Cytron and Company
Intuit’s Forward-Thinking Design: Collaboration is Key

Intuit’s Forward-Thinking Design: Collaboration is Key

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Mountain View, CA, to work with Intuit on various projects. At its headquarters, Intuit has a number of buildings for employees, some of which are 15-20+ years old.

The company’s newest facility, “Building 20” opened last fall – and was I ever wowed by the design and architecture, but more than that, I admired the space planning that allowed for huge amounts of continuous collaboration. Business Insider did a good job of profiling the building in this article that includes a slide show with lots of photos, and other cool stuff about the architecture.

Why is the design so important? I witnessed group after group meeting in various configuration. Yes, Intuit has lots of traditional meeting rooms that can be reserved through a central system, but also has many other places to meet, including small areas with chairs & couches, booth-style seating near coffee bars on every floor, and even a rooftop deck.

What was impressive, at least to me, was the “spirit” of the environment; it seemed to me everyone really wanted to be there, working and getting things done. I know this goes on in a lot of companies and isn’t anything necessarily new, but I’m not privy to large company environments very often … so, therefore, I am really impressed by it.

Intuit also has cube farms – again, like other companies – in rows rather than configured squares. This is the newest trend (which isn’t all that new anymore) for cubes, but I can’t say it makes the employees more productive. I asked about productivity – and the answers were all across the board. 

It would be great for more companies to examine their spaces and determine how to work more efficiently!

Cytron and Company offers full service public relations, marketing and communications services for accounting, legal, medical, debt collection and other professional service industries, as well as a variety of consumer-based industries.
Scott Cytron  |  972.743.4671  |  scott@cytronandcompany.com            
Bryan Cytron  |  972.743.4300  |  bryan@cytronandcompany.com