THE BARISTA RESIDENCY: a coffee project fueled by design

It’s been a couple weeks that the design methods class ended and with it this iteration of my potential coffee business.

In the last blog I wrote about my motivations and goals in the 8 weeks long project.

The prototype that I decided to present for the class would be a landing page on this website. It would be very simple and straightforward: I would talk about the WHAT of the project, WHY I’m creating this project, HOW it would work and people would help me concretize it and WHO I am as well as who should take part in it. At the bottom of the page would be a contact form for anyone interested in the project.

Designing a business model is something completely foreign to me so having to present it through something more familiar, more condensed like a webpage seemed like a good objective.

But back to thinking a business model. I had some ideas on what kind of business I would design but to decide on its particular features I used the Conjoint Analysis method.

I thought of a few different business models existing in the food industry, retail or other small businesses like hair salons and art galleries, then applied their different characteristics to fictional coffeeshop settings and came up with five models.

Aditionally on this conjoint analysis I noted a list of challenges each model possessed. During this step of analysis I asked a few of my coworkers feedback to better focus my decision on what specific feature in each category my project should take.

With working full-time at the coffeeshop and taking these classes, it felt like 8 weeks came by very fast and I didn’t put enough work in researching precedents or collecting more feedback and advice outside of my coworkers but I did think a lot about this project and its real world potential. A small tangent I took time to sketch at the very least as a journey map was the idea of how do I help the people who take part in this project.

For the designed business model, I leaned a lot on the Residency model in my Conjoint Analysis chart but with conventional business elements. I thought that the concept of artist residency was a perfect method to design a barista-focused business, but in this case the artist is the barista.

Like a normal coffeeshop I would have a permanent crew of baristas as well as a permanent classic menu. The novel concept of my business would be that a select barista would create their signature menu and coffee selection and feature it for a designated time in the shop until another barista takes the menu over. Like an artist residency, the barista would be highlighted during their residence. With this model I intend to build network, community and stronger connections between the employees in the store, the customers and the local communities around. Coffee is community and I hope that showcasing who crafted the drinks and menus specifically would help further conversations on coffee culture and the barista profession.

For the prototype itself, the landing page, I created a small brand identity, palette, visuals, social media post prototypes and called the project the Barista Residency. I chose this name mostly because I lacked inspiration honestly. A small final challenge was to choose the proper wording for the page to condense all my sketches and scribbles in five small paragraphs.

You can see the landing page for the Barista Residency by clicking down here. And if you want to make this project happen do not hesitate to contact me!