THE CHALLENGE

IMPROVING A DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP

The relationship between coffee shops and people working from coffee shops with their laptops is tricky. Coffee shops have been designed for a large turnover while people who sit down to work tend to take up a lot of space for a long time without ordering enough. People looking for places to work, on the other hand, have a hard time finding a coffee shop that addresses their daily needs and welcome them to work from their space. Before the pandemic, 38 million people worked daily from home in the US alone with close to 3 million working primarily form coffeeshops. Another 26 million had coffeeshops as their second most common work location.

USER RESEARCH

UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET

With two different users, each having very specific needs, understanding them and their needs was criticial to build a product that would feel genuine to either side. After having researched the subject online, I conducted multiple interviews with our potential users on either side.

“Three hours for five dollars’ worth of coffee is not a model that works”

APPROACH

CREATING A WIN-WIN SITUATION

After having carefully researched both sides, we understood the pains that needed to be solved. For coffee shops, we needed to find a way to better optimize their space. generate more revenue, and gain some control over when and where people are working from their expensive real-estate. For people looking to work from coffee shops we were looking to match them with the most fitting place for their daily needs, make their life easier, and help them with a growing feeling of isolation.

BRANDING

WELCOMING AND NON INTRUSIVE

The Cuppasa brand needed to speak to both the remote workers and the coffee shops. For the remote workers we needed to emphasize that they are welcome to work from our partners' coffee shops. For our coffee shop partners, who are very protective of their own brand, we needed to be as least intrusive as possible which is why we selected to stick to black and white.

THE RESULT

A NEW MARKETPLACE

After having developed and published 2 apps, we successfully launched a pilot in Hoboken, New Jersey. 4 coffeeshops participated in the pilot and within 2 weeks we had over 130 downloads of our app. Due to the COVID outbreak, we were forced to halt our operations. During the pandemic we launched a light version of our app, focusing more on the remote worker but with multiple lockdowns we were unable to move forward.

THE REMOTE WORKER

The remote worker app helps users find welcoming coffee shops based on their location, mood, specific needs, and potential opportunities in the form of other professionals. Through the app, they can view seat availability from the comfort of your home.

THE COFFEE SHOP

Coffee shops are able to declare on what days and hours people are welcome to work from their shop. In the coffee shop, they allocate specific tables for Cuppasa users. Through the app they can offer special deals and new menu items. Reports help them gain insights on customer behavior.

REAL LIFE MEETS VIRTUAL

COMPLETING THE EXPERIENCE

Since our product guides people from a virtual experience to physical locations, we created real life elements to complete the Cuppasa experience. These elements fulfill both functional and branding purposes.