CASE STUDY
IDEO
With a desire to bring their employees together in a new office space with intention, we designed a food program that revolves around a shared Community Lunch for all employees and clients onsite. We also added a rotating external and internal pop-up program that features local food entrepreneurs and employees, as well as a guide to Neighborhood Eats to drive dollars into the surrounding area. We incorporated their sustainable design values through a commitment to 100% reusable dishware and zero single serve snacks and drinks. Employees report a growing feeling of being drawn to the office to connect and collaborate, and office occupancy on lunch days has exceeded their initial projections.
The Opportunity.
In 2021, global design company IDEO was in the midst of construction for their new San Francisco location in the Mission District’s Lion Building, slated to open mid-pandemic. The concept that “we are not returning to business as usual” resonated with the IDEO team and spurred the design of a new employee food program to coincide with their re-opening.
In our stakeholder research phase, we heard both their pain points from previous experiences and their vision for their new location:
Despite a highly connected culture, the IDEO community hadn’t been eating together, and their habit of lots of small lunch orders was expensive, wasteful and didn’t do much to build community.
The sustainable design values that are core to their company’s work weren’t evident in their food program.
They wanted to facilitate participation in the food culture of the neighborhood.
The Approach.
Working with the San Francisco team, we designed a Community Lunch concept as a shared meal for all employees and guests to kick their delivery habit, make costs more predictable and incentivize employees to gather in the office. Today, the Just Fare Workplace team serves this Community Lunch two days per week.
We extended their sustainable design values to the food program by implementing 100% reusable dishes and a 0% single-serve snack program via our Snack & Drink offering.
We developed guidelines for event catering and trips out for lunch that would steer employees to choices more consistent with IDEO’s values around supporting the neighborhood and local businesses. To tap into the rich local network of food entrepreneurs, we also designed a program of rotating pop-up events to take place monthly inside the Lion Building. This has the added value of leveraging the new Catering + kitchen on the first level of the building.
The Results.
“It connects everyone to the culture at IDEO.”
On Community Lunch days with our Workplace team (Tuesdays and Thursdays), office occupancy in San Francisco is more than double any other day of the week, and also double IDEO’s initial projections. They’ve also seen trending growth in occupancy on Community Lunch days since opening day. Employees report a growing feeling of being drawn to the office to gather and collaborate. Leadership team members consistently join Community Lunch to connect more informally with the employee community.
“Being able to connect with people in person actually saves time.”
“Community Lunches act as a social gathering time with no agenda.”
“People love being able to sit next to the CEO casually. It connects everyone to the culture at IDEO.”
The San Francisco team reflected that prior to the pandemic, IDEO had a very “in-person” culture, and now observes that Community Lunch connects people to that cultural rhythm and ritual in their new space. Employees are leveraging the IDEO Catering+ kitchen for weekly breakfasts and internal employee-driven pop-ups, and so far they’ve brought in three local food entrepreneurs for kitchen demos and education events as part of the pop-up program we designed.
