Target value design: Guidelines for implementation in the real estate market in Brazil

In the current construction industry scenario, several constraints - schedule, scope, cost - impact the quality of products delivered. From the clients’ and users’ perspectives, there is a need to incorporate innovative methods for value management in the sector. Delivering products with more added value often runs into investor restrictions and difficulties imposed by a fragmented product development process, representing obstacles to collaboration among stakeholders, especially in the real estate context. These characteristics demand a proactive design process focusesed on value delivery. One of them is Target Value Design (TVD), which has emerged as a viable solution to solve the poor performance in construction. Most TVD applications reported are cases where the owner sets the goals based on the available budget and desired functionalities. This research aims to develop a TVD model adapted for real estate projects, specifically for products with units for sale. In this context, one single company combines different roles, acting as developer and contractor and being responsible for sales to final users. The market, and not the owner, defines the target value and cost. The study was developed in Brazil, where this arrangement is very common, but can provide insights into other countries with similar characteristics. For this purpose, this research adopted the Design Science Research (DSR) strategy, which seeks to explain, describe, explore, or prescribe solutions for real-life problems. Focus Groups technique helped to develop and validate the artifact through learning cycles. As a result, the research proposes a TVD-adapted model and guidelines for implementation in the real estate market.