[pbreit]

So does anyone have the answer? Low cubes? High cubes? Share cubes? Shared offices? Individual offices? Why so little experimentation and innovation in the tech world on what is perhaps the most important aspect of the company?

Does Fog Creek still give developers individual offices? Microsoft? Joel Spolsky wrote about an office design where the walls were slanted and interior windows were present so each office had windows on 3 sides (but you couldn't really see each other). http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BionicOffice.html

I'm also a fan of flexible furniture that can be moved around easily but have never really seen it used effectively. And I'd like to see better incorporation of stand-up positioning (I'm convinced sales people are more effective when standing; feels more powerful).

Surely the open plan is not the answer but who's searching these days? Do any YC (or equivalent) startups have individual offices?

[brandonbloom]

Fog Creek: Yes

Microsoft: Depends on the team, but mostly no.

[quotemstr]

Back when I was in Windows and Windows Phone, almost everyone got an individual office. A few people had to double up, but there were no massive cubicle farms or open-cacophony areas. Even the smallest, darkest interior office had a door.

[marssaxman]

"Everyone gets their own office!" the recruiter said. Then I spent my entire Microsoft career sharing a series of offices with random people I never talked to who were working on completely unrelated projects. Worst of both worlds, really.