In a time when disruption and "move fast, break things" are de rigueur, what does it take to be an actual pioneer?
Finance giant Capital One is proving it is possible, having led the digital revolution and approaching its business as a technology innovator, not a bank. The company has also firmly planted a foot in the design world, with a Workplace Solutions team that applies Capital One's innovative take on business to its network of campuses. ASID spoke with Michelle Cleverdon, Capital One workplace strategist, to gain insight into the company's unique approach.
ASID:
How did Capital One's design journey begin?
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Michelle Cleverdon (MC):
From a Workplace Solutions perspective, the big pivot for us came in about 2011.
We've always been a data-driven company with an entrepreneurial spirit, and we made the decision to say we're becoming a tech company that specializes in finance. We wanted to make a difference and inspire the company to think differently, not only about their work and how they do it, but also their work environment. As a result, it changed who we were hiring and pushed us to invest more in design. Capital One has always invested in our people and the space they work in, but we knew that with the digital transformation, we had to approach our workplace differently.
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ASID:
What was the process for developing these newly designed spaces?
MC: We started small. We partnered internally with some of our groups that are more focused on innovation and worked with them and some incredibly talented design firms to prototype designs and determine what this change really meant. As a result of those smaller projects, we were able to figure out how to scale that to the rest of the organization and our portfolio. Then it started growing like wildfire; people from different groups would see these new spaces and come back saying, "I want this!" Our early adopters pushed our thinking, too, and we learned a lot along the way.
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