Most team building case studies come from one person’s perspective. This one comes from two — both from the same person, on the same day, at the same event.
Stuart Diprose is part of Jetstar‘s Airline Operations Technology team — the group responsible for the systems that keep planes moving, passengers boarding, and the operational technology behind one of Australia’s largest airlines running on schedule. When it came time to organise a team building activity for a group spanning several different internal teams plus a cohort of new starters, Stuart was the one who made the call to book Urban Quest’s Melbourne CBD experience.
He then participated in it himself. What he observed from both positions gives an unusually complete picture of what Urban Quest actually delivers.
The Organiser’s Perspective — Why Urban Quest
Stuart’s selection process was deliberate. Jetstar’s IT group isn’t a homogeneous team — it spans multiple sub-teams with different specialisations, different working styles, and a number of people who hadn’t had much opportunity to interact outside of their immediate area. New starters added another dimension.
“We really felt like this was one of the more inclusive options where we could get a lot of people to come along easily. Teams are going to have to figure out how to do things by themselves with each other.”
The inclusivity reasoning was specific — not generic “it suits everyone” marketing language, but a considered observation about what tends to go wrong with other activities:
“If you go and do something like laser tag or go-karting, it kind of tends to favour the younger, more active members of those groups. This is very inclusive — more dependent on your brain than your physical attributes.”
That distinction matters in a technology team where the range of ages, backgrounds, and physical capabilities is wide. An activity that creates in-group advantages for the fitter or more physically competitive members of the team produces the opposite of what team building is supposed to deliver.
The specific goals Stuart brought to the day:
“We were just looking for something where everyone can be engaged and contribute to something in a non-work environment. There’s a great need within our organisation to communicate and forge relationships across teams. This was a good activity to fast-track some of those relationships — and a great opportunity for new starters to make those relationships as well.”
Watch Stuart’s organiser perspective immediately after the event:
His verdict on Urban Quest as an event organiser:
“The whole experience was run very well. There’s enough in the clues that it’s decipherable. The way the game is set up with time-based prompts allows those not tracking as quickly to catch up — and you could see during the results, some teams jumping ahead of others and floating around. It was well run and approachable. I would highly recommend it.”
The Player’s Perspective — What Happened Inside the Team
As a participant rather than an organiser, Stuart’s observations shift from logistics and selection criteria to what actually happened within his team during the challenge — and what it revealed.
“Some of my team members I hadn’t worked with as closely before. I learned a lot about everyone’s personality — and I learned that there’s a strong willingness to come together and solve problems together. That was really encouraging.”
The team’s evolution during the event is described with unusual precision. They started with what seemed like an efficient strategy:
“We initially took a divide and conquer approach — which worked for some things. But it was quite difficult to get the team back together. The team acted a lot better when we got back together. We were really able to get a lot more momentum going.”
“We figured out roles within the team — someone using the camera, someone googling things, someone making attempts. When we got in a rhythm like that and everyone was able to contribute, we were far stronger as a team than any one individual.”
“When we weren’t together, we were far weaker. When we were together cooperating — far stronger.”
That last observation is one of the most precisely articulated descriptions of collaborative team dynamics we’ve heard from any Urban Quest participant. It wasn’t delivered as a lesson — it was delivered as direct experience, observed and reported in real time.
Watch Stuart’s player perspective immediately after competing:
The lasting outcome, in his own words:
“Personal relationships with the individuals in the team are really strongly reinforced. There was a good competitive spirit between our team and other teams. It’s definitely brought the whole team closer overall.”
Why the Dual Perspective Matters
Stuart’s organiser and player accounts tell a coherent story from both ends of the event. As the organiser, he chose Urban Quest because it was inclusive, well-suited to a cross-team group with new starters, and not physically biased toward any particular subset of participants. As the player, he discovered that the competitive, collaborative format produced exactly what he’d hoped for — new knowledge of his colleagues, natural role emergence under pressure, and a team dynamic that improved visibly during the two hours of the event.
The alignment between what he wanted as an organiser and what he experienced as a player is the strongest possible proof that Urban Quest’s design delivers on its promise.
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Stuart Diprose is part of Jetstar’s Airline Operations Technology team. Urban Quest has delivered team building events for Jetstar across multiple cohorts and departments including IT, operations technology, and the broader airline technology group.
