Comments on uselog.com | the product usability weblog: 5. Team: One roof: all disciplines - in one room -...

FIRST ITERATION @ Anonymous @ William Lidwe...

2010-07-10T13:00:08.835+02:00

FIRST ITERATION
@ Anonymous @ William Lidwell
Thanks for your confirmation or support of the notion (if I may call it that).

@ Marieke Smets
I have included your contribution about work sessions. I think it is a great alternative or fallback strategy.

In every company I have founded, I design the offi...

2010-06-20T20:51:15.724+02:00

In every company I have founded, I design the office space where everyone with overlapping functionality works in the same room. Sales and administration had to be moved out because of the need for quiet phone time, but everyone else worked close without walls. Increased empathy, sharing of tacit information, increased communication, and efficiency are just a few of the benefits. It is amazing how small barriers like a half-wall or an office on different floors can impact the efficiency and cohesion of a group. People always bitched that they wanted more quiet and their own office, but every time we tried accommodating these requests productivity plummeted.

I definitely agree with this statement. When I was...

2010-06-16T21:25:45.398+02:00

I definitely agree with this statement. When I was working in a Chinese design firm last year, we were all situated in one room; graphic designer, mould engineer, product manager and industrial designer. This made it very easy for us to just check details with each other: "uhhh Jack... if you have a minute, can you check if this and this is ok?".
Due to this, problems were discovered in early stages of the design process, when it was still easy and cheap (!) to make adjustments to the design. I could definately state it saved money and time. Especially because we were all in the same room it was so easy to just ask each other for help, instead of messing around for another hour, or even worse, day! summerized in dutch: door in dezelfde ruimte te zitten is de drempel veel lager om elkaar om hulp te vragen, snel details te checken of bij elkaars werk of elkaars werk te bekijken en betrokken te zijn bij elkaars werkzaamheden.

@ Marieke Thanks, I think the distinction between ...

2010-06-02T16:36:34.172+02:00

@ Marieke
Thanks, I think the distinction between a meeting and 'working together' is very useful. And working together indeed seems a good way of having an opportunity for informal communication, even if you can't sit together continuously. Thanks for your input!

As a design researcher at IDEO, used to working in...

2010-06-01T20:58:43.760+02:00

As a design researcher at IDEO, used to working in multidisciplinary teams, I very much agree with the statements you are making above. Both in my work with project teams and with clients, I have found that on top of this, there is an important distinction between "meeting" and "working" together. Even if being situated full time in the same space is not an option, there is a lot to gain in organizing work sessions when you get the chance, as opposed to meetings. The difference in my mind is that the latter is focused on sharing information, talking through issues and challenges, the former is focused on working through design challenges together, as a (multidisciplinary) team. In my experience this results in a mind set that is much more positive, focused on solutions and understanding each other's perspective, instead of underlining problems, disagreements and company politics.