Understand collaboration in working spaces to inform future product launches.
project context
Our client, an office furniture manufacturer, was looking to research what collaboration means in working spaces to support a new product launch.
Client challenge
How can working spaces enhance and support collaborative moments for people in an organization?
Project Scope
Type of Engagement
Foundational Research
Time-frame
6 months
40 hrs
Secondary Research
70 hrs
Interviews
-
Leadership Interviews
Daily Journaling
Floor Observations
Sensor-based study with an accelerometer, dScout survey, and daily journal, followed by ethnographic interviews -
Khoj Lab Team
Design ResearchersClient Team
VP of Design Applications
Director of Marketing
SVP of New Product Strategy
SVP of Innovation -
Design Methods Used:
Observations
Visualization & Mapping
Framework (then became “Modes of Work”Research Methods:
Daily User-Journaling
Co-Creation Sessions
Development Workshop FacilitationCommunication Methods Used:
Comic-styled Graphic Booklet
“Ten Modes of Work” Framework
client testimonial
“This work has directly impacted business strategy and helped the organization position itself as a thought leader with customers.”
KHOJLAB APPROACH
Digital ethnographic study combined with real-time mapping of office spaces
Our research helped us understand the gap between people's behavior and the designed spaces. We used digital ethnography tools and in-person interviews to understand people's behaviors in working spaces and their experience with collaboration and interaction. We implemented a sensor-based study with an accelerometer, dScout survey, and daily journal, followed by ethnographic interviews. The patterns from the data gave the stakeholders and us a believable story on which to base their decisions. We created an internal-facing booklet with comic-style graphics representing the everyday behaviors in the office synthesized from our analysis of over 700 images of real-time activities across multiple organizations. Working with stakeholders, we clustered this information and developed a framework of ten modes of work that described people's behavior in the workplace.
IMPACT/OUTCOME
A successful product story that helped customer discovery based on “Modes of Work.”
The resulting framework significantly shifted the organization's mindset and strategy. They were able to use this framework to build better spatial and furniture designs that would support rather than dictate collaborative behaviors in the workplace. And this eventually led to the successful implementation of the Modes of Work research as part of the product story.
