Failing to define an outcome
“To Start Right Is To End Right”
Our team takes time to ask questions. We help our clients define and articulate their project scope which often includes:
- Defining project roles and responsibilities
- Identifying decision making process and authority
- Early coordination with other project participants, i.e. building owner, owner’s representative, architect, general contractor, subcontractors.
- Developing a task outline and project schedule
- Establishing a budget Having a budget is crucial, and no other furniture provider in Utah has the cost modeling capabilities that we do.
We are regularly engaged by design professionals and our client organization to provide cost modeling for projects in design or in capital development. Contact us and we can show you how we model costs, and how we empower you in utilizing it for decision-making and value management.
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Designing without a purpose
The most effective workspaces don't begin with great furniture, they begin with great design. Design isn't just about aesthetics. Great design outcomes don't happen on accident. They are strategic, well-planned, and goal oriented. Good office space design streamlines workflow, improves engagement, productivity and efficiency. It encourages collaboration and teamwork, facilitates information and knowledge transfer and helps to recruit and retain people. Good design leverages what is working well, but also resolves what is not presently working well.
A well designed office space should give your company a unique and competitive advantage in the marketplace.
All too often companies fall into the trap of planning and implementing a new office space or remodel and existing space without a well conceived purpose. Generally time and budget restraints drive a dialogue with furniture vendors that focuses on quantity of workstations within a given footprint and lowest reasonable price. The mistake with this method is not giving up good value or maximizing space, it focuses on the wrong issues.
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Assuming your needs
Assuming that as a leader in your organization you have a complete understanding of your organization's needs and puts undue pressure on one person or a select few. It is nearly impossible for one person to have a clear picture of an organization's needs related to physical space, functional relationships, procedural impediments, and the list goes on and on.
Needs assessments is a process of discovering and qualifying organizational and individual requirements within a workspace. Needs assessment is quite simply asking and answering questions, then placing those findings into a spacial context.
Some clients come to Midwest very early in the process seeking assistance in determining how much space they need. Some clients have already completed their search for office space and are now interested in determining how to best utilize their new space. But it is very important to take stock in some key areas before pressing forward with an actual space plan. Why? Most importantly because you should not design a workspace for yesterday or even today, but for 5 to 10 years from now.
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Not gathering consensus on project drivers
Companies come to us every day with a wide range of issues, challenges and objectives they want to solve. Often times there is a loose consensus around a particular issue or two. However, there is frequently many competing objectives, or lack of consensus on what is most important.
A critical step in our process is helping our clients and their internal teams define project goals, objectives and outcomes. We do this through a process called programming. Programming is a structured procedure where broad and disparate project drivers are classified, narrowed and ranked into specific, actionable objectives. These specific objectives are the "ingredients" that makeup the secret sauce that defines project success for your organization. Common drivers addressed in programming are: functional requirements and adjacencies, growth patterns and rates, environmental performance (noise, privacy, mobility), employee retention, and types and quantities of spaces.
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Becoming a captive client
So you're looking at moving into a new office space and you need a space plan in a hurry. Someone you are working with, someone you trust tells you...we work with XYZ Company, they're the best. It's all very smooth, that company suddenly has your information, maybe even your floor plans. Meetings are set up for you and they commence with design and space planning, often without knowing anything about your company. Before you know what hit you, you've become a captive client and that's the last place you want to be.
Be wary of getting caught in the speed trap of a fast fit plan. Speed is important, but so is thinking through your plan. Fact is, you are going to be in this space for many years. Don't get sucked into a plan you are not sure of.
Competition is a good thing and nobody brings out the competition like Midwest. Whether you ultimately chose MWCI or not, your process will be improved, your outcome will be better, and we can guarantee you will make a more informed decision.
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Understanding what you are getting
There is hardly anything worse than buyer's remorse. Spending money to acquire something and then to feel as though your expectations were not met can be agonizing. Now magnify that by 50, 100 or 500 times. It may be one thing for you alone to feel let down by your office furniture or your provider, but how about all of the employees that now feel less than enthusiastic about their new space. Your new space was supposed to be a great thing for your company. Now it is a nightmare.
Our team doesn't design in a vacuum, show you our plan, and then say "isn't this amazing?" We don't ram our design down our clients' throats. What we do is give them power, confidence, and tools to be an integrated member of the design team. MWCI has invested heavily in technology to bring our clients a design platform that breaks down barriers and opens up opportunities.
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Project Management
“TO START RIGHT IS TO END RIGHT”
Great design is more than just how something looks. It encompasses a broad set of standards that are evaluated by everyone that comes into contact with a design outcome. But that design outcome doesn’t just happen, and it is rarely well-defined or understood on the front end by both large and small organizations.
Our design scope process is where we start. It is engaging, scalable and very efficient. It is something that many clients are resistant to engage in because of time constraints. But our clients are always grateful they did it as their project completes. Our team takes time to ask questions. We help our clients define and articulate their project scope which often includes:
- Defining project roles and responsibilities
- Identifying decision making process and authority
- Early coordination with other project participants, i.e. building owner, owner’s representative, architect, general contractor, subcontractors.
- Developing a task outline and project schedule
- Establishing a budget
No other furniture provider in Utah has the cost modeling capabilities that we do. We are regularly engaged by design professionals and our client organization to provide cost modeling for projects in design or in capital development. Contact us and we can show you how we cost model, and how we empower you in utilizing it for decision-making and value management.
CLICK TO SEE HOW WE DO DIFFERENT
Installation & Post Occupancy
“TO START RIGHT IS TO END RIGHT”
Great design is more than just how something looks. It encompasses a broad set of standards that are evaluated by everyone that comes into contact with a design outcome. But that design outcome doesn’t just happen, and it is rarely well-defined or understood on the front end by both large and small organizations.
Our design scope process is where we start. It is engaging, scalable and very efficient. It is something that many clients are resistant to engage in because of time constraints. But our clients are always grateful they did it as their project completes. Our team takes time to ask questions. We help our clients define and articulate their project scope which often includes:
- Defining project roles and responsibilities
- Identifying decision making process and authority
- Early coordination with other project participants, i.e. building owner, owner’s representative, architect, general contractor, subcontractors.
- Developing a task outline and project schedule
- Establishing a budget
No other furniture provider in Utah has the cost modeling capabilities that we do. We are regularly engaged by design professionals and our client organization to provide cost modeling for projects in design or in capital development. Contact us and we can show you how we cost model, and how we empower you in utilizing it for decision-making and value management.
CLICK TO SEE HOW WE DO DIFFERENT
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