In 2018, to cater for growing staff numbers (75 FTE), Hippo Digital moved to new larger offices at Aireside House, Leeds. They chose aireside house because of its proximity to the city's rail station and Hippo’s largest client the NHS.

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The business took a five-year lease from the landlord and after a short tender, procured the interior design fit-out from a local and well-respected office interiors design specialist.

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However, six months into occupancy it was clear that all was not well, and the new office layout was not living up to the needs of the business.  Having already been part of the Ollio Agile in Buildings delivery team for other recent case study projects, Hippo Digital asked if we could undertake the process for them.

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WHAT USERS WANTED

The Agile process found the business had three user types. Marketing Execs, Office Based Admin support and a mobile product development team.  The seconded mobile teams worked mainly at home and in the clients offices. however, they also needed to bring their client teams back to Aireside House for project team strategic workshops.

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These remote team workshops back in the office were, distracting and highly disruptive to the resident admin and execs given the broadly open plan environment created by the initial interior design.

 

The issue was how to accommodate this important business function, while solving some other issues in what most staff found to be a very distracting and difficult workplace environment.

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DESIGN REFLECTION

In response to the story of how the office worked now, a new more structured approach to the layout of the office was conceived by the scrum teams.

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In coming to an understanding of the business and how it functions the solution seemed simple. 

• Resident admin staff have their own space with lots of daylight and great views over the River Aire.

• The central spaces are next to reception and the kitchen were designed to be co-working style so returning mobile workers can touch down and get working quickly.

• The kitchen provides access to good food and drink and a central meeting table for all staff to come together at lunchtimes.

• Across the stair there are places for the previously distracting workshops for client teams or when they are not around - confidential working spaces for execs and admin.

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Suddenly, there is transparency and business specific logic to the floor layouts.

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