Konnekt+
The future of work?
As we think about the post-pandemic world, there is always a sense of uncertainty. What would the economy be like?
Do people still have fixed routines for their jobs?
Or do we still work for employers?
With many questions and uncertainties, we started to reimagine a possible future for a decentralized post-pandemic world.
People may have more freedom on who and what type of jobs they would do. More flexible work schedules, or even much more flexible options to work as a freelancer or startup.
We would like to think about where people would work if been given the freedom of hybrid working.
The Pandemic is pushing new online working trends:
Social restrictions would still linger for a long time even if the pandemic is almost over. But the economy would find its way to come back. As we research, there are already some trends before the pandemic indicating people are looking for more flexible options in jobs. The pandemic would shift the landscape of the economy by pushing further this individual flexibility and online working trend.
Co-working environment is needed.
From research, we found out clearly the market and need is huge, with a new perspective of what life should be like, many office workers have new plans for their own future.
Family, individuality, work-life balance, health, and wellbeing are much more considered than before.
Who needs a co-working environment the most? What is the difference in needs between the pre-pandemic time and post-pandemic time?
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Who exactly?​
Who embraces this new post-pandemic change is very important as it affects how the co-working space needs to be designed. From our interviews, we found a pattern, young professionals with a few years of working experience, most likely working in creative and online/ IT industry would be the target group to adopt this post-pandemic change. As they are agile in their jobs and skills, with a flexible mindset and courage to explore fully the new business form as a freelancer or a startup.
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What's the problem?
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Young professionals who work in IT and the creative industry often get commission jobs from their industry connection, it is important for them to be still connected even if they choose to work from home or remotely. Also, some of the young professionals may need to team up or recruit teammates for bigger tasks, it is necessary to have not only a place for them offline but also a social platform to network. Individuals they may sometimes need to meet clients or teammates offline to seal the deals or even to see if they may click and be able to bond a trustworthy long-term collaboration offline, thus a place to meet, connect, and talk about basic ideas is necessary. Current places are either noisy and not professional or only located in business districts or areas in town. The post-pandemic situation encourages people to live and work locally, sometimes far from the city center. People need cheaper and shorter distance range places to connect.
An Eco-system is needed:
How does it work?
Find collaborations and connections on our digital platform and book an offline meeting pod nearby to seal a collaboration deal.
We researched and defined our problems and target users. It is very clear we need to have a service ( both online and offline) that bridges each creative individual and gives them a proper platform to network, but it should be local and community-based. We figured out that a social platform that may provide new collaboration information and possible trustworthy offline meeting points among creative individuals is the design solution.
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Value Proposition
Current business networking platform is huge, but after the pandemic, the need for creative professionals would change largely. As we propose to have local community-based offline meet-up points plus a job/ tasks information exchange network platform, we would like to be a low-cost, on/offline networking platform. As currently there is no one targeting this section, but we do see there is a need on the market. Our goal is to be a sub-segment of Linkedin and WeWork which at the moment they haven't explored. We would start our own business and through collaborations with WeWork and LinkedIn, eventually, be acquired by them.
We would like to rent Vacant land or parking space ( depending on the local authority's policies) to have offline meet points installed. As we are aiming to be local and community-based, we would not be charged as much compared to city center commercial/business areas.
Our plan is to start small and aiming the local London area, gradually expanding to other cities or countries. As the meeting pods can be many types and sizes for different purposes, we would also consider the possibility of renting them out to job affairs, and startup conferences to increase our revenue. We aim to reach 30 offline pods for local communities, and 10 units for events.
Our future plan is aiming for more than just a local service, but possibilities of moving mobility business connections offline spot. As more and more professionals not only creative or IT professionals may work remotely or freelance may share the same needs in the future. Thus an accessible, timely, and cost-effective service is needed. The biggest cost for our service is the rent of space, considering all cost-effective factors, a mobile solution is proposed. A service of booking timely, getting access almost anywhere, and dropping off at an appointed destination with a lower space renting cost is more than ideal. We see it as a networking shuttle bus for remote working professionals
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Pod design
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There were proposals for theme pods, business pods many crazy ideas during the developing process.
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Final Proposal
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It was a long process to finalize the final possible design, as users may have very different ideas about what exactly they would be doing in the meeting pods. We finally give it different segments to different features. It can be roughly seen as regular and Luxury. With different costs, users may find their connection online and book the offline pods close by to seal the collaboration deal.
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The ventilation system and the emergency alarm are also considered for user safety.
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Pods package and event setting.
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Service full explanation video.