Is Your Space Designed to Meet or Make?

I realize there's no shortage of opinion pieces surrounding the whole remote vs. onsite debate. Especially in the world of advertising. But as someone who's spent time on both sides of the fence, I have an opinion to add to the pile.

A year before the pandemic, I left the agency world (for the first time in over 20 years) to pursue a passion and to test an hypothesis I had around what brands need and how to accomplish it. While on the agency side, I struggled with the disconnect between how we made money as an agency and what our clients really needed. We made money from having a lot of people spend a lot of time to ultimately produce something very expensive. Meanwhile, our clients needed fewer people to make more content for half the cost. They needed more experimentation. More low-risk ways to try things out before committing major dollars. I was unable to solve this on the agency side, so I stood up a new business called Made In-House and set off to help brands build out their own creative/production capabilities around an approach I often shorthanded as, "Going from a Kinko's for the brand to a Netflix for the brand." Sweet sound byte, right?

I had nearly a year to prove this out before all flights were grounded, offices were emptied, and, as far as I could tell, the world was ending. I found very positive momentum working with creative and production teams that weren't driven by achieving margins through slow process, making decks, having meetings, and bidding Ridley Scott. We were able to function much more like a media network. Time was spent prototyping, piloting, learning, optimizing, killing, and prospering. This was especially amplified when there was an actual production facility available. And when the teams were comprised predominantly with makers - people who knew how to set up, light, shoot, edit, animate, etc. That was essential to be able to consistently try out ideas without breaking the bank. And when we were able to try out (or pilot) ideas at scale for low cost, we were able to gain real insight from the market to help us determine which ideas we'd develop further. Perhaps not as glamorous, but it did start to feel like the brand's little internal Netflix.

Over the years, I've never been able to scratch the itch that agencies would benefit from figuring out a new business model that would support this approach of making, making, making.

Which brings me back to the hottest debate of the year - remote or onsite. Personally, I don't believe that's the right debate. The debate is what exactly is the "onsite." Is it an expensive office with a reception area, rows of desks, walls lined with large conference rooms and maybe a mother's lounge that secretly gets used by everyone as a safe place to cry? If so, then yeah, I would argue there's no future in that type of onsite.

And what about the remote? Is this a scenario ripe for mass production of content? In most cases, not really. I have found it's a fantastic scenario for mental health, personal productivity, and overall happiness. Especially as a family guy.

So what's my answer? As agency's figure out how to navigate this post-pandemic world, I'm of the opinion that those who think of their "offices" as production facilities will thrive. Those who invest in the space, the equipment, and the type of creative force that knows how to make things, versus just presentation decks, will lead the next generation of creative agencies.

Now I'm not sure what a druther is, but I do know that if I had my druthers, I'd use this opportunity to relocate the "office" to some place in the middle of the country. A place easily accessible by nonstop flights from anywhere. This is where I would build a great, yet inexpensive, production studio. This would be the office. The headquarters. A certain number of staff, including myself, would live there permanently. And, of course, anybody else who wanted to live onsite could. But, we'd take advantage of the massive talent that exists remotely. The studio would be flanked by a number of simple mini apartments where team members could stay when they travel in for production, etc. Maybe we'd even have some jet skis or other recreational things for after hours. Do people even jet ski anymore??

It would be a place you'd want to come visit. For camaraderie. For team building. But most of all, for doing what's really fun - making stuff.?

It may be weird, but these are the things I fantasize about while falling asleep. Reimagining the office as this nucleus of making triggers some serious dopamine for me. Especially the jet skis.

But I digress. The point of this rather long piece can be summed up as follows: Make your office a place of content production and allow your people the flexibility to do their jobs however and wherever they please. Measure work in output, not by hours in a building. Build trust with your teams by giving them the freedom. Support them by giving them the tools and access.

But by all means, please don't cling to the idea that your office designed for having meetings is going to attract talent or satisfy clients.

?And maybe consider those jet skis. You never know, right?

Thanks for reading.