In this article, Andrea explores the concept of building the perfect workspace in the post-pandemic world. She discusses how tech companies initially infused fun into the office by introducing bright colours, slides and relaxed dress codes but this approach was proven wrong during the pandemic. Many employees have embraced remote work, and employers are faced with giving people a reason to return to the office. Andrea visited Miele X’s new home in Amsterdam to explore how they built a flexible work environment suitable for different personalities, circumstances, and technology trends. They used an agile approach where a team of project managers broke up the project into dev-style sprints and collected feedback from interested teammates on must-haves and nice-to-haves. They even had a team of volunteer ‘superusers’ to test out the space before finalizing it. Finally, Andrea notes that companies need to be rethinking, redesigning, and checking in with their teams as people’s needs change with emerging work trends.
Miele is an international manufacturer of high-end domestic appliances with a presence in over 100 countries. Miele X is an innovation lab in Amsterdam that explores how technology influences daily life by creating innovative concepts and technology-based solutions.
Andrea is TNW’s Branded Content Editor who has covered a wide range of topics as a writer, including ClimateTech, AI, and gender bias. She focuses on exploring the social and political impact of emerging technology in her work.