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"It Depends" More Than You Think and That’s the Industry

the trend report Apr 29, 2026

In an industry that loves clear answers and proven playbooks, the reality is a lot messier. The biggest decisions we face, including how we sell, how we design space, and how we show up in the market, rarely come with a simple yes or no. They live somewhere in between, shaped by context, experience, and timing.

That’s exactly where this episode of The Trend Report lands.

In this Hot Takes episode, I sat down with Michelle Warren, co-founder of the Collaborative Network, founder of Catalyst Consulting Group, and someone who has spent years navigating the complexities of the public sector. We spun the wheel, tackled a series of questions, and let the conversation go where it wanted to go.

Listen to Episode 183.

What came out of our conversation wasn’t just a collection of opinions. It was a clear reminder that in our industry, very few things are black and white. Most of the conversations that matter live somewhere in the gray.

One of the first topics we landed on was whether manufa...

AI, Materials, and the Future of Specification

the trend report Apr 20, 2026

AI is everywhere right now. New tools. New headlines. Big promises about what it could do. But most of the conversation still lives in theory.

What doesn’t get talked about enough is what happens when you actually try to use it. Inside a real company. With real constraints. Real products. Real complexity.

In this episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Karli Slocum of 3form and Cosmo Kramer of Bitreel to unpack what it actually looks like when AI moves beyond the buzzwords and into the workflow.

Listen to Episode 182.

What 3form set out to do had nothing to do with AI at the start. It was a much more practical problem. How do you help designers accurately see, understand, and trust complex materials at scale before they are ever installed? Because when there is a gap between expectation and what gets built, it creates friction and delays. When you’re working with layered materials, embedded textures, shifting light conditions, and nearly endless combinations, a static image do...

Selling Relevance, Not Just Products

the trend report Apr 13, 2026

There’s something different about unscripted conversations. No prep. No polished answers. Just real-time thinking. And sometimes, that’s where the most honest insights show up.

In this Hot Takes episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Larry Leete, General Manager of KiSP, to spin the wheel and react to a series of questions about innovation, marketing, design, and the future of how we sell in this industry.

Listen to Episode 181.

What unfolded wasn’t just a set of answers. It was a reminder that many of the challenges we’re facing are not new. We’re just being forced to confront them more directly.

Larry believes that one of the biggest tensions in our industry today is how we balance innovation with distribution. It is easy to get excited about new products, new features, and new ideas. But without the right path to market, even the best innovation struggles to gain traction. He argues that it is not a choice between the two. It has to be both. Innovation without distributio...

The Future of the Independent Rep Model

the trend report Apr 06, 2026

The independent rep model has always been relationship driven. But today, it’s something more. It’s capital intensive. It’s operationally complex. And it’s evolving faster than ever before. From showrooms to staffing, from succession planning to increasing manufacturer expectations, reps are being asked to do more than ever.

Listen to Episode 180

In this episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Ed Eisaman, Principal of Eisaman Contract, to talk about what it really takes to stay relevant, competitive, and valuable in today’s environment.

Ed represents a third-generation rep firm with showrooms in Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Manhattan. With decades of experience and a clear point of view on where the industry is headed, he’s not just talking about the future of the rep model. He’s actively building it. And his perspective might challenge how many of us think about the role of independent reps and the level of investment required to succeed.

The independent rep has always played a c...

From AI Hype to Real Workflow Execution

the trend report Mar 30, 2026

There’s no shortage of conversation right now about AI.

Everywhere you turn, something is labeled “AI-powered.” New tools. New platforms. New promises about productivity and efficiency.

But if we’re honest, most businesses in our industry are still dealing with the same challenges. Too many emails. Too many manual steps. Too many places where data has to be re-entered. Too many opportunities for something small to go wrong that creates a much bigger problem later.

Listen to Episode 179.

In this episode of The Trend Report, I sat down with Matt Danyliw and Leo Vargas from Avanto to explore what innovation looks like when it’s applied to real workflows, not just talked about in theory.

And what stood out immediately is that their perspective is different. They’re not focused on building better tools. They’re focused on getting work done. Matt shared that Avanto operates at the intersection of workplace, technology, and data. But what matters most is what happens ne

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The Courage to Put Customers First

the trend report Mar 23, 2026

Courage is one of those words we talk about a lot in business.

It shows up in mission statements. It shows up in leadership books. It shows up in conversations about innovation and growth. But when it comes time to actually use it, real courage usually looks a lot less comfortable than we expect.

In this 10 to Win episode, I found myself reflecting on that idea through an unlikely source. A baseball team called the Savannah Bananas. If you haven’t heard of them, they’re not your typical baseball team. In fact, you could argue they’re not even trying to play traditional baseball at all. And that’s exactly the point.

Listen to Episode 178.

Their story, led by founder Jesse Cole and captured in his book Fans First, isn’t really about sports. It’s about leadership. It’s about business. And more importantly, it’s about what happens when you decide to build something entirely around the customer experience.

Jesse Cole didn’t take over a thriving organization. He stepped into a failing b...

Design in Context and the Next Era of Workplace Design

the trend report Mar 16, 2026

Sustainability, design, and the future of work are often discussed as if they are separate conversations. In reality, they are deeply connected. That was one of the clearest takeaways from my conversation with Todd Bracher, Creative Director at Humanscale, whose perspective challenged me to think differently about what design really is and what our industry should be paying attention to next.

The Trend Report: Episode 177

Todd believes good design has very little to do with chasing a new shape for the sake of novelty. In his view, design is not about making something simply look appealing. It is about understanding how something works, why it exists, how it is made, and what responsibilities come with putting it into the world. That perspective is shaped by more than two decades of work across industrial design, furniture, and what he calls contextual design.

Todd shared that his early years in Denmark and later in Milan had a profound impact on how he thinks. In Europe, he argues, ...

Selling "Easy" and the Future of Work

the trend report Mar 09, 2026

Every once in a while, it’s good to throw out the script.

That’s the spirit behind our Hot Takes episodes. No prep. No polished slides. Just a wheel of questions and real-time reactions. And when your co-host is Amanda Schneider, you know you’re not going to get surface-level answers.

The Trend Report: Episode 176

Amanda is the Founder and President of ThinkLab, the research division of Sandow Design Group. She spends her days immersed in data, behavior shifts, generational change, and the evolving relationship between physical and digital space. She also recently delivered a TED Talk that has now surpassed half a million views and is preparing to launch her book, Work for What’s Next.

So when the wheel landed on the question, “What do we really sell?” I knew we were about to get something good.

Amanda believes most of our industry gets this wrong. She argues that we think we are selling product. Chairs. Flooring. Lighting. Systems. But in her view, that framing

...

What Designers Really Want (And the Quiet Way to Win)

the trend report Mar 02, 2026

Building meaningful relationships with the A+D community has never been more important, and in many ways, never more complex. Designers are navigating hybrid teams, compressed timelines, and constant digital noise. Access looks different than it used to. Attention is fragmented. And trust has to be earned, not assumed.

In this episode of The Trend Report, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Krystal Lucero, Senior Interior Designer at Edwards + Mulhausen Interior Design. Krystal brings a thoughtful, human-centered perspective to design and leadership, and she understands firsthand what it takes to build relationships that actually last.

The Trend Report: Episode 175

Krystal believes partnership is the real objective, not just access. She argues that designers do not need more drop-ins or more product pitches. They need reliable collaborators. When she is deep in a specification and reaches out with a few quick questions, what matters most is responsiveness and accuracy. If you...

The Most Underrated Tool in Leadership

the trend report Feb 23, 2026

A fresh start does not always require a new plan, a new hire, or a bold strategy. Sometimes the biggest shift happens when we change how we show up.

In this 10 to Win episode of The Trend Report, I challenged our community to rethink something that often gets labeled as soft or optional in leadership. Gratitude.

The Trend Report: Episode 174

Research from Harvard Business School and the Wharton School makes this clear. Leaders who consistently express gratitude see higher employee engagement, stronger trust, and lower burnout across their teams. One widely cited Wharton study found that teams who felt genuinely appreciated were up to 50 percent more productive than those who did not. That statistic reframes gratitude entirely. It is not just a feel good gesture. It is a performance multiplier.

This matters because leadership is not positional. It is personal. Regardless of title, everyone leads in some capacity. And gratitude may be one of the most underutilized tools we have to le...

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50% Complete

"It Depends" More Than You Think and That’s the Industry

AI, Materials, and the Future of Specification

Selling Relevance, Not Just Products

The Future of the Independent Rep Model

From AI Hype to Real Workflow Execution

The Courage to Put Customers First

Design in Context and the Next Era of Workplace Design

Selling "Easy" and the Future of Work

What Designers Really Want (And the Quiet Way to Win)

The Most Underrated Tool in Leadership

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