Where to? Mission Bay → Transitioning Uber Employees to a New Tech Campus

March - July 2018

Intro

In 2020, Uber’s six bay area offices would consolidate into a single headquarters; a brand new tech campus located in the rapidly developing neighborhood of Mission Bay. Over 6,000 employees, currently spread across downtown San Francisco, would finally have the opportunity to work together in one place.

Everything was about to change: workspace policies, commutes, amenities, team dynamics...you name it. My team collaborated with the client to design and implement a seamless employee transition to the new HQ.

Challenge

Create a clear and consistent messaging strategy to prepare, inform, and support tech employees through organizational & spatial changes

Outcome

A communications playbook including employee engagement strategies, communication timelines, recommended tone, topics, & vehicles for messaging, and graphic assets

My Role

Survey design & analysis, ethnographic observations & interviews, graphics, content strategy & development, copywriting

Considerations

Timing & Schedules

Four different buildings required our team to be agile with ever-changing construction schedules.

Internal Initiatives

We worked with client teams to understand their processes while navigating complex internal structures and business challenges relevant to the project.

Brand Alignment

We carefully consider the client’s brand and tone to engage employees through channels they expect, while differentiating move-related communications to ensure they do not get overlooked.

Discovery

Employee Engagement Survey

To start, we surveyed over 2,000 employees to gather their input on the design, amenities, work styles, and workplace culture at each of their offices, as well as gauge perceptions around the new headquarters.

The survey highlighted “wins” and “gaps” in the current workplace experience to be addressed with our Change Management strategy, and the results also established a baseline against which we could later measure the overall success of the project.

Key Insights

Communications Concepts

Brand Exploration

The next step was to define a clear and consistent look and feel for the project. Through a review of brand assets, previous internal communications, and our own experiences of company culture, we developed 3 concepts focused on creating transparency, generating excitement for the move, and instilling company pride.

Proposed Concepts

Graphic Kit-of-Parts

Three options were presented to Uber for feedback; they chose Option A as it most consistently aligned with their current vision for the project and previous internal communications.

Final Playbook

The project culminated in the creation of an 80-page playbook including everything from research findings, to a proposed change management framework, to look & feel for the project; as well as detailed project timelines and checklists for each communications touchpoint.

Below are select pages to showcase the breadth of the document.

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