Breaking Down the What and Why of Workplace Design
Shannon Ferrigno
Director of Design StudioI’ve been designing spaces for smart, forward-thinking companies for over two decades. Each new project brings me more joy than the last—I’m always seeking to expand my knowledge and skill and apply it to the newest challenge. When I’m not in the studio, you can probably find me strolling down the beach on the Oregon coast with my husband and our rescue dog, Savannah.
I can’t think of a time when I’ve used data to inform literally every decision I make in quite the same way as I have in the past year. Our personal wellbeing, that of our friends and family, and even our community has depended on our analysis of information to make smart decisions even when the path forward was unclear. In addition, there is the individual in each of us that interprets that information somewhat differently, through our own lens, as we navigate these new situations on a constant basis. Analysis paralysis has taken on a whole new personal meaning for me. But now as we look toward the horizon and imagine a new future of working together, how will we take our personal and shared experiences to create something even better?
Let’s forget about the last year for just a moment. It used to be easy to take for granted how we make decisions. We call it all sorts of things like intuition or gut feeling but in reality our brains are processing all sorts of qualitative and quantitative information all on their own to help us arrive at what feels like the simplest conclusion. When people ask me what I love, I often say gardening, but I didn’t come by that naturally. I grew up surrounded by fir trees and ferns which are not exactly role models for a fledgling gardner. Then I bought a house in the city on a corner lot with the whole yard on display for everyone to see. No pressure! Everything I know has been mostly self-taught and if I’m being honest, it has been a journey marked by a bit of trial and error. I can lose myself at a nursery for hours confidently looking for just the right plants. Will there be the right amount of sunlight? How is the soil where I’m planning to plant this? Will it grow to be the right size for the space allowed? How will it work with the other plants around it? Are we in the right growing zone for this exotic beauty or would a native be better? Am I really going to give it the care it deserves or will I leave it to fend for itself and hope for the best? Many of these questions were learned by making mistakes, but I am still blissfully unaware until I round the corner and see - the one! All of that data and experience that has been swimming around in my subconscious mind has guided me here. When something just feels right, it often is right. And if it isn’t, I’ll transplant it later!
The idea of data driven design is not new to the design world but there is more at stake than in my garden. This concept became widely accepted into the design of space conversation a long time ago. Even as we collectively wavered between worrying about creepy “big brother” use of sensors monitoring our every movement or the perceived ambiguity of interpreting anonymous survey results about touchy feely subjects that we weren’t always quite so sure what to do with, we knew the possibilities could play out to be important if we could get it right. Thankfully we did. We’ve learned quantitative data is the what and qualitative data is the why - inextricably intertwined. In order to design a high performing space that supports the business results we want to achieve and the people making it all happen to thrive, we have to have both.
It is never too early to begin. Understanding how space and tools are used or how people are feeling is important even if you have no plans to make a change. But if you aren’t regularly collecting this information, how will you know when it is time to consider things differently or if it is already too late? It sounds daunting but thankfully technology has made a leap for us in our ability to gather information in the form of cloud based solutions and AI informed workplace analytics tools that provide more quantitative data at a cost lower than we could have ever imagined. Now we can focus on the heart of the matter, the qualitative data, which really is about what people need to be productive, engaged and living in a company culture that creates resilience, community and inspiration. Varying employee needs often get neutralized when viewed together in aggregate so spending the time to give people a voice in a mindful way, such as a series of expertly crafted workshops, can be the difference between success and failure. Weaving all of this data together, and revisiting it often, creates the roadmap for what is next.
This brings me back to space. As we begin to consider ourselves coming back to work together in physical space, we know our collective needs have changed. For better or worse, we’ve learned to work differently. We have a new appreciation for pants with elastic waistbands. We’ve learned what we really need to be able to focus. We know that a sofa can be a perfectly appropriate workspace. We know that tribal knowledge gets lost when we are isolated. We see with fresh eyes that members of our community are hurting. We communicate differently. We use technology and tools differently. We’ve learned what really matters.