8 Lessons From Takeda's Space Planning Playbook That Every Workplace Leader Can Borrow

Today’s workplace teams are asked to do two things at once: right-size expensive portfolios and design spaces people actually want to use. That means translating messy signals into clear choices, challenging legacy seat-counting habits, and building trust with leaders who expect fast answers.

At the 8th Occupancy Intelligence Summit, Kathleen Carrell, Global Workplace Strategy Leader at Takeda, shared how her team makes confident, repeatable decisions across a global portfolio of more than 600 buildings. She calls the shift “getting out of counting seats” and into a new language of demand, capacity, and experience.

Here are eight lessons filled with direct quotes, frameworks, and practical takeaways from her session.

1. Size the Box Before Filling It

Kathleen’s first principle is deceptively simple: decide how big the box needs to be, then decide what goes inside.

“What we say is, how big is the box,” she explained. “Somebody says, how much space do I need? We can tell you once we know what the demand is and we look at our benchmarking data. Really quickly I can say, if we are trying to target 80 percent utilization, this is how much space you need for that box. I do not need to tell you how many work points you need.”

Her team starts every project with demand — the real usage pattern — and applies benchmarked square footage per person along with an 80% utilization target to model the right footprint.

What that looks like in practice:

• Start with demand, not headcount.
• Apply regional SF/person benchmarks.
• Use a utilization target to define total volume.
  

Takeaway:
Don’t jump to furniture counts — solve the volume problem first, then design within it.

2. Replace Peaks and Assigned Seats with a True Demand Metric

Kathleen’s biggest challenge to legacy planning? Stop designing for one-off peaks. Instead, define two universal metrics every stakeholder can understand.

She defines demand and capacity with two simple but powerful metrics that reframe how her team talks about space: Typical Daily Headcount and Generally Acceptable Maximum Capacity.

Typical Daily Headcount represents the number of people who actually come into the office on an average day — not the total number assigned to a location. It’s based on cleaned, representative attendance data that excludes outlier days and holidays.

Generally Acceptable Maximum Capacity, on the other hand, represents how many people the space can comfortably and productively support at once. Instead of seat counts, it’s expressed as a total headcount supported within a given square footage target — ensuring the experience remains functional, not crowded.

Together, these two measures form a clear, shared language for planning. They help Takeda avoid designing for one-off peaks or inflated assumptions and instead align every decision around how people actually use space.

What that looks like in practice:

• Typical Daily Headcount: Clean your attendance data to find representative days—drop anomalies.
• Generally Acceptable Maximum Capacity: Express how many people the space supports comfortably, not technically.

Takeaway:
Name your demand and capacity definitions. Socialize them so everyone speaks the same language.

3. Don’t Design to the Outlier Day

When executives ask for enough space to cover rare surges, Kathleen uses a simple metaphor that always lands.

“I have a dining room that holds ten people comfortably,” she said. “And at Thanksgiving or Christmas, sometimes we have 20-25 people that come. I don’t go buy a new house so I can have a dining room that can seat twenty or twenty-five people.”

In workplace planning, those occasional spikes in attendance shouldn’t dictate your overall footprint. Instead, plan for the day-to-day reality and build flexibility into operations, not square footage. That might mean using shared spaces creatively, scheduling teams strategically, or accepting that the office will feel full some days and quiet on others.

What that looks like in practice:

• Plan for the day you expect — not the outlier.
• Build flexibility into operations, not square footage.

Takeaway:
Right-sizing isn’t underbuilding — it’s designing for reality.

4. Allocate Space by Purpose, Then Mix the Parts

Once the “box” is sized, Takeda uses a clear ratio to decide how that space should function.

“In our new hybrid offices, 25 percent is dedicated to problem-solving or focus work, 25 percent to community or social spaces and amenities, and 50 percent for collaboration,” Kathleen shared. “Within those three components we have a kit of parts. There are a multitude of ways to put those puzzle pieces together.”

What that looks like in practice:

• Maintain a consistent purpose mix portfolio-wide.
• Let local teams assemble the “kit of parts” to fit their culture.
• Revisit the mix as utilization data shifts.

Takeaway:
Decide the purpose mix first — then treat space types as interchangeable building blocks.

5. Find the Constraint and Fix That First

When a site underperforms, Kathleen’s team doesn’t assume they need more square footage — they go hunting for constraints.

“We can measure and say we’re running out of conference rooms,” she explained. “That’s where the constraint is. We can make smaller capital investments to modify that space. Break a big room into five smaller rooms, re-measure, and see if that addresses the constraint.”

What that looks like in practice:

• Use occupancy and booking data to pinpoint chokepoints by room type or time.
• Prototype low-cost changes first.
• Re-measure and verify improvement before scaling.

Takeaway:
Fix what’s broken — don’t rebuild what’s fine.

6. Clean Data Is Tedious — but It’s Everything

Kathleen didn’t sugarcoat the unglamorous side of strategy: maintaining clean data.

“It’s really boring and tedious to roll up your sleeves and make sure your data is clean,” she admitted. “So that you can get to the point where you can use data analysis and your business will have confidence in what you're saying instead of challenging the data quality.”

What that looks like in practice:

• Align systems and naming conventions across booking tools and sensors.
• Document your data methodology and keep it repeatable.
• Treat governance as a shared responsibility, not a side task.

Takeaway:
Clean data builds credibility. Without it, even good insights fall apart.

7. Evolve the Skill Set and the Tools

Modern space planning requires new skills — and new tools that make data accessible to everyone.

“I’m seeing a major shift in skills and capability that we need in this industry,” Kathleen said. “People responsible for doing a lot of this don’t necessarily want to be involved in data and analytics. We need to make it easy with simple user interface tools—or complement current roles with new skills.”

What that looks like in practice:

• Pair space planners with data specialists.
• Give site teams intuitive dashboards instead of raw spreadsheets.
• Build analytical literacy into onboarding and training.

Takeaway:
Great tools are wasted without people ready to use them.

8. Macro to Micro Is a Continuous Loop

Getting the “box” right doesn’t mean the work is done. Kathleen’s team zooms in constantly — from building to floor to room—to keep experience aligned with intent.

“You can effectively design a building for the right amount of people and still have an area where people are unhappy,” she said. “That’s where you get into the inside-the-box analysis—floor by floor, space type by space type, looking for the break point and iterating to the most predictive program.”

Takeaway:
Right-sizing isn’t an event — it’s a continuous, data-informed loop.

Interested in learning how data can drive your space planning strategy?

Set up a time to talk with a VergeSense specialist to see how Predictive Planning and occupancy insights can help you measure smarter, plan faster, and create spaces that keep people coming back.