Herman Miller
Every five years, furniture innovator Herman Miller runs a scenario planning effort exploring how the world of work will be different. With BMI as part of the exploration, the 2013 effort produced three plausible futures for 2018 (Data Sphere, New Normal, and Polarized World) that reshaped how the company and its customers think about work.
The challenge
The nature of work has been changing at an incredible rate: global, digital, with blurred roles and idea lifecycles accelerating from decades to minutes. Herman Miller needed a way to explore future business model options and understand the future needs of its customers amid this uncertainty.
Our approach
A two-day symposium brought together employees and external experts with diverse backgrounds to identify driving forces and critical uncertainties, then develop and narrow scenario themes. Implications workshops translated each scenario into propositions, a point of view on how work will change, feeding corporate and product strategy and customer conversations.
The results
- Three plausible 2018 futures (Data Sphere, New Normal, Polarized World) that provide a platform for deeper conversations with customers.
- Insights about fluid, swarm-based work directly influenced the development and refinement of Herman Miller's Living Office concept.
- The proposition of 'hackable spaces' led to new lightweight materials and the Metaform furniture line, letting employees rearrange spaces to team needs.
The method stayed with the team. It always does.
Want resultslike these?
Explore the possibilities with Patrick van der Pijl and the BMI team. Every big shift starts with a conversation.