Follow-up meeting prototype

Mini prototype proposal of the follow-up meetings framework and my reflections based on class feedback.

Problem Space

NYC small business owners don’t have enough support from their local community and government.

• Small business owners are lonely. They don’t have a team, in which they can share their challenges or get advice from. Due to high rentals in gentrified areas, they need to save money, which means they wear many heats and often work alone or with very few employees.
• Their needs are not being met by local non-profits and government services.
• There are no local laws supporting businesses, such as commercial rent control and more security on leases.
• They don’t feel listened to. Advocates from BID and the Chamber of Commerce implement causes and policies that don’t always align with the specific needs of business owners.

“I went to a meeting for business owners organized by BID to discuss our neighborhood challenges, but they didn’t even ask what we wanted, they just showed us a proposal of something that we didn’t need.”–Small business owner in the Lower East Side.

How Might We

How might we encourage business owners to work collaboratively to get the support they need to solve their challenges?

How might we give support to advocates to better assist business owners’ needs?

Hypothesis

I believe if we provide a meeting structure and tools to perform group discussions for business owners to work collaboratively, they will be able to work together and solve their challenges.

I believe if we provide a meeting structure and tools to perform group discussions for advocates they will better understand the needs of business owners and will implement ideas that have a real impact.

Solution

Collective is a toolkit that helps small business owners to build a supportive community in their neighborhood and teaches them how to apply design thinking methods to work together toward solving their biggest challenges.

In the website, they can download or order this toolkit that teaches them how to work collaboratively and take actionable steps towards implementing ideas that can benefit their businesses. Besides, they can find other business owners near them and get inspired by the ideas that have been implemented by others.

Target audience

Larger Schema of the experience/service:

I have already tested the discussion kit of the first meeting framework and I will prototype the Follow-up meeting framework next. Below is the prototype.

Follow-up meeting prototype

1. Introductions

2. Reflect

This activity is to understand what has been keeping them from completing their tasks. This part might not be in the final design, I included here to learn how can I improve this experience.

3. Idea Recap

This activity is for participants to review the list they created together during the last meeting.

Activity prompt

Tasks from the previous meeting

4. Brainstorm New Tasks

This activity is for participants to remove or add new tasks based on realistic goals.

Sketch of the inside spread of Follow-up meeting worksheet

5. Plan Next Steps

This activity is for participants to make a plan and assign tasks to each other.

6. Schedule the next meeting

I included this here because scheduling has been very challenging. Finding a date prior to leaving the meeting alleviates the back and forth emails of trying to find a time that works for all the participants.

Reflections & Iteration

Meeting agenda on the cover of the worksheet

Based on my thesis advisor and class feedback, to simplify this meeting’s activities, I combined the activities Idea Recap, Brainstorm New Tasks and Make a Plan for Next Steps.

Activities 1 and 2 on the inside spread

I also included more questions in the Reflect activity and move that to the end of the meeting.

Activity 2 continued and Next Meeting Day and Time on the back cover