There's one customer who was telling me that changed her entire business. She always was that part about capturing the existing conditions was a big hurdle for her. Once she was on Houzz and was using that room scan, she took off her interior design business, took off because she was able to capture those spaces so quickly and easily. Then, she was able to get right into the design part, which is the part that she was invested in. That can be hugely impactful. I think on the AR, as well as VR, breaking through the buzz of the technology. We've heard a lot of stories from customers about how much of a difference that can make.

Being able to show your client through augmented reality what that kitchen is going to look like. I was recently talking to somebody who was telling me how they're able to sell a job right on the spot because they can show them right there, "What about this?" Then the client's like, "Yes, that's exactly it. That's what I want." Now they're signed, they're going forward with the job and it removes a lot of the, "I don't know," back and forth. "Maybe not that. I don't understand what I'm looking at." That potential to be able to have that as the communication tools is impactful and was never possible. There's no way to do that without augmented reality. We show something at scale. It's quite a big leap. VR also is in that boat of being able to do something like that.

Liza: What I'm hearing in general. We've got technologies. The cost has come down. The ease of use and accessibility has gone way up. This is, A, enabling pros to work more efficiently. A lot of the things that were incredibly time-consuming before are much faster. They look super impressive. It's a much easier way to show clients that you're tech savvy, what you're doing, that there's a plan. It's a huge confidence builder and a great way to not only get folks to pull the trigger, but also to be able to upsell, which is a huge opportunity.

There are always things people want to save a little on, but then there are things they get excited about. To be able to generate that excitement as a way to open up the purse for larger dollars, they're like, “Oh, gosh, I definitely want to do that.” Then I think, in that same delight, clients or everyone, and I think it's more with the younger generation, they want to be involved. They're certainly still very fine clients, but they do tend to be older that are like, "I don't want to hear from you until you're back with the design and then I want to see it."

Everybody has experienced those clients that want to feel like they're part of the process, that this controlled collaboration where the ideas are not spiraling out of control, but where you can much more easily present options that give that client some agency or feel like they can decide about this detail or that detail, feel like they're involved in their project. This is an easier way to service that client that wants to have some hands-on involvement in the project, which I know can be challenging for a lot of folks to manage. Three big areas in terms of money, time, and client satisfaction that it feels like 3D can help address. One of the things people ask is how hard is it to use? How can I get my team more comfortable using technology? Any advice for the folks that are a little bit afraid to jump in?

Sean: Yes. I do feel for that difficulty. Everybody is so time-constrained. Sometimes even to pick your head up and think about doing something differently feels like, “I don't have time for that.” We do, with the Houzz tools and the 3D tools, make this technology and the software and the tools as easy to use as possible because we know how precious time is for everybody. That's a big part of what we build with the Houzz Pro tools, is making them as easy to use as possible so that it's easy to go. Yes, I want to get started with 3D. I'm not going to need days and weeks and months to learn a new skill set. I can get going.

Even so, as easy as it is, I still always recommend taking a little bit of time to familiarize yourself with the tools. Practice quickly on a room, your office, or some room you're familiar with. You can practice the room scan. They are very easy to use, but it's always good to know what you're doing before you go into like a job site, for example. Getting familiar with that and trying them out, spending a little bit of time trying them out saves so much time. Sometimes people can get stuck in reading or watching content about technology or how somebody is doing something or how somebody is doing that. That can take up a lot of time.

Whereas I find often it's like, "Let me try this out." It takes 10 minutes or 15 minutes. Then, for yourself, you can save a lot of time and reduce the fear of missing out that FOMO of like, "Oh, people are doing AR, but how can I do it?" A lot of times it's a smaller time investment than you think to be able to adopt something new and have it work for you.

Liza: That's great advice. You do deep dive webinars on the tool and we have lots of training available for folks that do want to watch or read. I think that's good advice to, even before you do some of the training is to go and play around so that you're coming with your questions. When what's happening in the training, you're like, "Oh, yes, I saw that. I did that. Okay, that's what that does." I think that's great advice and can be extremely helpful. Any thoughts on the future and where 3D is going at a high level? Where are we going to be in 10 years, Sean?

Sean: That's a fun question. I think there's certain things that we can see a trajectory or trends that we can be more confident about. Some of the things that we talked about, like the augmented reality and virtual reality, I do think are going to become more regular. Both people will expect to see that. "Oh, I'm doing a major renovation. Show me what this is going to look like. I need to understand it." As you talked about, maybe there's even some generational differences there in terms of wanting to see everything up front before, going too far in the process.

I certainly think that's a solid trend that we're seeing that we can expect to continue and to even, as that technology improves and advances, probably things that look a little weird, like a virtual reality headset or goggles or stuff like that will probably become more used to them as part of a process. It's not weird to see people on a phone anymore. It used to be. I think more of that within 3D as part of a whole design client feedback process will become more widely adopted. As all of that technology improves, the reality, the realism of it, the real-timeness of it will all increase, which you're seeing already. That will continue on for a long time. That increase in the quality of those images and the quality of the 3D and the realism of it.

Liza: Is there an intersection between AI and 3D?

Sean: Yes, certainly. That's another trend line, the AI piece of that. I think where you're seeing that the most is on the image side. There are these AI image generation tools, which can be quite impressive. I can type in a series of text, and it will generate something like a very real-looking image. I'm sure people have heard a lot about that, and it's getting a lot of buzz in the media. I think it does have a part to play, and it will probably continue evolving quite impressively. I also think it's important to note it's one piece of a process. While an image generation tool that can produce an image can be impressive, there are also limitations to that.

It doesn't have an understanding of actual space and what that space means. I think those are going to be difficult leaps to get to. I think it's harder to project where that technology goes 10 years from now as of where it is in the last couple of years. While it's been extremely impressive to see these images that can be generated by typing in different texts, I think we're also able to see the limitations of that technology at the same time. There's probably a couple of unknown leaps as to where that lands, in 10 years.

Liza: Thanks so much, Sean. This was terrific and educational, and hopefully, folks out there got a little bit of something that they can use in their own business. I appreciate your time, and I'm sure we'll have a follow-up as the technology evolves.

Sean: Thank you so much, Liza. It was great talking with you.

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