212: ‘Curiosity as a KPI’, with Ashley Hastings

Ashley Hastings joins the podcast to talk about what it really means to make curiosity a key performance indicator (KPI).

📐 A note from Evan: The phrase “curiosity as a KPI” contains its own contradiction, and hopefully the irony landed with you, dear listener. Obviously, KPIs are about measurement, control, and predictability—the very things that can kill curiosity when applied too rigidly. True curiosity thrives in open-ended exploration, not quarterly targets. The challenge isn't to meter curiosity like a production metric, but to design systems that protect space for it, reward it when it leads somewhere useful, and to not punish the curious if/when it doesn't. The goal is to make curiosity visible and valued. Not to turn wonder into a dashboard.

We discuss how curiosity can and should be operationalized as a measurable part of firm culture—not so much as something tracked, but rewarded and tied to real outcomes instead of being left to chance. Ashley shares her perspective on aligning incentives for innovation, treating training like a product, and creating feedback loops that actually capture and scale knowledge across teams.

We also talk about the post-GPT reality of context over keywords, and how design technology leadership is increasingly about change management and culture design.

If you’re a digital practice leader, BIM manager, or anyone trying to build a more innovative, adaptive practice, this conversation offers a clear path toward turning curiosity into a strategic advantage.

To learn more about Ashley Hastings, see the full show notes with links at https://trxl.co/212

To get more great conversations with AEC technology leaders on the TRXL podcast please visit https://trxl.co

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