When a street number is not a door

Somewhere along my travels, I’d learned how to deal with hot days, just like this one. The air is bone dry, I can feel the street dust collecting in my sandals. This is not a road I am familiar with, but that isn’t such an issue. I just need to know how to get to this address and how to get back to the train station when I’m done with this meeting. Today, I’m meeting the CEO of a digital agency to learn how a piece of software fits into his business.

I pull out my phone and launch the map app. Yes, I am there. Or rather, according to the map, I should already be there. Judging by the street number, I’m also likely to be on the correct side of the road. I find myself staring at an unassuming white building. There is a gaping entrance which looks like a garage. Is it a car mechanic in this building? It doesn’t look quite big enough to be a parking lot. It is a building layout I have not seen before, and it doesn’t quite look like it houses offices inside. I triple check the map. This is definitely it. How does one get in?

I walk the length of the facade, and back again. Do I have to go through the garage and out the other side? Eventually, I spot it: hidden at an angle so it’s not visible from the street — a plain red door. I note the name of the agency on a placard to the side. Well, I suppose this is it…

There’s always that moment of suspense when I’ve finally found the location for a scheduled research interview, and all that should stand between me and a warm greeting is a closed door. Having conducted research in numerous cities, I’ve learned never to take a street number at face value. Google Maps is useful, but it’s not always accurate — in certain places it can throw you off by half a block. In a city or a place you don’t know, this can be very disorientating. However, in most big cities, Google Street View can help you identify what an entrance looks like.

In any case, after a few mishaps, I’ve learned not to leave things to chance. Normally, I schedule my interviews via email. About a week before the actual meeting, I would email to confirm the time, the location, the interviewee’s phone number — and ask about the procedure to reach their office or their home.

In London, my current home city, we once met a person who worked inside a highly secured building. Upon finding the building, we checked in at the reception. Then we had to give the name and the company of the person we were meeting because the reception handled visitors for several companies. It all felt a bit like a gruelling test. It took me a while to realise they have actually told the reception beforehand that they were expecting us — our name tags or security passes have been prepared ahead time. Our interviewee had to come down in person to the reception to escort us upstairs to their offices. If I had known the security procedure was so time consuming, I’d have scheduled extra time for the interview itself.

In Paris, and quite a few other major European cities, many offices are hidden behind great big double doors or gates on any given street. They could often be mistaken for residences, when they could, in fact, house a few companies. These doors or gates often require an entrance code that anyone in the building would know. Sometimes, your interviewee might feel they are able to tell you this code if you ask. Once you get past the gates, you may need precise directions to find the right entrance to their office because buildings and doors may not be labelled, and courtyards may have different layouts.

Once, I was about to spend a couple of days with a customer and to shadow her team in Hamburg. Days before arriving, I asked about the address. She said, “You will enter a small street in which all the houses have the house number 425.” She then gave me precise instructions to go to the right building, and how to look for the right entrance, which floor to go to and which doorbell I need to ring. If she hadn’t told me, I would have never found the place without walking up the street several times, before resorting to calling for directions.

At another time in Lausanne, the customer warned me ahead of time that the building their office was in looked like any other residential building. I found the lift without trouble. The cryptic part was getting off on the right floor. His instructions were: “In the elevator, you choose the button ‘-1’. Then it’s on your right.” When I got into lift, I expected it to go down the the basement — instead, I went up three floors. Turns out the entrance level was in fact “-4”.

There are more stories I could add to this list, but you’ll note that these scenarios are European only. Imagine how different this could be in other places in the world? The World Bank has a fascinating resource on street address systems, and Wikipedia keeps a pretty pragmatic list on address formats.

It’s well worth bearing in mind that the people you meet go to their offices (or their homes) every day, and they are very likely to have internalised the specific procedure or directions to get there. Verify the address, ask if there’s a code or if there’s a particular buzzer button. Getting to their office with the least amount of fuss helps set the meeting at the right tone. By assuming as little as possible on how to get there, you’ll arrive at the interview calm, fresh and ready to get down to the real business of conducting research.