Making moves: Nasim, Leon, and Tymn share the work behind the new Dropbox headquarters
Relocating a corporate headquarters is a massive undertaking. It takes countless hours, many moving parts, the right tools, and a whole lot of energy.
Take it from Nasim, Leon, and Tymn, three Dropboxers involved in the move of the SF HQ to Owens Street in Mission Bay in August. They lovingly refer to the office relocation as the “Owens Project,” following a Dropbox tradition to name a HQ after the street it is located on.
Nasim Yalpani, the Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services (REWS), continues to manage a big team responsible for many different parts of the project. Leon Wood, the Experiential Design Director, led the design direction on the Owens Project, and Tymn, the Creative Director of Black Ops, spearheaded the creative assets that helped socialize the project internally.
So, what did it entail? It involved many moving parts, from physical security to food services, and many intentional decisions, from choosing the perfect design direction to ensuring that employees were excited about the space from day one.
“It was a massive undertaking,” says Nasim, who was tasked with managing her team (the Real Estate and Workplace Services team), including many different verticals responsible for construction, physical security, and office management, to name a few.
“It involved making sure that everyone was in the loop. There was so much activity to coordinate. We really are consensus-driven and want to make sure everybody’s invested in the game plan.”
For Leon, developing a design direction that would create an environment that would foster great work for everyone was a no-brainer.
“We organized user groups that represented all the diverse types of work that happens here. We had representation from mothers, people with special needs or disabilities, and a gender-neutral user group. We wanted to make sure we were designing a space where everyone could feel like they could bring their best selves to work.”
“The overarching thing is that our product really allows for people to personalize it themselves and do their work. The building in the same way lets everybody do what they do best. It’s not forcing you to be something that you’re not. You can take the building and personalize it yourself.”
Tymn Armstrong’s task of educating Dropboxers about the thinking behind the Owens Project culminated in a physical and educational creative asset: the Owens Handbook.
“We really wanted to share the deeper process and thinking that went into the Owens Project. We asked, ‘what are all the things we need to work better and more efficiently and be happier at work?’ From A to Z, all the checklist items that we need to solve in our mission have been thought about and integrated into this space in some way.”
The Owens Handbook is a comprehensive overview of the design of Dropbox’s new HQ.