MURAL XR Collaborative Experience Prototyping

NOTE: This project was done in partnership with Meta's VR Labs "Quest for Business" team.

The Challenge

As remote work and digital collaboration evolved, Mural sought to push the boundaries of what was possible beyond traditional whiteboarding. The rise of immersive technologies presented an opportunity to explore how extended reality (XR) could enhance teamwork, creativity, and spatial problem-solving. However, the potential for XR in collaboration was largely untested, and there was little understanding of how users would engage in virtual environments. The challenge was to move beyond novelty and identify real, scalable use cases where XR could provide tangible value.

The Approach

I led Mural’s XR initiative in partnership with Meta, driving research and design efforts to explore how virtual environments could transform the way distributed teams work together. This initiative required a blend of human-centered research, product innovation, and technical experimentation to validate new approaches to collaboration.

Through a series of structured, hands-on research events, I facilitated live collaboration sessions inside prototype XR environments, engaging real users to test interactions, workflows, and engagement patterns. These sessions provided critical insights into how teams naturally communicate and solve problems in immersive spaces, allowing us to refine and iterate on our approach.

Beyond testing, I worked closely with Meta’s teams to align our research findings with emerging XR capabilities, ensuring that our explorations were grounded in both user needs and technological feasibility. We experimented with spatial collaboration models, gesture-based interactions, and hybrid digital-physical workflows, bridging the gap between traditional digital tools and the possibilities of fully immersive collaboration.

The Impact

The findings from this initiative shaped Mural’s approach to next-generation collaboration tools, providing key insights into where XR could deliver real business value. By validating how and when immersive environments enhance problem-solving and engagement, we created a foundation for Mural’s long-term vision in the XR space.

This initiative also helped Mural establish itself as an innovation leader in digital collaboration, demonstrating forward-thinking approaches to hybrid and remote teamwork. The research provided a roadmap for integrating immersive capabilities into Mural’s broader product strategy while defining practical, user-centered use cases for XR in the workplace.

Why It Matters

While XR has often been explored as a futuristic concept, this initiative proved that immersive collaboration isn’t just theoretical—it has the potential to reshape how teams work when applied with the right strategy. By grounding innovation in real user needs, I helped Mural move beyond speculation and into actionable, research-backed opportunities for the future of work. This exploration not only expanded Mural’s product thinking but also contributed to a broader industry conversation about what’s next for digital collaboration.

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