Megan Quick

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