Workplace insight · The client’s guide
From discovery
to delivery.
What you need to decide.
What each stage should leave you with.
A workplace project involves more than approving a layout. Here is how the brief, building, design and delivery decisions connect, and where the client team fits in.
Know what you are being asked to approve.
A layout can look resolved while the team is still checking a building constraint or waiting for an allowance to be priced. That does not make the layout unhelpful. It means the approval needs to be clear about what is agreed and what remains open.
Our role is to help bring the workplace requirements, design information and delivery considerations together. The steps below explain the client decisions behind that work. The amount of detail and the specialist input depend on the project.
Discover
Agree what the workplace needs to do.
The first conversations establish why the project is happening, what is difficult about the current space and what the business needs to support. Headcount is only part of that brief. Meetings, private work, visitors, storage and working patterns also shape the requirement.
Your decision
Agree priorities, budget parameters and who can approve the brief.
What to carry forward
A written brief with requirements, assumptions and open questions.
Test
Find out what the building can support.
A layout has to work with the building. Surveys, available records and specialist input help identify the constraints worth investigating, including access, services and any landlord requirements. An early test fit can expose conflicts before the design becomes detailed.
Your decision
Confirm which options are worth developing and which investigations need to happen.
What to carry forward
Tested layout options and a record of constraints and further checks.
Define
Choose a direction with the costs beside it.
The preferred concept needs a scope and a cost plan that describe the same project. Furniture, technology, fees and other client responsibilities need to be visible where relevant. A useful programme also shows the approvals and decisions that have to come first.
Your decision
Approve the preferred direction, scope and budget basis, including allowances and exclusions.
What to carry forward
An agreed design direction, cost plan and route through the next decisions.
Develop
Resolve the details that others will build from.
Materials, furniture, service positions and technical information need to be coordinated. A visual helps explain the intended result, but it does not replace the drawings and specifications needed for pricing, procurement or installation. The relevant specialists and approvers need to be involved.
Your decision
Approve the selections and the information required to release the next package of work or orders.
What to carry forward
Coordinated information, recorded approvals and clear procurement requirements.
Deliver
Keep decisions connected to what reaches site.
Questions and changes can still arise during delivery. The team needs a clear route for reviewing their effect on the design, cost and programme, then issuing the agreed information. Handover needs attention too, including outstanding items and the documents needed to use and maintain the space.
Your decision
Authorise changes with their implications understood, and agree how handover items will be closed.
What to carry forward
The completed scope, a record of changes and the agreed handover information.
Working with POS
Give the client team a manageable role.
You do not need everyone involved in every selection. You do need the right people contributing before their requirements become difficult to accommodate. Agree a client lead, the people who need to be consulted and the authority for different decisions.
At the start, establish which responsibilities sit with POS, the client, the landlord and other advisers or specialists. That gives everyone a clearer understanding of who is preparing information, who is checking it and who can approve the next step.
For the service itself, including how we can help develop your brief and design, see our Office Design page.
Read about Office DesignTalk it through
Starting with a brief, or still shaping one?
Tell us what is prompting the project. We can help work out what needs attention first and the support your team needs.
