Clearly / Deanick Case Study

$200M revenue

The Challenge

The staff were and still are all working from home due to COVID and their office environment was full of desks and chairs. That meant everyone was very close together, there was no social space, there was no creative space. They wanted to encourage their employees to come back to the office, post COVID. 

There is a challenge with hiring technology and development staff because they are in competition with a lot of the larger technology firms in Vancouver, who can offer more wages and potentially better benefits, so Clearly wanted to also create a space that would entice potential employees to come and work for them.

They are a great bunch of people and everyone gets on well with each other, but there is not a lot of social engagement happening in part due to how busy the space is with desks and chairs. They have 10,500 square feet with 130-140 people working. So it was a challenge. 

The Solution

We took a design that put together multiple stages of workplace engineering in the office, and carried out the build and implementation of it. A third of the office is to be a hot desk space, where they have specific software that allows the team to book desks the day before, so they know that there's going to be space for them and they know which desks they are going to be working at. A third of the office has been made into soft seating and collaborative conversation space, so they can have a relaxed conversation with a colleague and have a casual meeting. And then the other third of the space has been turned into a large open area with stadium seating. When the team needs to do a stand up or a dev meeting or an all hands meeting, they have this incredible stadium seating that overlooks the city, and allows everyone to feel like they've got some space to breathe and still brings everyone together. 

In addition, we built a more specific specialty coffee area with a barista, that will work during the week and make specialty coffees so people can come to the office, grab an iced coffee, cappuccino or an espresso, have a good conversation and leave feeling positive about their work interaction. 

We like to think of it as a destination office.

We are also changing the way people here do their work. There are some challenges around people being so used to having a desk and a drawer and a chair that there is a challenge around a new way of working, but the experience of WeWork and Moz tells us that if you build it they will come. And if you create a space that's inviting and beautiful, they will quickly find out that it's actually better and easier to sit on a nice couch, and have a nice cup of coffee than spend eight hours of your day, sitting at your desk without moving.

The flow is important too. The way we designed it was that the minute you walk into the office you're in GSD mode. Then you start progressing more and more to the north of the floor. As you get closer to the north side of the building, not only do you have an incredible view of the ocean and the mountains and, and the rest of the city but you also have a lot more creative and open space. The idea is you get into the office at nine o'clock in the morning, there's a barista who knows your favorite coffee or tea drink, they make it for you, you sit down at your hot desk that you reserved for the day, and you get your work done. Then you go and have a snack and you sit down and have a conversation with a work colleague in the middle of the office in one of the lovely soft seating areas, and then as you start winding down your day, you go have a stand up meeting in the stadium seating area overlooking the city before you leave to go and finish your work off at home for the rest of the day.

The Results

We've already seen that whenever anyone is in, they talk about how open and how amazing the space looks already and there's no change to it other than taking desks out. They're going to be very excited about it! 

We also spent some time taking the team through a coffee tasting to pick the perfect beans and have provided them with a year’s worth of team building activities, both remote and in-person to really help foster relationships between employees and teams that may otherwise not interact. This results in increased collaboration, cross departmental collaboration and all team members feeling like they have input into the projects the company works on, even if it's not directly related to their work. Amazing ideas come out of casual colleague chit chat. 

We set an initial budget of $250,000 and we came in at way less than that. It was about making a big impact without having a huge budget.

Case Study Details

Client: Clearly
Industry: E-Commerce
Location: Vancouver, BC

Clearly is one of the world’s largest online retailers of glasses, sunglasses, and contact lenses. They carry everything you need to boost your vision and your style, including men’s and women’s prescription glasses from designer brands and exclusive labels alike, along with a huge selection of contact lenses for all vision needs. 

Challenge: Enticing current staff and new recruits to want to return to working in their Vancouver HQ instead of continuing to work fully remote. 

Solution: Engineering Clearly’s downtown Vancouver HQ to support a Hybrid Work model and create a destination office space. 

Results: The team is excited to head into the office 2 or 3 days a week and reconnect with their colleagues in a fun, functional space.