Case Study: Designing the Workspace of the (Near) Future
Our Design Process for Konica Minolta
This project was done in collaboration with Tessa Schwartzmann and Jordi Pedemonte as part of IED Barcelona Masters course in Design Management.
TLDR
Our client, Konica Minolta, asked us to design the Workspace of the Future. As a manufacturer of print products, they were looking for opportunities that addressed the (digital) needs of the growing knowledge worker/freelancer economy.
Our solution focused on three areas; expertise, motivation, and creativity. This led to three solutions that we developed in just ten weeks.
We broke it down week by week to show you how we did it.
W1: Develop a Hypothesis
To help define our hypothesis, we needed to understand first the company’s strengths and what is it already doing to address the challenge of Workspace of the Future.
Following our briefing, we began drafting a list of question we wanted to address with this project. We were curious about:
• How might we best integrate workspaces with new ways of working?
• How might we balance the needs of work with the desire for independence?
• How might we achieve growth based on adaptability?
Innovation Planning Process
This led to an overarching question we wanted to address: Can an office itself be a system?
W2: Diagnose Company
To discover areas of opportunity and understand the needs of our client, we needed to understand the challenges they currently face. We needed a better understanding of Konica Minolta’s position in business technologies. Overall, we wanted to know: What are their strengths? Their weaknesses? Who are their competitors, and what are they already doing to address the future of workspaces?
My role in this process was to analyze the company, not just to understand what value the company currently provides but also how it provides it. Jordi and Tessa mapped out value webs to visualize these transactional flows that define Konica Minolta’s business.
W3: Prepare & Conduct Interviews
To validate our hypothesis, we needed to get out in the field and talk to potential users of future digital workspaces. We planned interviews from a wide range of work locations, from co-workings to studios, and small businesses that are in one way or another dealing with changing attitudes in workplace culture.
Identifying companies and types of users was one aspect. The other was asking questions that addressed different elements of our interviewees working experience. We divided our list of questions by categories; from user profile (e.g. freelancer) to company structure (e.g. Small agency, co-working), to different types of workspaces (e.g. Anytime office, home studio).
The aim here is to gather as much data as possible. We did this through direct one on one interviews but also holding co-creation sessions, where groups assembled and talked openly about the kind of work environment they wanted for themselves.
Tessa served as moderator whereas I was the facilitator. Together, we immersed participants in a specific challenge where they could build solutions to existing problems related to their workplace.
The results of the co-creation session gave us a better grasp of the challenge and understanding of our users. By the end of the week, we had completed five one-to-one interviews along with the co-creation session.
W4: Research Trends & Define Criteria
At this point, we were gathering all our insights to spot patterns. We did this by funnelling our observations into personas and crafting a journey map that shows an ordinary working day for our user.
The journey map is split between three vertical columns that indicate what our persona is going, thinking, and feeling throughout a regular working day.
I began synthesizing observations into groups, which help reveal pain points, needs, and motivations. Jordi designed the initial journey map, while Tessa started to define the criteria.
To define the criteria, it helps to ask “why” behind each action and belief. In our case, we identified five criteria’s required for our solution: modularity, encourage flexibility, simplify the workflow, inspire motivation at the workplace, and facilitate knowledge building.
With the criteria in mind, we were now able to carve out an opportunity space for our client.
W5: Present Findings & Gather Feedback
At this point, we were ready to present our initial findings to the team (woohoo!). At this stage, we are presenting our clients with what we have found so far. Presenting our findings helps validate some ideas we’ve seen in our research as well as appease some of the doubts we’ve had. In having an open dialogue post-presentation, we can gather feedback and move on to the next phase of the project.
W6: Synthesis & Ideation
Our personas encompassed different needs. For instance, the freelancer who works in a co-working environment. The ‘productive’ who works at a small agency and requires moments of deep concentration. And finally, the creative type who is always on the move and is regularly engaged in meetings.
Each of these represents a different problem that we are looking to solve. By combining each, we arrive at our challenge statement: How might we optimize expertise, motivation, and creativity in the workplace to create natural and non-automized productivity?
Answering this question would lead us to our solution. What we need now is to propose and ideate solutions of what we think best solves the challenge question.
Challenge Statement
How might we optimize expertise, motivation, and creativity in the workplace to create natural and non-automized productivity?
W7: Prototype & Test
We used a morphological matrix to decide which idea to prototype first. This involves one large piece of paper with two axes. All ideas get put on the horizontal axis, and all the pain points and needs go on the vertical axis. The concept that addresses the most pain points and needs to move on to the prototype.
To put our thoughts into action; we engaged in some creative activities where we built and acted out our solutions using abstract materials (e.g., Legos, empty tissue boxes).
Now is the moment where we prototype and test. Mostly through paper mockups, we take our developed prototypes and test them on individuals for feedback. What we are most concerned about here is if the prototype conveys what we are looking to solve as well as to notice blind spots we may have missed along the way.
Solutions
For our challenge, we developed three solutions that each independently addressed the issue of expertise, motivation, and creativity in the workplace.
For expertise, we developed an ‘expert finder.’ Expert Finder connects user by finding information that matches users request in the database. One could, for example, find people on the map with a unique skill set or knowledge and being able to contact them. The aim here is to discover people you may be unfamiliar with or don’t know but who can provide knowledge or value to your work.
For motivation, we developed ‘Map My Space.’ This solution involves the use of sensors. With the information provided by the sensors, the user can learn more about the noise, lighting, and amount of people in every workspace the moment they request it. A sensor detecting activity provides information that allows workers to seek spaces better suited to their working needs. If an area becomes too noisy, for instance, a user will be able to find a quieter location for better concentration.
For creativity, we developed the ‘Biz-E Printer’ or the post-it printer. A wireless and transportable printer that prints images and short text. The idea here is to have a printer that could print instantly based on voice commands to facilitate and improve meetings and group activities.
W8: Concept Development
Concept development deals with the technical and strategy side of the solution. It is also one of the most important aspects of the process. You are ultimately designing something because you want it to have an impact on your client. Thus, you have to show them how you are eventually going to implement the solution.
This part of the process deals with mapping out the devices journey map, or blueprint, as well as roadmaps for service implementation and other strategy-related elements.
W9: Prepare Deliverables
To explain our solution to our client, we produced a video showing our solution in the context of future digital workspace. We prepared storyboards to show how each scene would work and shot these out in a DSLR camera using the IED studio space.
We divided activities between editing the video and preparing and printing all the materials for our final deliverable.
Everything that happens in the last week is about polishing and getting everything ready for the result. Not just printing but studying the room we would be presenting in, what would be the best layout, who says what and what sort of questions do we think our client will throw at us. Being prepared and making sure we didn’t miss anything before it was too late.
W10: Final Presentation with Deliverables
The final presentation felt more like a continuing conversation from our previous meeting in week five.
We each began by telling the stories of our personas, providing a snapshot of a regular working day. Our user journey allowed us to navigate our client through this experience.
We were able to validate our personas experiences with trends we had found in our research. Putting all this in context, we introduced our three solutions. These were shown through our video and finalized our presentation with a Q&A session.
Final Thoughts
This project began with a simple yet complex challenge statement, design the Digital Workplace of the Future.
As our first service design project, there were was a lot to learn. I was able to experience firsthand the “fail fast” and “fail quickly” ethos that I so regularly heard in design circles.
The biggest challenge for me was moving forward without really knowing what comes next. But not knowing is also the most exciting aspect of the process.
Thanks for reading.
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