Blue Box: developing a new type of co-working space

Published by SprintMaster.co on behalf of the sprint master Alessandro Ng

Creating a disruptive way of offering quality spaces for people to work in

The way we work has rapidly changed over time. According to research by Robert Half Management Resources in 2014, Brazil is the 3rd fastest growing country when it comes to home office use with 14% of companies already having formal programs allowing employees to work from home.

New ways of working

We spoke with people who have worked or work from home, discovering that it’s not all fun and games. Lack of quality infrastructure and isolation are underlying problems for these people — who resolve them by using co-working spaces.

We dove deep into the universe of co-working spaces and discovered that they are incredible places with impeccable infrastructure that promote interaction between people. But these spaces are expensive. Very expensive. Our team did a survey and the average montly price of a good co-working space in the city of São Paulo is R$860 (US$240).

Knowing that the flow of people out of traditional offices is happening and is irreversible, our challenge was to offer infrastructure and quality for this avalanche of people, in an affordable way.

The secret: shipping containers

Our sprint began with research into how work spaces were offered in the past, the state of the service offerings today, and what the trends point towards the future. From there, we completely immersed ourselves in this universe to understand our users and what they thought about changes in how we work. We discovered some incredible things and after a co-coreation session, and inspired by the SmartFit’s extensive network of gyms, we came to a business model: a spread-out network of offices.

But we were still missing something key that would sustain the model. So we decided to interview architects and generate insights into how these offices could be made. And that’s when it dawned on us: let’s use shipping containers. Perfect! Containers are a cheap and accessible solution to start an office chain in a city like São Paulo. We discovered that these steel boxes could last up to 100 years but for shipping they are only used for 10. They are easily movable and quick installation allows us to distribute

We designed the user journey for this service, allowing the users to find the nearest Blue Box through an app. In addition, the user could easily schedule workdays at any Blue Box and pay based on time used.

Work in a box, think outside of it

By the end of the sprint, we came upon the amazing solution of a network of container-offices spread throughout the city of São Paulo. We designed a business model based on a workplace that comes to you, rather than you going to the workplace. That way we could reach people in various neighborhoods.

We formulated monthly plans, hourly plans, and partnerships with companies.

Insights

• We thought of partnerships with land owners to install Blue Boxes on their properties.
• Working out deals with companies allowing their employees to use the network makes a lot of sense. B2B will guarantee scalability for the network.
• Using containers was one of our main eureka moments. It’s a key factor for the model’s success.