Understanding neighbourhood data with Jessica Christiansen-Franks
Neighbourlytics — helping developers measure the soul of local communities.
I chat with Jessica Christiansen-Franks, co-founder and CEO of Neighbourlytics, about how her data company uses unconventional digital sources—from Google Maps and Instagram to Strava—to help property developers and urban planners measure social wellbeing and neighbourhood lifestyle.
Jess spent twenty years as a town planner before realising that our cities were making us fatter, sicker, and lonelier because the industry only measures bricks and mortar instead of human experience. Today, Neighbourlytics operates across more than 2,000 neighbourhoods in 12 countries, proving that you can actually quantify the invisible "vibe" of a place.
What’s in this episode
(03:16): Jess gives the Neighbourlytics elevator pitch, explaining how her town planning career revealed that citymakers struggle to measure what people actually love about places.
(05:18): Why standard property metrics like vacancy rates and square metres of park miss the point of human experience and wellbeing.
(07:58): Breaking down the four types of data Neighbourlytics captures: crowdsourced maps, mobile movement data, social chatter, and ratings and reviews.
(12:02): How Neighbourlytics measures the "vibe" of a suburb (like Footscray versus Fitzroy) using behavioural data rather than just demographics.
(15:05): Exploring the Discover platform, where users can drill down from suburb-level activity scores into specific filters like nighttime economies.
(17:33): How property developers use the platform across site selection, vision positioning, and ongoing asset performance tracking.
(20:53): Real-world examples of ailing shopping centres where traditional focus groups missed massive local context—like a thriving Sunday car boot sale nearby.
(28:32): Finding "hidden" life on greenfield sites—from an established community apple cart to kids running a youth group in an abandoned house.
(30:30): Kylie reflects on moving to Balmain and the historic council conflicts over protecting local character during urban densification.
(34:53): Jess explains how Footscray's fine-grain manufacturing and creative ecosystem risk being destroyed by generic high-rise development and real estate agency ground-floor retail.
(36:48): The Neighbourlytics business model: a subscription platform with an entry-level Discover tool and premium longitudinal tracking.
(39:31): Growing a 12-person team where 70% are data scientists and engineers as the company scales its software platform.
(41:13): The hardest part of the journey: building a global-first business model and continuously testing data sets as digital user habits change (like the death of Meetup).
(45:05): The massive shift in B2B customer readiness post-COVID, with buyers expecting self-service, frictionless B2C software experiences rather than human-heavy consultancy sales.
(47:31): How AI and machine learning fit into Neighbourlytics today, moving from experimental tech to a market that now takes data sorting and image recognition for granted.
In their words
“Cities are making us fatter, sicker, and lonelier than ever before.” — Jessica Christiansen-Franks
“People only post on Instagram what they want their friends to know they did.” — Jessica Christiansen-Franks
“If we don't have the data needed to measure the experience of place, how can we possibly get it right?” — Jessica Christiansen-Franks
About the guest
Jessica Christiansen-Franks is the co-founder and CEO of Neighbourlytics. Formerly a town planner, landscape architect, and urban designer with twenty years of industry experience, she built the company to bridge the gap between physical citymaking and real human behaviour. She is a leading voice in using data to create better-connected communities.
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