Workplace Analytics

Data Analytics and Generative AI capabilities to optimise physical workplaces

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated staying and working from home, introducing new challenges such as health and safety, and reserving desks for employees required to work in the office.

In response to these challenges, ServiceNow launched its Workplace Service Delivery business unit, entering the facility management category with two products: Workplace Reservations and Indoor Mapping.

I joined ServiceNow in February 2022, when the business unit was developing its products for workplace space management and overall workplace management.

Need for Workplace Analytics

The post-pandemic shift back to the office (RTO) exposed a critical gap in workplace planning for many companies. Unforeseen occupancy patterns led to wasted resources and a diminished return on investment (ROI) for office space.

To address this challenge, we developed workplace analytics solutions for our customers. These tools empower businesses to optimize workplace resource utilization, maximizing their ROI on physical spaces.

While this project is currently in a limited release due to confidentiality (protected by a non-disclosure agreement or NDA), I'd be happy to walk you through the process and designs in more detail during a meeting.

Facility managers, their tasks and challenges

From ensuring the smooth operation of HVAC systems to optimizing office layouts, facility managers play a critical role in keeping the workplace running. They oversee maintenance and repairs, manage space efficiently, and implement safety protocols.

I kicked off this project with firsthand calls to understand the needs of facility managers and leaders, learning about their daily realities.

This exercise helped me to create the following proto-persona.

Metrics that matter to Facility managers

While ServiceNow's UI builder empowers workplace managers to create custom dashboards with relevant metrics, facility managers have encountered challenges in retrieving the specific data they need.

To address this gap, they've requested pre-built analytics dashboards that provide them with all the necessary data points out of the box.

Below are a few identified areas and top 3 key questions from our customers

Spaces

What is the current utilization of my office space?
Which day of the week is the most visited?
What kind of spaces are used the most?

Lease contracts

What’s the status of my lease contracts?
Are there any contracts that need my attention?
What contracts are expiring soon?

Maintenances

How many workplace issues are corrective and preventive?
What is the average time taken to resolve a case?
How can we reduce corrective maintenance cases?

Occupancy

What is my average daily headcount?
What is the trend of my headcount?
What day is the most populated day in my office?

Design Concepts and Customer Validation

Leveraging the metrics from our research, we designed several dashboard concepts utilizing ServiceNow's standardized layout.

These designs and our roadmap were reviewed and validated with our Customers, Business unit stakeholders, and design executives before we went ahead with development.

We used ServiceNow’s Workspaces ecosystem which has predefined, ready-to-use data visualizations, components, and patterns.

Here are a few key snippets from these concepts…

Space Optimization

It helps in understanding key metrics around space utilization.

Workplace Leases

It helps in learning the states of contracts and their expiry date.

Workplace Maintenance

It shows metrics around preventive vs corrective maintenance activities.

Space Occupancy

It displays office occupancy trends that help drive the Return to work policies.

Are these dashboards good enough for our users?

The answer is NO.

Showing plain metrics (for MVP) wouldn’t completely solve our users’ frustrations. So, we wanted to add proactive insights and Gen AI capabilities to our roadmap.

We started creating a roadmap using the following questions:

  • Can our system provide actionable insights?

  • Can Generative AI help our users by providing information that needs immediate attention, without the user providing a prompt? 

Workplace Advisor: Looking forward with Gen AI

ServiceNow launched this incredible Gen AI initiative, promising a smarter future for workplaces. Intrigued by this potential, we decided to put Gen AI to the test. We brainstormed scenarios where it could intervene without users even needing to ask.

We envisioned a future with a "Workplace Advisor" powered by Gen AI, a digital assistant seamlessly woven into the fabric of ServiceNow. To showcase this vision, we crafted a vision demo for the executives to get their buy-in.

Proactive Insights

We partnered with the ServiceNow’s Proactive Analytics team to develop actionable insights. These insights surface automatically based on IT admin-defined severity markers, empowering them to proactively address potential issues.

Data Summarization by Gen AI

By Analysing the data on the dashboard, Gen AI identifies strategic pathways, proposes solutions, and generates insightful reports

Conversations with Now Assist (Gen AI)

Workplace managers can use Now Assist, our Gen AI tool, to ask any data or strategy-related questions.

Project Learnings:

  1. Personalized User Experiences: Shifted focus from static dashboards to creating personalized experiences for users through Gen AI.

  2. Reframing User Needs: Learned to identify use cases and user pain points from a new perspective, considering the possibilities of Gen AI.

  3. Creating Design Roadmaps: Gained experience in laying out an executable roadmap for MVP and the next two releases.

  4. Future-Oriented Mindset: Developed a future-oriented approach to data analytics, embracing the potential and challenges of Gen AI, including handling ambiguity.

  5. Cross-Business Collaboration: Enhanced skills in managing work with multiple teams and business units, fostering collaboration between Workplace Service Delivery, Proactive Analytics, and the Gen AI teams.

While this project is currently in a limited release due to confidentiality (protected by a non-disclosure agreement or NDA), I'd be happy to walk you through the process and designs in more detail during a meeting.

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