Personas as an operating layer for the workplace (or any place)

Most organizations leave significant long-term value on the table when design personas get filed away at project completion. Built during programming and visioning to capture how distinct worker types use space, collaborate, and move through their days, personas represent a sophisticated understanding of human behavior—one that rarely survives into operations. Melissa Marsh shows how emerging tools for understanding employees as customers can keep that asset alive, enabling persona-based approaches that deliver customized environments and policies across the full workplace lifecycle—guiding decisions on service delivery, technology investment, and change strategy. The result: every major workplace decision—from space mix to RTO policy—traceable back to real human behavior.