The New Office: The Idea and the Floor Plan | Hacker News Reader

The New Office: The Idea and the Floor Plan

37signals.com

38 pointsicey25 comments

They might be a little high on meeting room to desk ratio. We had 16 full time and a handful of contractor/intern part time when I was at Bug Labs and we had basically 2 meeting rooms (1 large, one the size of the 5 little ones here) and a workshop space, and it worked pretty well. At most 1 extra meeting room would be good. Having a little extra space for more desks when you expand is a good thing.

I'm not sure how applicable this is to 37signals, but in general I think it is a good idea to separate people who are on the phone all day (sales, customer service) from people who aren't (engineers). We worked fine with 15 people in an open plan, but as soon as we threw in 1 guy on the phone all day it made the open plan annoying at times. And for him if he is in the meeting room to be on the phone all day everyday, why isn't it just his office?

There was actually a tour of our office posted this morning:

http://www.businessinsider.com/bug-labs-office-tour-2010-5

"I'm not sure how applicable this is to 37signals, but in general I think it is a good idea to separate people who are on the phone all day (sales, customer service) from people who aren't (engineers). We worked fine with 15 people in an open plan, but as soon as we threw in 1 guy on the phone all day it made the open plan annoying at times."

We agree which is why we have the big empty room top left that will be used if/when we offer customer service/support via phone. It's isolated from the rest of the space. Right now we only provide support via email so we don't have phones ringing. When someone does need to use the phone they can use a sound-isolated phone booth room.

I wish every tech company would embrace your separation idea. The company I work for takes the open plan to an extreme: every floor is completely open, no one is separated from anyone else. For a span of about 4 months, I worked right next to HR recruiters, who are on the phone ALL DAY LONG. It was pure hell.

Said it there, will say it here too:

I’d love to see a “trip report” several months after you move in that talks about how you actually use the space, rather than how you think you’ll use the space.

Just because something looks 'cool' in the plans doesn't mean that it'll be cool in reality. If it were me, I'd put in the bare essentials, and then figure the rest out based on experience rather than theory.

We've been working together for 11 years - we know what we need out of a space. We're not starting fresh never having worked together. A lot of these decisions have come from current and long-standing pain points.

That said, we agree - there will definitely be things we didn't think of and other things we over-thought. We'll report back if anything worthwhile comes out of it.

Congrats on the move and new space. Looks absolutely incredible.

For them, having a dedicated space for giving talks and workshops is really, really smart.

Extremely jealous about this.

We have a 20-seat shared conference room in the Monadnock building which is very nice, but the auditorium-style space is much better suited to giving classes.

We just got our new offices on the top of the building (an old architects space), and I was all psyched. Until Jason's team took the wind out of my sales.

Love the Monadnock building. Classic. Your building is definitely cooler than ours.

One thing you have to say about running a company in Chicago. Better office space.

And an attached pub in your case. :)

If Jason's in the same general area of the city as he used to be in, he's a short walk from The Publican. HE WINS.

Sails, I hope. :P

Wow, that was Freudian. LOOK OUT, JASON. WE'RE COMING FOR YOU. We're calling our product Spacecamp.

I wish that all colleges had a room like your workshop room. Actually, I wish every building had one.

Also, excellent idea on the phone booths, and the team rooms.

Leave it to 37signals to come up with an amazing space like this.

I was under the impression that 37signals did all of their work from home...

The rooms are designed to keep sound inside.

I'm curious if they have an acoustical consultant involved or if they're depending on the architect to design the sound insulation. If they latter, I suspect they're setting themselves up for disappointment.

Are you being literal about the blackboard/chalkboard, or do you mean a dry erase board?

A blackboard + chalk.

Would love to know why you went this route.

No emergency exit from the north (bottom) side? That seems odd.

Are those desks at the bottom in private offices or open plan?

Desks are open plan. They have dividers for privacy and lots of space behind each desk.

Go home. Use Sococo or something similar. Save money.

Way to go! Also, you sure you want to reveal your office blueprints? On account of social engineering sploits and all...

i.e. pop by for any event held in your new theater, "oh, the guest bathroom is down the hall, left after the door, thanks", instead swing a right after the door, hello electric and server rooms, don't need long, just one usb stick, thanks see you later guyz!

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