mishmash workspaces: Moxy

In today’s age, companies are looking at workplaces as enhancers of their collaborators work. How do you define MOXY’s organizational culture?

More than the culture of the space, I think this is reflected in the overall culture of the company itself, which is that of constant growth. There’s nothing inside the company that’s written in stone, things evolve the same way people do. Space is a reflection of just that, this is not the first space we’ve been, we’ve had four or five different workspaces so far and with time comes learning too. Every space has its own characteristics, as well as the people inside it, have idiosyncrasies that are their own. As the team grows, right now we are about thirty at MOXY, it can be hard to combine everyone’s taste and opinions into a single space but we try to balance everyone’s needs each time. Continually evolving — that’s the way we look at our working spaces.

How is your workspace organized? Do you think a lot about how you display things here?

Yes! This office, in particular, is a little bit like you’re peeling an onion. As we start peeling it, we start finding out more and more inside. When you’re at the front door, all you can see is a black corridor, but as you enter you can see a light at the end of the tunnel which is MOXY’s red and blue neon. After you turn left at the end of the corridor you have a sneak peek at the kitchen and dining area, before the full reveal where you can see the open space with the team and a natural light grid at the end of the space. Our offices have been thought to give great pleasure to everyone involved. I have worked in several bad locations previously to MOXY’s offices and those little things can start getting heavy on our mood. We spend so much of our time inside workspaces that spending it in a space you don’t relate to, can really affect your energy. MOXY’s offices have been thought to bring a good vibe to everyone inside. 

Creativity is an essential tool in every profession, but particularly in your day-to-day. Do you have a technique or method to stimulate a creative environment within the company?

We have a working process that we call Engineered Design. As soon as you visit our website that’s the first thing that stands out, that’s how important it is. In essence, it describes a series of steps every project should go through at MOXY. That process is great because it forces several types of people to come together and interact. We promote conflict, but a healthy conflict. In any project or collaboration, there will be people with distinct perspectives and backgrounds and sometimes even different objectives that can be somehow conflictive, and it’s important that as soon as they can, they come together and work those friction points in order to achieve a balanced solution, promoting project success. Our working method promotes, above all, clarity and communication across all skillsets.

In which way do you think your space contributes to a more creative and spontaneous living space?

I think a great plus of working here is that we have enough space for you to move around as much as you’d like. No one has a fixed workspace, so if you are collaborating with me today I can simply take the seat next to you and so on. We try and facilitate this because sometimes all we want is a fresh new setup to bring our ideas to come to life. We also have whiteboards across the office for discussing ideas at any moment and different spaces for meetings including the outside patio.

What do you think are the advantages of a more contemporary working method, based in cooperation, compared to a more traditional one, based on individual tasks?

At MOXY we adopt a technique which we call transversal design, which in summary is a technique that brings people with completely different vantage points, with conflictive purposes and objectives, making them arrive at some kind of agreement even if it means one of the parts has to give up on their own personal goals to commit to a global solution. That same transversal design concept brings something to the table that’s very interesting. I come from a different background from design, I am a software engineer, and back at the beginning of my career I had to do exactly what I was told, there was no space for arguing, questioning or creativity. “You don’t need to understand what you’re doing, you just need to execute it”, I was told, which was a very unsatisfying way of working. Now, at MOXY, we do things very differently. Transversal design means understanding what we are doing, why we are doing it and there’s a moment when everyone can actually influence the project’s final destination. We find better solutions when we bring people from all types of backgrounds to the same table. I think it’s important that we give our teams a sense of autonomy and that we follow a model based on collaboration which is a more interactive model.

Can our workspace be deeply connected with our happiness?

Definitely yes, all we had in mind when we were building this space was that people could have an enormous pleasure coming into the office every day. We were so crammed in the last office that the environment was starting to get really heavy and that should tell you everything about the relation between space and happiness. When we opened this new space everything felt much more cheerful! 

How do people move around in space? Does everyone have a pre-defined workspace?

The desk spaces are totally flexible, with a few exceptions, typically related to specific equipment necessary for the job. Some places have some kind of characterization such as a toy or something but in general, they are quite neutral and open so everyone can be anywhere. 

In your opinion, which feature do you think stands out the most in your space?

For me, it’s the blue velvet sofa with a panoramic view over the open-space office. Having a meeting or discussing new projects, is something I really enjoy. I love having client meetings up here because it creates a very cool vibe more like a conversation rather than a meeting, and the client can see the team doing what they do best — that’s usually the moment they also understand who we are and what we do.