What can your staff do to create their ideal studio culture? And how can that culture align with everyone’s desired working environment? This worksheet is part of an activity to answer these questions. Directions for the activity are on page 267 of Success by Design: The Essential Business Reference for Designers by David Sherwin, published by HOW Books. Get the book at http://amzn.to/successbydesign

1. STUDIO CULTURE WORKSHEET DATE: _____________
Hard attributes Soft attributes
Space Community
Is your space large or small? Open or intimate? Minimalist or crowded? How do people mingle in the studio? Craft nights? Happy hour?
Amenities Philanthropy
Do you have the latest technology? Free snacks? Season tickets to the game? What opportunities do employees have to “give back” to the world?
Training
Challenge
Do you support ongoing technical training or offer training workshops?
Do employees feel challenged to do good work? How are they challenged?
Type of Work Ownership
How does the studio provide employees with a feeling of ownership?
Customer
What industries do you work in? What is the size of a typical client?
Leadership
Domain
Who are the leaders in the studio? Are they managers or staffers?
What type of design do you provide? (e.g., industrial, branding or interactive)?
Recognition
Project Style
How are great work and passionate effort recognized? Awards or contests?
Short-term projects or long-term projects? Waterfall processes, or agile processes?
Are employees publicly recognized?
From Success by Design: The Esssential Business Reference for Designers, ©2012 David Sherwin and David Conrad. Download this worksheet at www.SBDBook.com. Buy Success by Design at amzn.to/successbydesign.
This worksheet is shareable under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. For details on this license, go to creative-commons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0.