Bringing purpose back to the office: Applying product, learning and branding mindsets to enhance workplace experience
Abstract
This paper addresses the evolving purpose of office spaces in the post-pandemic workplace landscape. As organisations grapple with questions about the role of physical workplaces in an era of proven remote productivity, a new framework is proposed to help redefine office purpose. The framework examines offices through dual perspectives: who they serve (individuals, teams and enterprises) and how they serve them (through functional and symbolic purposes). For individuals, offices must provide essential tools for productivity while connecting personal work to organisational mission. For teams, spaces should facilitate cohesion while symbolically reinforcing desired behaviours. At the enterprise level, offices create experiences that embody organisational values and purpose. Three specialised mindsets are introduced to implement this framework: a product mindset for individual needs, treating offices as continuously improving consumer products; a learning mindset for team needs, embracing experimentation and feedback; and a branding mindset for enterprise needs, creating emotional connections through physical environments. The paper traces how coworking spaces have ‘consumerised’ workplace expectations by integrating both ‘hardware’ (physical spaces) and ‘software’ (experiences, services). Post-pandemic workplace strategies have often overemphasised collaboration spaces at the expense of individual work areas, suggesting a need for more balanced approaches. Traditional workplace planning methods are identified as insufficient for today’s rapidly evolving needs. The analysis concludes that a successful workplace strategy requires cross-functional expertise spanning multiple disciplines, tools that integrate all three mindsets and a holistic perspective balancing individual productivity with team cohesion and organisational identity. As expectations for workplace experiences continue to rise, offices must evolve beyond being mere places to work into strategic assets that support productivity, collaboration and organisational culture. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
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Author's Biography
Leigh Stringer is the Firmwide Director of Advisory Services at Perkins&Will, a global architecture firm. She is a workplace strategy expert and researcher whose work has been covered by a range of news media, including Fortune, CNN, BBC and Good Morning America. Leigh works with a wide range of clients, including corporate, government, higher education and healthcare, to help them create sustainable and high-performing workplace environments that enhance well-being and human performance. She is the author of two bestselling books, ‘The Green Workplace’ and ‘The Healthy Workplace’. Leigh is featured in a documentary called The Workplace Garden, which centres around the stresses and challenges of modern work–life, produced by Conscious Content Media. Leigh received a Master of Architecture and MBA from Washington University in St. Louis and is based in Washington, DC.
Liz Burow is a Principal and Practice Leader at Perkins&Will, a global architecture firm. She is an expert in design research and innovation consulting, helping enterprise clients advance their workplace, retail and cultural design experiences and bottom-line business. Liz uses design thinking, data analytics, multimethod research and change management to guide breakthrough design strategy initiatives. Liz’s experience working for award-winning architecture firms and in leadership positions at WeWork and Google Real Estate and Workplace Services has given her a unique perspective on space as a product, technology, real estate asset and human performance tool. Liz received her Master of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and writes, speaks and teaches on the topic of design thinking and the future of work. She is based in Minneapolis, MN.
Peter Bacevice is a social scientist, design researcher and business strategist who works at the intersection of organisations, design and technology. He is a Research Affiliate at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. For the past 15 years, Peter has held a variety of research and strategy roles in commercial architecture and property technology. He holds a PhD in education from the University of Michigan.
