A Love Letter to Probation and Studio Culture

Before the age of 18 I had lived in 5 different cities, 15 different homes and been to 8 different schools. This made me a very quick study in new spaces and environments, coming in handy more than a couple times. I started at Hatchd about two months ago, wrapping up my ski season in Canada to move to sunny Perth.

Coming from a background of marketing and design agencies on the East coast, I have the opportunity here to do one of my favourite things; learn something new. With a fresh set of eyes looking at a team who have worked together for years and years, I wanted to share a couple of the things I have learnt about Hatchd and the team during my probationary period.

As we all know, company culture is the underlying thread of success. It's the personality of your company, a culmination of the experiences and memories of the various different employees. It’s the first thing that people notice, new clients and job candidates alike, all taking the temperature of the company the minute they walk in.

During my interview, I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the office and using my honed quick study skills, I took my temperature of the team. What I read instantly was the deep respect and pride that they have in working here. During this quick run through of the office, I was told the story of the illustration that we have up on the wall, created by one of our own. This illustration encapsulates exactly what you feel about the Hatchd team when you meet them, an interconnected, quirky collection of varied interests, personalities and history.

The illustration also demonstrates one of the first things that intrigued me about Hatchd when I first started, which is the idea of the “Hivemind”. When reviewing our creds deck in my first week, this was explained as our engagement model. When you engage with us, you don’t just speak to individual contributors, you gain the collective strength of Hatchd’s entire capability and experience. But culture-wise, and particularly in our office banter, you can see how everyone seems to be able to pick up the same thread and run with it (often interrupted by sporadic sound effect buttons, thank you Kmart).

The illustration and general office banter isn’t the only place you see the Hivemind in effect. Take the lunch habits of the team for example, which, without fail, has the majority of the team going down to all sit together at the long table in the Mezz, at precisely 12-12:30pm every day. This does get a bit tricky considering all of us go down to heat our lunch up at once and there are only three working microwaves, but it’s kind of like a family dinner. We talk about the things going on in our day at work, and catch up on what’s going on in our personal lives. This lunch table sees a whole host of conversations, catch ups, and even a monthly book club.

While I had obviously done my due diligence and researched Hatchd before my interview, I also had the privilege to talk to one of our founders and directors, about the history of Hatchd. The origin story he told me was of building a company around talented, ridiculously smart people who continue to see innovation at every turn. Essentially building a business from smart people bringing smarter people in, and on and on it goes. This approach to building a business means that not only do you have talented people around you, but you have talented people who have brought in people they respect and admire, and thus the cycle continues.

And maybe it is the jaded Sydney-sider in me, where it seems like the only way to move up is to move out, but to hear that people had been at an agency (and happily so) for over ten years blew my mind. I only started two months ago so I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but I can see why people have been here so long. A culture that makes you want to come to work and makes you actually want to see the faces around you every day, because you are truly respected, trusted and valued.

Now this is meant to be a love letter to probation, and the ability to evaluate a place truly before you get too invested, but with the team at Hatchd, it’s hard not to get invested when you’re welcomed and supported from the get go.