Timeline

4 Weeks

My ROle

Product Design

Team

4 Product Designers, Product Manager, 2 Design Technologists,

Tools

Illustrator, Revit, Adobe XD,

Intro

Private Office Suites

At the time WeWork was able to support customers with a headcount between 1-20 in their classic product offering, as well as larger companies (200+ ) with custom full-floor spaces, however, we were struggling to support customers who fell just in between - companies with 20-200 employees, aka The Medium-Sized Member. These members wanted the same speed and flexibility as the classic product but needed more space and privacy than what was being offered. I was part of an inspired project to launch a new product line, Private Office Suites, bridging the gap between pre-configured and fully customizable workplace solutions.

*In consideration of the company, I have omitted confidential information in this case study. All work presented in this case study is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of WeWork.

The Challenge

How do we create an experience to better support medium-sized, and deliver it at scale?

When you are selling space as a service, delivering a consistent, on-brand experience at scale can be extremely challenging- especially considering the fact that design teams and conditions are constantly changing. Successful execution requires a source of truth.

Similar to a design system you might use to create a digital product, our team developed a systematic design strategy for the launch of Private Office Suites, including a standardized process, space type components, design principles, and guidelines.

Project Goals

Validated and refine global design standards
Streamline the preliminary design phase (programming and layout)
Establish an implementation strategy for internal design teams

Deliverables

Product Metrics
New Space Types Components
Design Tools & Programming
Design Principles
Layout Guide
Technical Guide
Creative Guide

Key research Insights

Understanding the Enterprise Member

I was responsible for developing the design principles and best practices, as well as producing a layout guide for our internal architecture team. I partnered with one other designer to analyze member feedback and regional sales metrics of our full-floor spaces completed for our Enterprise Clients (like Facebook and Amazon) to better understand how the larger companies were working within the WeWork model. I also collected floor plans from 20 completed projects to identify spatial trends in open office environments.

Open Floor Plans

In terms of the overall layout, the floors have fewer walls/ private offices, more open seating and more conference rooms than our CoWorking or Center of Gravity Floor types.

Less Dense & Larger Desks

Members in Tech, Financial Services, and Multi-team use cases, typically design at a much lower density, allocating around 100 USF / physical desk. These members are also requesting larger desks, typically 30" x 60"

Highly Collaborative

Enterprises companies expect greater numbers of meeting rooms than what our co-working product provides, with an average meet to work seat ratio of 0.65. employees are meeting more frequently, and in smaller numbers, with an average meeting size of 3.2 people.

Individually Focused

The Focus room provides enterprise organizations with an agile work setting where 2 people can work together at one workstation. This room may also be converted into a small executive office (this feature is undergoing Regional vetting).

Design direction

Creating a diverse work environment

The average workday includes moments of both focused and collaborative work. Meaning employees need access to a variety of space-types throughout the day. The optimal environment is responsive to the building conditions, and intentionally zoned, and is capable of supporting multiple work styles. By creating a diverse work environment, we can empower employees to find the space that is right for them.

Applying the insights learned from our research, my counterpart and I began to establish design principles that would guide and inform all design decisions. These principles would also help us develop a spatial planning strategy that could be applied to all projects - maintaining product consistency and agility for an entire team.

Defining Principles & Process

Early on, it was important to understand the different building conditions that may influence the overall space plan, and impact efficiency. We created 4 mock layouts - each one in a different building, varying in shape and size, and requiring a unique program. This allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of the more nuanced issues that may arise and gain a better understanding of best practices. We checked our floor plan’s efficiency metrics against the performance metrics specified in the product guidelines. The archived results varied slightly with each floor plan, however, the majority were able to hit the desired metrics allowing for a small margin of error.

Below is an example of the steps we took in testing our design principles.

Testing Our Hypothesis

Leverage Base Building Conditions

Mark Building Alignments
Identify Axis
Establish Desk Depts
Establish Circulation

Intentionally Zoned Program

Place Work Zones
Place Lounge and Support
Place Meet & Private Offices
Enhance Wayfinding

Create Amenity Clusters

Thoughtfully Place Desk Clusters
Create Amenity Neighborhoods
Optimize Layout

Putting it all together

The Single Member Full Floor

WeWork Private Offices - offers two new products Single Member Full Floors and Multi-Suite Floors. Each product is designed to meet the needs of larger customers also referred to as Enterprise Members.

Space Types

WeWork achieves variety on a large scale by tailoring a “kit of parts” to be used on every project, instead of creating a one-off design each time. This document provides spatial specifications for each space type. Space types can be modified slightly to reflect local conditions and solve specific problems.

Design Principles

The Zoning Principles- a set of guiding principles that would drive design decisions without disregarding unique project conditions.

This section includes 4 detail step-by-step guides for completing a full floor project. These guides will enable teams with the information, design strategies, and tools for success.

impact & Results

Rollout & Training

150

reduced design timeline

After four weeks of cross-functional collaboration, our team produced and documented a design system that included over 150 pages of instructional content. There were two major factors for measuring the success of our design system. The first was to deliver a seamless and cohesive experience in every Office Suites location - which is a little bit more challenging to measure, and the second was to streamline our preliminary design phase. With this system in place, teams were able to complete programming and layouts faster than ever before, reducing the design time by 50%.

-50%

pages of documentation

NExt project