FRONT - A Strategy, Design and Technology Studio

In this article I want to cover some thoughts on why our studio looks and works the way that it does, and how this improves what we do.

We’re asked to be creative on behalf of our clients, so we need a space that encourages the building blocks of creativity; collaboration, exploration, and good old fashioned hard work, but also a space that feels like home. It has to help us do our job, and be ourselves.

OK. How?

We Get it Together

Collaboration is very important for us. Working together is simply a faster route to the best ideas. We are not alone in believing this - it is not a new concept.

We get a lot of ideas that are just rotten and don’t go anywhere. But that’s okay. You have to have probably a 3 to 1 ratio of bad ideas to decent ones. And you need a 20 to 1 ratio of decent ideas to really good ideas.
Joel Ronning, Digital River Inc – Fast Company Magazine 2008

We Like Structured Collaboration

Sometimes the team need to get together for specific tasks. In an open plan office like our own, there is a tendency to have meetings around desks where people are already sat. Working in small groups around a desk is great for specific issues, however when it comes to more abstract challenges such as brainstorming or even project planning, we find it distracting to be within 3ft of our email inboxes.

We have areas for both client and internal team meetings and when required groups of us migrate to the conference room or get comfy on the sofas. A collaborative space doesn’t need to be all bean bags and lava lamps… it can be the kitchen, a park bench or the parking lot.

.. And Unstructured Collaboration

Design challenges can pop up at any time during the day. We believe it is healthy to allow for unplanned team working, and an open plan office has proven to help here. We have designed the main studio area so that there are no truly closed areas or cubicles. We all share the same space and, with the exception of some glass walls and soundproofing, this means we all share the same discussions and experiences. We find this keeps the team open minded and better equipped to deal with issues ‘in the field’.

Eye contact is important for us too. It is nice to have visual confirmation when interacting in a team. We have installed Vitra eye-level desk dividers that are tall enough to let us work in private but just low enough to allow eye contact.

Even though this works for us it is important to remember that there is no ‘one-size fits all’. Fog Creek’s new offices are easy to admire. As software developers, their emphasis is on quiet hubs where individuals can concentrate on complex tasks without interruption. This is a different approach to ours, but one that works for them.

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

Given that our team approach is to generate lots and lots of good ideas, the next challenge is how to do this faster, so that there is more time to develop the really special ones.

For us, this means having a way to easily capture our thoughts and move on. We have yet to find software that is flexible enough to allow for unstructured idea capture. Simple surfaces such as whiteboards and flip charts gives us the space to share ideas while affording for the messiness that comes with speed.

Focusing on these low fidelity tools has sped things up for us and has conditioned our team to be more playful in the way that we capture our initial thoughts. It is only later in a project when higher-fidelity techniques become more useful. While paper and pens work for us, some other firms who specialise in solving more physical problems need a more physical tool set for ‘creative play’...

Each Tech Box has several drawers holding hundreds of objects, from smart fabrics to elegant mechanisms to clever toys, each of which are tagged and numbered. Designers and engineers can rummage through the compartments, play with the items, and apply materials used by other designers and engineers within the company to their current project.
IDEO Website – IDEO

Visual Exploration

We are visual people. It makes sense for us to make the most of that.

We try our best to get things off our hard drive and onto the walls and surfaces of the studio. It helps keep us on the same page. If work in progress is visible to all of our team it is therefore open for comment. We encourage criticism of each others work. It forces us to make sure our ideas are rock-solid.

Companies such as Yahoo! Call this “Visual Management”.

Visual project management tools are used extensively to support the development process, with wall charts demonstrating project schedules, progress to date and examples of current design iterations. These areas provide an opportunity for team members to comment and feedback on each others’ work in between project meetings and allow outsiders to gain a rapid understanding of the project status.
Joseph O’Sullivan, Senior Design Director @ Yahoo!
A Study of the Design Process (Design Council 2008)

The tools are simple: paper, blu-tack and post-it notes.

I was delighted to see how the Monocle design and editorial team make the most of this approach:

We Share What We Know

Knowledge transfer is an important behaviour in a creative business and something we encourage at Front. We feel this is really about making sure there is conversation between our team and and our clients. When clients visit we bring juniors to our meetings. This help develops their skills and helps them get a feel for client’s expectations first hand. They eventually will disseminate gathered knowledge too. That is one of the reasons we do not have ‘account handlers’ at Front.

Internally, we find our open plan layout encourages conversation in those areas that would normally have us scratching our heads (stuff that falls outside of our individual expertise). Over time this leads to a shared understanding of the problems faced by the wider team.

What Next?

We have discovered that our studio helps shape the interactions we have as a team. And we know our space needs to support those things that are really important to our business. I don’t think it matters if you are a large team or an independent freelancer, sexy Scandinavian furniture alone will not instantly give you super-duper creative powers. Although a ‘cool’ studio can be a bi-product of creating a great place to work. So we will continue experimenting with our space to help our team and clients create stuff in a imaginative and productive environment.

In the mean time, I’ll be sure to post plenty of photos of our studio on flickr.