The development of coworking and collaborative spaces dedicated to entrepreneurship has considerably widened the range of uses in professional environments, multiplying the diversity of interior design, equipment and services offered to workers whether they are entrepreneur, freelance or salaried within a company. From the 3D printer to the kindergarten, from the bar to the yoga class, from the conference to the creative room, the possibilities are endless and the prospects for disruptions are attractive.

In addition, we know that the design of a place and its service offer strongly contribute to its identity and, thereby, to a necessary demarcation in a context of competition and economic viability that is sometimes difficult for coworking spaces. On the other hand, it contributes to the development of a common culture shared by the users of the place and thus to virtuous collaborative dynamics.

Understanding the needs of future users of a collaborative space is the first logical step in the process of defining its services and its interior design. To come up with an innovative and long-lasting proposition, you can target in particular the early adopters of the future space. You can run an initial research about early adopters’ needs choosing one or more tools from these Inspiration Methods. Early adopters are also the best ambassadors for spreading innovation to the rest of its audience.

A coworking space can by nature accommodate an audience of diversified users who meet varying needs through their practices. It is therefore necessary to select a representative sample of this diversity of users in order to be able to accurately identify their needs.

From the persona created, you can start imagining usage scenarios based on their current professional habits, for a typical day and then for a typical week. In this first simulation, you can identify the factors that limit their activity development. During the second simulation phase, you can imagine scenarios in which this limits are overcome thanks to coworking (through shared equipment, specific interior design or specific services).

You can use methods of sketching, patchwork of images, stories and other ideation tools that facilitate the imagination to project itself as accurately as possible into the skin of the future user.

To structure the process, you can refer to the following categories of needs :

•  Material equipment (IT, kitchen, printing and prototyping equipment, furniture, display equipment, etc.)
•  Ergonomics (available space, volumes, partitions between offices, circulation, accessibility, etc.)
•  Atmosphere (brightness, interior decoration, sound level, degrees of interaction between users, degree of appropriation of the place, etc.)
• Services (support and advice, networking, entertainment activities, communication, training and conferences, etc.)

Once the needs of the users have been assessed, it will be useful to make a comparative study of the offer on its territory. For this, it is necessary to highlight the following :

• What are the collaborative spaces meeting the needs of my users today?
• What needs do these spaces meet? What are the prices offered by these spaces?
• By extension, what needs are not covered today in my territory?
• Are there redundancies? If so, can we consider sharing certain equipment / services through a partnership?
• If necessary add missing equipment / services to the “must have” list.
• If you are about to replicate an already existing service : what is your added value / unfair advantage?

This tool can be helpful to observe the existing offer.

Ideation exercises can lead to the development of proposals in terms of design and services that are distant or even incompatible with the DNA defined at the outset through the Vision. If there is a discrepancy between the two, it will either be necessary to revise the Vision on the basis of the needs defined and revise the list developed to make it consistent. Follow the indications of the Vision and Scope tool to work on this.

It is important that the relation between mission and vision should not be rigid. You must also consider that it is the stakeholders who co-define with you your value proposition, and that potentially in a collaborative space project these stakeholders are multiple but also evolving over time. In this sense, the elements of interior design and services will also evolve in line with the core modifications of the project.