The secret to creating a good and awesome office space, as well as how to grow and motivate a company’s team, are topics discussed by Lightyear’s CEO and co-founder, Martin Sokk.
Lightyear’s team moved to a new office in November of last year. The interior architecture aimed to create an environment that inspires people, providing them with focus areas, opportunities for face-to-face collaboration, and places to take breaks while working.
“For us, it was important that the office was cozy and comfortable. That’s why you’ll find sofas, lounge chairs, and comfortable bean bags in different office spaces and relaxation areas,” Sokk describes. In his opinion, the goal of the office is to make an employee’s life easier. “In such a way that when they come to work in the morning, they don’t have to think about anything else but their projects. To achieve this, the office should provide everything necessary for life, from coffee and snacks to ergonomic work tools.”
The office environment should have suitable conditions for all types of employees, whether it’s team-based workspaces, quiet concentration areas, or, conversely, buzzing co-working spaces.
Sokk highlights his favorite aspects, including the new meeting rooms with good airflow, sound insulation and large windows that bring in plenty of light. These may seem trivial, but they actually ensure that a person feels connected to the outside world and comfortable, even when spending hours in meetings.
“My second favorite is our central lounge area, where you often see dogs and children running around – it makes every day much more fun,” he says.
More and more often, people come to the office only on selected days, mainly to participate in larger team meetings or conduct brainstorming sessions, which are more challenging to do via video calls. Therefore, according to Sokk, the office environment should strongly support such activities.
“We have several built-in phone booths in the office, which are convenient for video calls or for a quick discussion between two people.” In addition, the new office also has an all-hands meeting room. “It’s our largest room, where our entire Tallinn team can fit in.”
In Tallinn, Lightyear has about 30 employees, and roughly half of them can be found in the office on a daily basis. When the London team also travels to Tallinn, there can be over 40 people in the office at once. “In addition, we always have several dogs with us, enjoying running around the spacious area and getting everyone’s attention,” says Sokk.
One of Lightyear’s goals was to find an office space where they could continue to grow. “We wanted areas in the office where we could add more workstations or create cozy collaboration corners to maximize the use of the existing office space,” Sokk explains.
The design of the new office is generally simple and leans towards Scandinavian style. The color scheme incorporates a lot of black and white with natural wood tones, combined with a selection of Lightyear’s distinctive brand colors, such as dark blue and pastel pink. This can be seen, for example, in the illuminated logo in the central lounge area and the framed press articles that form a timeline of Lightyear’s major and significant events.
Since this is our first official office, it was also our first time working with OCCO,” says Sokk. “The process was very smooth, and OCCO was very helpful in creating ready concepts. We provided them with fairly raw ideas, and they developed a comprehensive solution, taking into account all of our needs
