Greg Parker  Coursera: Design Thinking for Innovation  Reflection – Storytelling  November 9, 2019

Selection

Storytelling is the design tool I selected for my reflection.  My challenge is associated with a small Coffee  Shop and Café at the Business School of my local University.  The Coffee Shop and Café is located on the  2nd floor of the Business School and has limited hours; including closing by 2:00PM.  Often times, students  are either unaware of the food offerings provided at the Coffee Shop and Café or do not have classes on  the second floor and as a result do not purchase food or beverages.  It initially appears to be an out of  sight out of mind scenario.  The Café is one of several food locations on the campus and unfortunately this  location is not profitable.  The Coffee Shop and Café is located in a historical building that was remodeled  by merging the new features with old features.

The challenge is to increase the number of patrons to the Coffee Shop and Café as well as enhance the  communication and marketing of the food and beverage offering.  Classes are offered every day of the  week; however, no classes are offered on weekends.  Employing a barista every day with limited sales  results in a unprofitable situation.  It was very important to understand the variety of potential customers  for the Coffee Shop and Café at my local university.  Hence, the storytelling tool assisted in gaining an  understanding of the potential customer.

Application

I believed that if we were able to get a heartfelt and deeper understanding of the potential customer, we  would be able to better understand their needs as well as their pain points.  We first took time to  understand who all of the potential customers of the Coffee Shop and Café are.  Then we developed  questions for a survey to better understand the customers daily routines, eating habits, daily school and  work schedules, food preferences, views on the Coffee Shop and Café. T

he customers consisted of faculty, staff and students.  Some of the students live on campus while other  students were commuters to the college campus.  We arranged 1-hour interviews with 20 individuals who  represented the potential customers of the Coffee Shop and Café.  We captured their responses and their  stories looking for trends, behavior patterns, needs, issues, and even their pain points.  We used the  information gathered to create Personas or fictious characters. The Personas were used to tell their story  or for storytelling.

Insight and Approach

We were able to gain many insights about the potential customer and food and beverage offerings of the  Coffee Shop and Café.  Some of the insights were expected while others were totally unexpected. We  were able to determine the needs and wants of the students varied; from healthy food options, grab and  go food options, “the deal”, and value offerings.  What was totally unexpected was the environment of  the Coffee Shop and Café.  The potential customers indicated there was confusion on the environment of  Coffee Shop and Café.  Students were confused as to whether it was a study hall, hang out location, or  religious sanctuary.  The customers also consistently mentioned they were not aware of the food and

beverage offerings and costs.  We used the personas to tell the story of the potential customers and their  needs. The Personas developed included;

•  Business student, Athlete, Lives on campus and has a meal plan

•  Business student, working, athlete, commuter, no meal plan

•  Non-Business student, commuter and no meal plan

•  Business professor, faculty or staff.

At a high level, we were able to determine that the Coffee Shop and Café would need to Build awareness  about the food and beverage offerings including daily/ weekly specials by developing a marketing plan  and modified hours.  The environment and atmosphere of the Coffee Shop and Café needed to be  considered to make the location more inviting for the students on campus and commuters. Lastly, the  students and faculty wanted grab and go food options and value meals to be competitive with local  restaurants near the college campus.  We were able to share the heart felt stories of the potential  customers, trends, and pain points, with the food service provider who was appreciative of  the initial  insights and want to continue being a part of the Design Thinking process.

I look forward to continue with this project through learning launch and learning guide.

