Stack planning is now not a spreadsheet train. It’s how organizations remodel fragmented programs and competing calls for into strategic readability by linking leases, occupancy, office expertise, and long-term portfolio worth.
Enterprise leaders inform us the best problem isn’t simply how a lot house they management it, it’s whether or not that house suits how individuals truly use it. As Ryan Anderson of MillerKnoll shared on the Office Innovator podcast, “When you design to the common, you fail on the peak — and it’s the height that issues most.”
Stack planning beneath constraints requires actual measurements, actual conversations, and actual management.
Key takeaways
- Constraints are strategic indicators, not obstacles — when measured and modeled accurately
- Hybrid work requires planning to peaks, not averages, utilizing actual habits and predictive analytics
- Cross-site visibility transforms native choices into portfolio-level technique
- Built-in platforms flip fragmented knowledge into actionable insights
- Fashionable stack planning reduces value, threat, and friction — whereas bettering worker expertise
Lease publicity: Seeing threat earlier than it turns into value
Lease timelines are mounted. Workforce plans usually are not.
Many organizations uncover underused capability solely after renewal conversations are underway. Bryan Berthold, International Office Expertise Chief at Cushman & Wakefield, highlighted that mandates alone received’t drive office worth — individuals and behaviors do, and so they should inform strategic choices.
“We All Have a Function” dives into why CRE groups should accomplice throughout features relatively than function in isolation, particularly when evaluating renewal dangers or lease commitments.
Proactive stack planning hyperlinks essential dates and obligations to utilization tendencies. As an alternative of reacting to an expiration letter, groups can consider eventualities months or years out — asking:
- What occurs if demand grows by 10–20%?
- Can we consolidate under-utilized wings?
- Will staggered hybrid schedules scale back the necessity for assigned desks?
When lease knowledge is related to occupancy analytics, relatively than trapped in separate programs, threat turns into seen early, not expensive late.
Eptura Office centralizes leases and utilization, giving CRE, finance, and IT stakeholders a shared image of publicity and choices. That is how groups transfer from reactive renewals to strategic portfolio choices.
Hybrid demand and the shift from averages to actual habits
Hybrid doesn’t imply half the workforce is at all times distant. It means patterns shift continually — and the one option to plan for that’s with knowledge.
Vik Bangia, MCR and CEO of Verum Consulting, explored how AI and sensible programs assist organizations suppose extra strategically about office use and future demand.
“The Artwork of the Potential” with Pendrick Brown (Principal at HLW), the dialog turned to how expertise + design insights can truly predict house use — providing extra dependable fashions for peak occupancy and adjacency planning.
Right here’s what this implies for hybrid planning:
- Conventional averages obscure peaks. For a lot of portfolios, mid-week occupancy could be 30–50% larger than Mondays or Fridays — knowledge that makes an enormous distinction in stack choices.
- Folks don’t simply e book desks — they search collaboration alternatives, social interplay, and particular instruments on sure days.
- Predictive analytics (backed by AI) reveal patterns that outpace legacy forecasting strategies.
Instruments like Serraview and Eptura’s built-in analytics permit groups to visualise eventualities primarily based on actual weekly rhythms — then optimize layouts, seat ratios, and adjacencies accordingly.
As an alternative of designing to a static imply, leaders design to habits, unlocking house efficiencies usually within the 15–25% discount vary whereas bettering office expertise.
Cross-site eventualities and the transfer from native to international technique
Most enterprises don’t function round a single workspace; they handle networks.
Acquisitions. Speedy hiring in sure markets. Regional insurance policies. Totally different work cultures. All of those amplify complexity.
David Dewane, Chief Expertise Officer for Bodily Area at Geniant, emphasised the significance of understanding actual office behaviors earlier than making portfolio choices.
One notable takeaway from that episode: it’s a must to “perceive the truth” of how groups use house — as a result of planning with out genuine perception is actually guesswork layered with value.
For cross-site stack planning, this implies:
- Standardized metrics that apply globally
- Centralized dashboards displaying occupancy, allocation, and demand throughout areas
- State of affairs modeling that reveals the place development, contraction, or restacking may have essentially the most impression
Leaders report that after they shift from siloed web site planning to portfolio modeling, they uncover alternatives emigrate capability, scale back redundant leases, and streamline strikes.
And since actual property now behaves like an agile asset — relatively than a set legal responsibility — groups can reply quicker to alter orders from finance, HR, or enterprise technique.
Know-how enablers for contemporary stack planning
Throughout the Office Innovator podcast, a recurring theme is that knowledge alone isn’t transformation — integration is.
Amanda Schneider, founding father of ThinkLab, highlighted the rising want to attach house technique, human expertise, and knowledge storytelling — not simply acquire metrics in isolation.
In the meantime, broader analysis from Eptura’s workspace insights confirms that many organizations nonetheless run a excessive variety of siloed programs, which slows decision-making and inflates prices.
Stack planning beneath constraint wants:
- Actual-time feeds
From HRMS programs to reserving engines and sensors — the quicker knowledge flows, the sooner leaders can consider choices and anticipate tendencies. - Prediction, not simply reporting
AI fashions can forecast utilization peaks, spotlight over-allocated zones, and recommend consolidation paths. This turns evaluation into recommendation. - Linked platforms
As a result of choices don’t stay in silos. CRE, IT, HR, finance, and operations all want entry to the identical model of the reality.
Built-in platforms unify these domains, so stack planning beneath constraint isn’t guesswork however strategic planning with confidence.
Measurable impression and proof in follow
The benefit of clever stack planning is measurable:
- Portfolio value optimization — organizations usually discover double-digit reductions by means of smarter distribution of house
- Velocity of strikes — state of affairs planning instruments flip what as soon as took weeks of coordination into days of analysis
- Worker adoption — knowledge exhibits workers are extra glad when house aligns with goal (collaboration zones on peak days, quiet focus areas when wanted, and so on.)
Rex Miller (Writer & Futurist) reframed office planning as shifting “from suppose tank to do tank” — basically urging leaders to cease theorizing and begin operationalizing insights throughout their organizations.
This type of government framing — to suppose and act strategically — mirrors the shift stack planning requires: from static planning to steady foresight.
Technique that holds beneath strain
Constraints aren’t non permanent. They’re structural.
Lease liabilities, hybrid behaviors, cross-site complexity, and expectations for office expertise aren’t going away — they’re evolving.
Leaders who succeed flip stack planning right into a functionality, not a marketing campaign:
- Join knowledge streams — unify HR, finance, occupancy, and house programs
- Mannequin eventualities constantly — don’t await quarterly evaluations
- Pilot early, scale persistently — validate in precedence websites, then increase
- Drive with government narrative — communicate in value, threat, and worker expertise
Strong stack planning doesn’t simply scale back house — it reduces threat, accelerates response instances, and strengthens organizational confidence in office selections.
Often requested questions
By Amanda Meade
Amanda Meade is a content material creator at Eptura, specializing in office expertise, assembly productiveness, and rising tendencies in workspace planning and customer administration. With a background in content material advertising and marketing and search engine marketing, she crafts clear, actionable content material that helps groups work smarter by means of in-office collaboration. All through her profession, Amanda has labored throughout industries, together with dwelling companies, healthcare, actual property, and SaaS, growing a novel potential to distill complicated matters into sensible insights.
