Designing a workplace is ultimately a series of strategic decisions that determine how effectively an organisation will operate for years to come.
Executives must decide:
- How many desks should be provided?
- How many meeting rooms will employees need?
- How much collaboration space should be allocated?
- How will attendance patterns change over time?
Historically, these decisions relied heavily on surveys, interviews, benchmarking and professional judgement. While these remain valuable, they provide only part of the picture. Today, organisations can combine workplace data, behavioural evidence and scenario modelling to evaluate multiple options before committing significant workplace investment.
This guide outlines a structured approach to designing future workplaces using the Measure, Model, Transform (MMT) framework.
Measure provides the evidence needed to understand how today’s workplace is actually being used.
Model, powered by Tessellate, enables organisations to evaluate alternative workplace strategies before making costly investment decisions.
Transform then delivers the preferred workplace design with greater confidence, lower risk and measurable outcomes.
Key questions
Before making significant workplace investment decisions, consider:
- How much space do we actually need?
- Do we have the right balance of desks, meeting rooms and collaboration spaces?
- How would changes in attendance affect today’s design decisions?
- Are our workplace investments supported by evidence or assumptions?
The remainder of this guide explores how organisations can answer these questions using behavioural evidence and scenario modelling.
Why workplace design decisions matter
Workplace design decisions are among the most expensive and difficult to reverse. Many will shape employee experience, operational performance and real estate costs for the next decade.
Poor design decisions can affect:
- Employee experience
- Real estate costs
- Workplace flexibility
- Future growth
- Collaboration effectiveness
As organisations continue to evolve their workplace strategies, designing the right workplace has become increasingly important.
Common design mistakes
The most successful workplace projects are not defined by the quality of their workplace design alone, but by the quality of the decisions that shaped it. Many costly workplace mistakes occur long before construction begins.
Mistake 1
Designing around assumptions rather than evidence.
Mistake 2
Assuming future attendance patterns will remain unchanged.
Mistake 3
Overbuilding desk capacity.
Mistake 4
Ignoring collaboration demand.
Mistake 5
Evaluating only one design option.
Mistake 6
Failing to understand trade offs before construction begins.
Each of these mistakes increases investment risk. By measuring current workplace behaviour and modelling multiple future scenarios, organisations can identify these risks before committing to workplace change.
Designing for an evolving workplace
Workplace design decisions are often expected to support organisations for years after implementation. However, one of the most consistent findings from workplace measurement programmes is that employee behaviour frequently differs from assumptions made during the design process.
Over the past decade, we have observed substantial differences between how organisations expect employees to use space and how they actually use it.
Meeting rooms are used differently than anticipated. Collaboration spaces may experience significantly higher or lower demand than expected. Attendance patterns evolve as business priorities, workplace policies and employee behaviours change.
The challenge facing workplace leaders is no longer simply understanding current workplace demand. It is understanding how today’s design decisions will perform as employee behaviour, attendance patterns and business priorities continue to evolve.
Leading organisations evaluate multiple possible futures before construction begins, reducing the risk of expensive redesigns and creating workplaces that remain adaptable over time.
The challenge of designing for an uncertain future
Most workplace projects are designed around assumptions.
Questions commonly include:
- How many people will attend the office?
- How often will they attend?
- What spaces will they use?
- How will teams collaborate?
- How will workplace needs evolve?
The challenge is that future behaviour is uncertain. Rather than relying on a single forecast, organisations should evaluate multiple possible futures before making investment decisions.
This is where the Model stage of the MMT framework becomes critical. Instead of selecting a single workplace strategy based on assumptions, organisations can evaluate multiple workplace scenarios before committing significant capital investment.
Introducing Tessellate
Tessellate is our workplace scenario modelling platform. It combines occupancy sensors, booking behaviour, attendance patterns and workplace analytics to model how different workplace strategies are likely to perform.
This allows workplace leaders to compare alternative workplace designs, understand the trade offs between different options and make more confident investment decisions before construction or refurbishment begins.
Moving beyond surveys and assumptions
Employee surveys and stakeholder interviews remain valuable.
However, they represent only one source of evidence.
Workplace design decisions should consider:
- Occupancy data
- Booking behaviour
- Attendance patterns
- Department behaviour
- Environmental data
- Employee feedback
- Organisational objectives
Combining multiple sources provides a more complete understanding of workplace demand and a stronger evidence base for future design decisions.
Understanding current workplace behaviour
Before designing the future, organisations should understand how the current workplace performs.
Key questions include:
- Which spaces are heavily utilised?
- Which spaces are underutilised?
- Which departments have different usage patterns?
- Which areas experience peak demand?
- Which workplace types generate the most value?
Detailed workplace measurement provides the foundation for future planning. By understanding how employees actually use the workplace today, organisations can make better informed design decisions for tomorrow.
In the next section, we explore how organisations can use this evidence to model multiple future workplace strategies before committing significant investment.
Scenario modelling for future workplace design
Rather than selecting a single solution, organisations should evaluate multiple design options.
Questions include:
Workplace mix
- How many desks should be provided?
- How many collaboration spaces are required?
- How many focus spaces should be included?
Meeting rooms
- What room mix best supports demand?
- What room sizes should be prioritised?
Capacity planning
- What happens if attendance increases?
- What happens if headcount grows?
Flexibility
- What person to desk ratio can be supported?
- What workplace configuration maximises flexibility?
Developing a future ready workplace requires moving beyond a single layout or strategy. Organisations should evaluate multiple design options to understand performance under various business and occupancy scenarios. The objective is to identify an optimal space mix that supports evolving behaviours while maximising operational efficiency.
Tessellate acts as a predictive engine, combining occupancy sensors, badge records and booking data to model future demand. Rather than relying on static assumptions, organisations can use behavioural evidence to evaluate alternative designs before making significant real estate investments.
Workplace mix
A central challenge is balancing space types. Organisations must determine the appropriate allocation for desks, collaboration and focus work. Identifying the mix that best supports current and future employee behaviour is critical for long term success.
By leveraging historical patterns, Tessellate models different configurations to predict how adjustments to shared spaces or desk counts will impact utilisation and the overall employee experience.
Meeting room planning
Meeting rooms are frequently the most constrained resources. While average occupancy may appear low, peak demand often leads to shortages and friction. Understanding these fluctuations is essential for effective space management.
Tessellate analyses booking behaviour and usage patterns to identify the ideal room mix. Organisations can evaluate the requirement for small focus rooms versus larger collaboration spaces, ensuring configurations remain resilient under future demand.
Capacity planning
Workplace decisions must account for future uncertainty. Attendance patterns shift as policies evolve and portfolios must accommodate potential headcount growth without the need for overbuilding capacity.
Tessellate allows for testing various scenarios:
- Impact of average attendance increasing from 40% to 60%.
- Changes to peak occupancy under 3 day weekly mandates.
- Ability to support 20% headcount growth within the existing footprint.
- Effect of seasonal volatility and team specific attendance on demand.
These simulations provide a clear view of capacity risks and requirements before capital is committed.
Flexibility and workplace optimisation
Modern strategies must balance efficiency with flexibility.
Organisations are increasingly adopting shared seating and varied work styles to enhance the workplace experience while managing costs.
Tessellate enables the evaluation of person to desk ratios and flexible configurations. By modelling peak demand, organisations can maintain the critical equilibrium of 50–60% average utilisation while ensuring peaks remain below 80%, securing a high performing environment.
This data driven approach ensures that workplace design is aligned with actual behaviour. The result is an adaptable, efficient portfolio that supports long term organisational objectives with confidence.
Data required before making design decisions
Effective scenario modelling depends on reliable workplace data. Rather than relying on a single measure, organisations should combine multiple sources of evidence to build a complete picture of workplace performance.
Together, these datasets provide the evidence required to evaluate alternative workplace strategies with greater confidence.
Occupancy
- Average utilisation
- Peak utilisation
- Attendance patterns
Workplace behaviour
- Department demand
- Neighbourhood demand
- Space type demand
Meeting rooms
- Demand by room size
- Occupied versus booked
- No show rates
Space efficiency
- Square footage allocation
- Cost per occupied seat
- Cost per occupied square foot
Example design scenarios
Scenario modelling enables organisations to compare multiple approaches before selecting a preferred strategy.
Scenario A
Design around current attendance patterns.
Scenario B
Design for increased office attendance.
Scenario C
Design for greater flexibility and desk sharing.
Scenario D
Design for future growth.
For each scenario, organisations should evaluate:
- Cost
- Capacity
- Employee experience
- Flexibility
- Risk
Comparing these scenarios enables organisations to understand the trade offs between different strategies before selecting a preferred option.
Evaluating trade offs
Every workplace design decision creates trade offs. The goal is to identify the workplace strategy that delivers the best balance across business performance, employee experience and long term value.
Evaluation criteria commonly include:
- Real estate efficiency
- Employee experience
- Collaboration effectiveness
- Future growth
- Operational flexibility
- Cost
- Carbon impact
Understanding these trade offs before construction or refurbishment begins enables organisations to make more confident investment decisions while reducing long term risk.
Example transformation journey
Successful workplace transformation is an ongoing process rather than a single project.
The MMT framework provides a structured approach to continuous improvement.
Current workplace
↓
Measure
Understand actual workplace behaviour.
↓
Model
Evaluate alternative workplace designs.
↓
Transform
Implement preferred workplace strategy.
↓
Validate
Measure performance and refine over time.
By continuously validating workplace performance, organisations can ensure their workplace strategy remains aligned with changing business needs.
Questions every Executive should be able to answer
- How much space do we actually need?
- How many desks should we provide?
- How many meeting rooms are required?
- How much collaboration space is needed?
- How much focus space is required?
- What happens if attendance changes?
- Which design option best supports our objectives?
- What evidence demonstrates that this is the best option available?
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