In this post, we help give entrepreneurs an idea of how to calculate office space by using the Keyser iPhone app to reverse engineer the Beats By Dre office space.
Using information we gathered from a variety of articles about the Beats By Dre office, this post roughly breaks down their estimated square footage needs as it relates to their office space.
First, here's a few pieces of information about Beats By Dre that will help us estimate their office space needs.
Required working environments:
- 3 CEO's
- 4 Executives
- 650 employees across more than a dozen departments from software (Beats Music) to hardware (Beats Electronics)
Linkedin Employee Breakdown of Beats By Dre:
- 517 employees (articles mention there are 650 employees, so we've increased Linkedin's employee estimates by 25% across each department. We've also created an "other" category for employees that are uncategorized).
- Engineering (66) = 83
- Marketing (47) = 59
- Sales (45) = 56
- Administrative (36) = 45
- Information Technology (35) = 44
- Creative (33) = 42
- Operations (24) = 30
- Product (20) = 25
- Accounting (16) = 20
- Other (195) = 246 (7 "others" are comprised of 3 CEO's and 4 executives)
Culture:
- Fans of open desks and collaborative work spaces
- Want work to feel like a daytime disco
- Want the lobby to double up as a place for all-hands meetings with the whole company
Office Space Assumptions:
Here's where we'll make some major assumptions for the sake of getting a rough square footage estimate from the iPhone app.
: Beats By Dre Engineers work collaboratively, so let's assume 4 engineers for every Large office space. 83 engineers with 4 engineers per space would equal 21 large offices.
: Beats By Dre places great emphasis on it's marketing, so let's assume marketing teams are separated out into three employees and enjoy medium sized offices. With 59 marketing employees separated into teams of 3, Beats would need about 20 medium sized offices.
: Let's assume that each IT employee has their own individual small office space. (44 total employees)
: Since the Beats By Dre commercials are really impressive, let's assume the Creatives each have a medium office space (42 total).
: Let's assume the Beats product team works in teams of 5 and occupies large office spaces. This would mean 5 more large office spaces, bringing our total up to 26.
: For the uncategorized employees (according to Linkedin's breakdown), let's assume that these other employees are assigned standard office space. Since it's unlikely every uncategorized will get a solo office, let's break up this group into 67 teams of three (since the standard office comfortably fits three, and the space is collaborative), and let's give 38 employees their own solo office. This works out to be about 105 standard offices.
: According to FastCo Design, the Beats By Dre office includes 3 CEO's and 4 Executives.
That's about it for our office space assumptions. Let's move on to our workstation assumptions based on the Beats By Dre employee breakdown.
Workstation Assumptions:
With our office space assumptions, we made rough square footage estimates based on the Beats By Dre engineering, marketing, information technology, executive level, other, creative and product teams. This leaves us with the sales, accounting, and operations departments to calculate office space requirements.
: Let's assume that Sales is call center related, and all 56 sales people have their own desk.
: Let's assume Administrative employees all have medium workstations. (45 total)
: Let's assume operations all have small workstations - 30 in all.
: Let's assume accounting likes their space, and each accountant has a large workstation - 20 stations total.
That's about it for our workstation and office space assumptions. Next up on our office space calculation is conference and training rooms.
Conference + Training Room Calculation
According to FastCo Design, Beats By Dre has 10 conference and breakout rooms. Let's assume that three of them are "large" (Seats 16-20 people), three of them are "medium" (seats 8-10 people) and four of the conference rooms are "small" (seats 4-6).
Common Areas
According to FastCo Design, the Beats By Dre lobby doubles up as a place to greet visitors and for Beats President Luke Wood’s legendary all-hands meetings where the whole company gathers in the space.
Assuming that each of the 650 employees need at least 11.5 square feet to feel comfortable during an all-hands meeting, the large reception area is going to be...well, large.
Also, with Beats By Dre occupying two buildings, there are multiple reception areas throughout the campus. We've included five additional small reception areas in the calculation.
Copy + Storage Areas
This is where the assumptions get fun for Beats By Dre. Without having ever visited the campus, we'd like to imagine loads of storage areas filled with Beats By Dre products. We'll also assume one large and one small copy area for every 100 employees.
Visitor + Service Areas
As we can see from the photos, Beats By Dre has invested significant resources in their visitor and service areas. A coffee bar, large break areas and a fitness area are just a few of the calculations we'll incorporate into office space requirements.
Server Rooms
Last but not least, we calculate our server room needs. Since Beats By Dre doesn't have drastically large IT needs, let's dedicate two large server rooms for our office space calculation.
Submit and Calculate Totals
Based on our office space assumptions and estimates, it's time to submit and calculate the Beats By Dre office space needs in terms of square footage. The Keyser iPhone app will automatically calculate hallways circulation square footage, as well as load factor, usable space and the total amount of rentable square feet. This calculation is especially useful to help narrow down your office space search.
Without further ado, here is our reversed engineered calculation of the Beats By Dre office: 105,000 Square Feet.
[Photos By Jasper Sanidad]
[Articles Referenced: Dezeen; FastCo Design;
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