One of my greatest frustrations with my former employer, a small company that defined itself as just a creative agency with some peripheral app dev work, was that they didn't build anything that was a true product. The next project was all they could think about scoring (and then execute it poorly). I was there only a few weeks before I started to press a product agenda, something that would lead to recurring revenue. Obviously you can see how much they cared about my vision.
37signals profiled a company that actually created an e-mail marketing platform, growing out of the limitations of the design shop mentality. It's a pretty good read, and an example of the kind of vision I had. I'm so convinced that building a solid and sustainable Web based business is about a real product, not random project work.
I don't entirely agree with everything this particular company did though. I'm torn on the idea of closed offices. Personally, I do like having my own space, but I've also enjoyed a lot of development and growth in shared spaces in several jobs, including the one I'm in now. The notion that an office shields you from distraction makes the assumption that live humans are the problem. I find that distraction comes from IM, e-mail and the Web itself. I probably drop by CoasterBuzz three or four times a day for distractions. Come to think of it, maybe I'm making the case that you need distractions anyway. It's hard to get heads-down into anything for more than an hour or two.
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