MillerKnoll’s Mike O’Toole on Designing Furniture for the Healthcare Industry

MillerKnoll is a leading American and global furniture design company. Among MillerKnoll’s collective of brands are Herman Miller and Knoll, which have produced iconic designs such as the first Eames Lounge Chair in 1956 and the Womb Chair in 1948.

On a mission to change the world for the better, the company has been redefining furniture for the 21st century with its dedication to developing a more sustainable, equitable, and beautiful future.

In this interview, we have the opportunity to learn about MillerKnoll's design strategies for one of its main sectors, healthcare, with Mike O’Tool, the Senior Vice President of Healthcare.

Mike talks about their unique design considerations as well as discusses the challenges and opportunities they face when designing for the industry.

Who Is Mike O’Toole?

Mike O’Toole is the Senior Vice President of Healthcare at MillerKnoll. He works with business leaders in healthcare to maximize the performance of their buildings, workplaces, and facilities by creating environments that do more — for caregivers, clinicians, patients, and their families, as well as other visitors. Previously, Mike held various roles at Herman Miller over his nearly 35-year tenure, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Healthcare and Education.

How does the furniture industry approach the design and development of ergonomic furniture, and what are some of the key features or considerations that make a furniture piece truly ergonomic?

Mike O’Toole: While ways of working have changed over the years, the human body has not. This is why the industry’s approach to designing and developing ergonomic furniture will always begin and end with people.

What best supports people physically, cognitively, and socially is paramount. Once these considerations are met, we can get more nuanced in how we delight the senses, address unique physical needs, help people perform specific work tasks, and allow our customers to express their specific styles and tastes.

Can you tell us about MillerKnoll’s approach to design in creating innovative and ergonomic office furniture, and how user feedback plays into that? 

Long before becoming MillerKnoll, both Herman Miller and Knoll honored a legacy anchored in human-centered research and design. Together, we continue this legacy by remaining committed to what works best for people because people at their best perform their best work.

To achieve this, we focus less on being first to market and more on how our innovations address a real need and not a fad. For us, it’s not form that meets function — it's form born from function. Once this is achieved, we put our ergonomic furniture through rigorous weight and wear testing to ensure that it can handle the demands of 24/7 use and therefore live up to, as Aeron (one of the company's popular chair designs) has proven time and again, and far surpass our 12-year 3 shift warranty.

Many companies have adopted remote or hybrid structures for their workforce. How has that impacted and informed MillerKnoll’s design efforts?

The state of the return to the office varies city by city, but our guide to organizations remains consistent: design office spaces with your employees rather than for them.

More specifically, we encourage leaders to work with employees to understand:

1. What activities and experiences need to be supported in the office
2. What the demand patterns for those types of spaces are likely to be
3. How the space will evolve as those patterns change

The result should be that organizations are placing a heightened emphasis on the role that offices play in strengthening relationships and the opportunity to do uninterrupted work. It’s not a surprise that we’re seeing a rise in social areas, areas for concentration, as well as well-being spaces that meet employee needs while unlocking productivity and driving connection and belonging.

One of the main sectors you work with is healthcare. What are some of the unique design considerations when creating furniture for healthcare environments? 

We need to consider all those that will use the space. Caregivers and clinicians for sure, but also the patients, their families, and other visitors. They all have different sets of needs that should be considered as we design healthcare environments. With that in mind, we design spaces for healing that are inviting and hospitable.

Can you discuss some of the challenges and opportunities in providing for this specific furniture market?

First, we need to make sure spaces are safe. To that end, we need to pay close attention to the materials we use and make sure our products are designed to protect against the spread of bacteria and pathogens.

Our chairs are designed to be easily cleaned and the materials used are appropriate for healthcare environments and can withstand the harsh chemicals used in the cleaning process. We take pride in designing spaces that are welcoming and accommodating for people while also ensuring these spaces are safe. I would say the opportunity and challenge are creating great spaces that are safe for healing but also elevate the experience for those who use it.

Can you share some success stories or case studies where MillerKnoll products have made a significant impact on healthcare settings?

We believe a well-designed healthcare space expects change and allows for it. In other words, our MillerKnoll healthcare spaces are designed to adapt to changing conditions.

Take the pandemic we all just lived through as an example. Imagine the stress the pandemic caused for healthcare environments. We had clients that needed to quickly adapt spaces to accommodate many different situations. The physical space must be adaptable to changes in technology, care methods, and other unforeseen conditions that impact healthcare delivery. We design with that in mind in every situation.

Health systems that design their spaces purposely to adapt to change are the ones best prepared to deal with uncertainty.

Leading into marketing, how does MillerKnoll adapt its marketing efforts to target specific industries, such as healthcare?

We have a specialized team of sales, design, and application specialists, knowledge and insights experts, as well as nurse consultants who are trained specifically for the healthcare market, bringing value to our healthcare customers. We also have a dealer network, certified by us, to sell and service into the healthcare market. We create marketing tools specific to the healthcare customer that is informed by what we have learned in the 50+ years we have been in the healthcare space.

Can you talk about specific campaigns or initiatives designed to promote MillerKnoll in the healthcare industry?

Our knowledge and insight team and nurse consultants participate in many expert panels at industry events around the globe. But the primary way we promote MillerKnoll is directly with our customers, through our dealers and sellers.

How does MillerKnoll leverage digital marketing and online platforms to reach its target audience in the healthcare sector?

We use a variety of digital marketing platforms to reach our target audience. We use programs like LinkedIn and Salesforce.com to stay connected to individuals as well as other platforms that provide industry and customer data that help us connect with the people who would benefit from our products the most.

Lastly, what future trends do you foresee in furniture design, and how is MillerKnoll preparing to address those trends?

We believe speed is the new currency of healthcare. We must help them build faster and better to manage rising costs. Getting to revenue without delay is critical. The MillerKnoll healthcare value proposition is laser-focused on that.

Additionally, our experience has told us that facilities need to be designed to adapt to changing conditions. MillerKnoll is very committed to this.

And, finally, healthcare facilities need to elevate the experience for those that use it. As I said earlier, a MillerKnoll-designed healthcare facility will be safe, comfortable, and hospitable!