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LinkedIn Scaled FDD to 80% of Its Portfolio by Speaking a Different Language to Every Stakeholder
LinkedInās fault detection & diagnostics (FDD) program spent its first few years funded on the margins. Without an employee-facing app or dashboard, FDD was hard to sell internally at a company that prizes visible technology. Cristal Ortiz, Director of Sustainability and Engineering at LinkedIn, and Andrew Knueppel of Athena Blue Global, who supports LinkedInās engineering program, spent those years building the FDD foundation anyway, with confidence that it helped deliver outcomes that mattered to the organization.
Critical to the success of the FDD adoption was finding the right way to communicate the benefits to each stakeholder group. āEven within the business, we speak very different languages,ā said Knueppel. To leadership, the program was framed around AI and employee experience: fault detection can diagnose a comfort issue before an employee ever files a ticket, enabling what Ortizās team calls a frictionless office experience. To operations, it was about cost control and IFM accountability. FDD could provide data and KPIs to hold FM vendors to a higher standard. To FM, it was about time savings and helping them demonstrate value to their client. The same program, the same technology, was described three different ways to three different audiences.
From a budgetary perspective, CapEx framing was what initially got leadershipās attention. Showing MEP as a percentage of total capital investment brought more attention from leadership to a category of expenses that is often in the background. From there, utility savings framed as ROI were enough to justify the investment.
As a modern technology company, there was also internal deliberation about whether LinkedIn should build its own FDD solution rather than buy one. Knueppel and Ortiz overcame the resistance by talking to peer organizations. Other tech giants had either pivoted to purchasing a software solution or wished they had. That peer validation was more convincing than any internal argument. LinkedIn now works with Clockworks Analytics in North America and MSI Works in EMEA, both selected for a combination of software experience, building expertise, and FM change management capability. They deliberately purchased the solution directly (not through a contractor) from both FDD providers to ensure they fully owned the data generated by the platforms.
Four years in, the program covers 80% of LinkedInās fully managed square footage. They experienced some resistance from the FM group, as the initial deployment of the software added proactive work orders to their already-full plate of reactive work orders. However, as training and familiarity with the software grew, the FM teams have begun to recognize the troubleshooting value of the FDD programs for complex challenges such as building pressurization issues.
Despite the difficulties of change management, LinkedIn will continue to bring modern tech into its buildings, just as it does with its products. āThereās no future where thereās less technology and automation in our buildings,ā said Knueppel.
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LinkedInās fault detection & diagnostics (FDD) program spent its first few years funded on the margins. Without an employee-facing app or dashboard, FDD was hard to sell internally at a company that prizes visible technology. Cristal Ortiz, Director of Sustainability and Engineering at LinkedIn, and Andrew Knueppel of Athena Blue Global, who supports LinkedInās engineering program, spent those years building the FDD foundation anyway, with confidence that it helped deliver outcomes that mattered to the organization.
Critical to the success of the FDD adoption was finding the right way to communicate the benefits to each stakeholder group. āEven within the business, we speak very different languages,ā said Knueppel. To leadership, the program was framed around AI and employee experience: fault detection can diagnose a comfort issue before an employee ever files a ticket, enabling what Ortizās team calls a frictionless office experience. To operations, it was about cost control and IFM accountability. FDD could provide data and KPIs to hold FM vendors to a higher standard. To FM, it was about time savings and helping them demonstrate value to their client. The same program, the same technology, was described three different ways to three different audiences.
From a budgetary perspective, CapEx framing was what initially got leadershipās attention. Showing MEP as a percentage of total capital investment brought more attention from leadership to a category of expenses that is often in the background. From there, utility savings framed as ROI were enough to justify the investment.
As a modern technology company, there was also internal deliberation about whether LinkedIn should build its own FDD solution rather than buy one. Knueppel and Ortiz overcame the resistance by talking to peer organizations. Other tech giants had either pivoted to purchasing a software solution or wished they had. That peer validation was more convincing than any internal argument. LinkedIn now works with Clockworks Analytics in North America and MSI Works in EMEA, both selected for a combination of software experience, building expertise, and FM change management capability. They deliberately purchased the solution directly (not through a contractor) from both FDD providers to ensure they fully owned the data generated by the platforms.
Four years in, the program covers 80% of LinkedInās fully managed square footage. They experienced some resistance from the FM group, as the initial deployment of the software added proactive work orders to their already-full plate of reactive work orders. However, as training and familiarity with the software grew, the FM teams have begun to recognize the troubleshooting value of the FDD programs for complex challenges such as building pressurization issues.
Despite the difficulties of change management, LinkedIn will continue to bring modern tech into its buildings, just as it does with its products. āThereās no future where thereās less technology and automation in our buildings,ā said Knueppel.
ā
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This is a great piece!
I agree.