Report: Improving the Coworking Experience in NYC
TLDR: an exploration of coworking spaces in New York City from a Service Design perspective
While working at BYO Consulting I conducted an exploration of coworking spaces in New York City from a Service Design perspective—analyzing how the design of the space, facilities and amenities offered, staff involvement, and coworker interaction affects the experiences and addresses the needs of coworkers in a given space.
Coworking spaces in NYC cater to a wide range of professionals; from artists, to lawyers, to coders, to filmmakers—and come in many shapes and sizes. Through this exploration we identified a set of indicators that we believe define a coworking space: collaboration, facility management, customization, typical length of tenancy, operations, interaction, and professional development activities.
We used these indicators to create sample archetypes of coworking spaces. Every space ranks differently for each indicator—there are limitless combinations—and the positive or negative implications of each rating depend on the needs of each individual coworker. For each archetype, we developed a persona of a typical coworker in that space.
There is no one set of standards that all coworking spaces align themselves to. By developing these archetypes and the indicator scale, we aimed to:
catalog the different types of coworking spaces in NYC
help potential coworking space customers understand the elements that make up a coworking space so they are empowered to make informed decisions about where to work
» enable founders and managers of coworking spaces to create environments and experiences that meet the needs of their specific communities
This indicator scale was also used as part of the curriculum for Introduction to Design and Management at Parsons The New School for Design.
Students conducted separate interviews with founders/managers and users at coworking spaces throughout the city, evaluating their responses using the indicator scale. The result was a visual side-by-side comparison of each party’s response—allowing students to measure and compare intentions and impact for each space.
