Project Summary

Transforming the workplace around hybrid work and product innovation

As part of a broader transformation of Herman Miller’s Design Yard, this project reimagined the heart of the company’s product innovation ecosystem. Following nearly 20 years without significant change—and the shift toward hybrid work after COVID-19—the project became an opportunity to apply new workplace principles at a scale relevant to Herman Miller’s own customers.

Focused on product innovation, materials innovation, product development, and product management, the strategy organized the environment around the product-development process—from ideas and materials through prototyping, testing, and review.

Individual workpoints were compressed and shifted to an unassigned, team-neighborhood model, allowing space to be reinvested in Maker Spaces, innovation studios, product build and review bays, project rooms, collaboration, focus, and wellbeing settings. Prototype movement, material storage, adjacencies, and spatial sequencing were redesigned around how innovation actually happens.

The result was a more unified, equitable, and connected innovation headquarters that supported hybrid work while creating stronger reasons to come together. For the first time, customers were invited into portions of the environment, with intentional onstage and offstage experiences. Space, technology, processes, and protocols were integrated—making the workplace both a tool for innovation and a living demonstration of Herman Miller’s evolving approach to work.