Sliding toward Creative Solutions

Written by Linda Palacios

Wednesday, 16 June 2010 06:13

Sliding toward Creative Solutions

Think outside the cubicle, and you might just land your imagination on this local company. Complete with a one-story slide, this "office" space nurtures creativity in every detail.

When was the last time you called somebody to come over and "play"? At Seek Research, the answer to that question could be "just a couple minutes ago" or "the last time I was at work."

Seek Research Founding President Tim Urmston recognized the value of play time and decided to build a company around that imagination-inspiring process. So what is the value of play time?

When you "play," everything is possible. A 6 year old might turn into a flying celebrity, while her 3-year-old sister turns blankets, books and chairs into a mighty fortress. And it all is possible through imagination.

You might be thinking that imaginative possibilities don't work in the real world, but Seek Research proves that they can. After all, it was Urmston's "wild" ideas that took him from "Man, there's gotta be a better way to do this [marketing research]" to creating Seek Research in the first place.

Rather than sitting behind a pane of glass and watching focus groups test and talk about products, Urmston wanted to conduct research in a less formal and more realistic environment. "The premise of the company is 'Let's do market research in a different way and really start looking at people's lives from a different lens,' " Urmston says.

So Seek Research does not have a one-size-fits-all process for their market research. Instead, a project manager will discuss possibilities with clients, and other team members join in the conversation.

"There are no offices in the entire building," Urmston says. "The entire concept is based on what we call the Living Room Process." This process involves small gathering spaces formed by couches around the 13,000-square-foot space. In addition to comfortable seating, white boards and chalkboard walls run rampant in the building to nurture and document the ideation process.

Once project managers feel like they have a solid plan, they write up a proposal for the client. First, however, clients get the reward of victory of sliding down the Seek slide. Starting on the first floor, going outside the building, coming back inside and ending on the first floor of the building, this slide reinforces the idea that work can be fun and play time can be productive.

PHOTO CREDITS

Photographer: Brenna Sullivan

Location: Seek Research

Linda Palacios -
	Linda Palacios is the editor of Cincy Chic. Send her an e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .Read More >>

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