Most workplace teams have no shortage of data — they have a shortage of answers. Badge swipes tell you someone tapped in, not whether a floor is working or whether you're paying for space that sits empty.
Caitlin Steininger, Director of Workplace Operations at Samsara, sits right at that gap. Fresh off opening a 130,000 SF flagship HQ in SF's Design District — run on a fully flexible model with no attendance mandates — she takes on the question every CRE and workplace leader is wrestling with: how do you right-size and optimize a footprint when you can't predict who's showing up? Caitlin shares how her team pulls visitor, space, and check-in data into a single view of how the office is actually used, then turns it into defensible real estate decisions and provable ROI on the space they already have.
Key Takeaways
How to design and right-size office space for a workforce that chooses when to show up
Why badge swipes fall short — and what real occupancy insight actually requires
A practical approach to proving ROI on the footprint you already have
What the next generation of workplace operations looks like