We have a hybrid space. Cubes surrounded by white boards. Probably 20feet of whiteboard / associate and a few associates with offices with doors and 10 feet of

We have a hybrid space. Cubes surrounded by white boards. Probably 20feet of whiteboard / associate and a few associates with offices with doors and 10 feet of whiteboard. Doors are seldom closed. We use chat for both my team and with another similar team across campus. We are very aware of the penalty of context switching so the spaces tend to be quiet except when there are operational issues. We use a scrum lite approach (daily stand ups but very lightweight). We agree with the comments here that chat should be used for operational or time and sequence sensitive task coordination. We call quick meetings to collaborate on issues and opportunities right after standup and they tend to last about 10 to 20 minutes at most. These don't occur very often (1 or 2 a week). All of this works very well. We have tuned the space a lot over the years. We also have a small table in the space so we can do demos (big monitor on the wall) or have meetings when we want and not be tied to formal meeting space availability. We maybe have 2 to 3 meetings a week in the space and usually they involve everyone (there are 3 of us). My last gig was at a bank and I had no desk. I had a file cabinet and a shared admin (across maybe 80 people). Was expected to find space to work. I carried my office on my back. At times it was great. I could hide from my associates when I needed to get work done. I had 8 people working for me. But when we needed to collaborate or meet we could hardly ever find quiet space to talk through operational issues. We were never allowed to use chat so when operational problems arose people had to assume I was looking at my email. Net net was I hated this approach. I love what I have now.