Zyanya
Building Regenerative communities
Service & Business Design, Experience Strategy, User Research
Design Opportunity:
In the aftermath of the pandemic, how do we strategically reconstruct a big project, restoring its original focus of bringing people together to foster meaningful encounters that organically nurture the development of a regenerative community in constant growth?
Background
ZYANYA, initiated by a group of architects in late 2018, aims to reclaim neglected spaces in Mexico City. Their mission is to transform these spaces into vibrant hubs through art, design, landscape and architecture, fostering organic encounters to cultivate a regenerative community. Currently, the community thrives in two locations, a former textile factory and an art deco building in the centre of the city, both have been refurbished serving as home for studios, art residencies, workshops, manufacturing, events, expos, talks, gatherings, music shows and more.
Challenge
The project had a great brief start until the pandemic hit, the vast majority of members who rented spaces had to leave, and the events had to stop for more than a year and a half. Economic pressures led to the departure of most staff, causing a loss of focus and dissolution within the community. In survival mode, the primary objective shifted to renting spaces to any business for income, with the aim of gradually resuming the original project. However, during this period, organizational and content efforts were neglected, resulting in a scattered approach lacking order, clear objectives, and direction.
My Role
I took charge of meticulously organizing content files and information sourced from members and past events. Beyond mere organization, I analyzed and synthesized this data to formulate a business plan with clear objectives, enhancing my understanding of the market and user dynamics.
Employing prototyping methodologies,
I designed exhibitions, events, and workshops as MVP's in order to generate a database and gather information for the constant iteration and improvement of each experience, creating costumer engagement thus facilitating a constant growth in the community.
I can't show the content of the deliverables since they belong to the client*
Activities
I scoped, planned, and led research and design activities for discovery, design, and delivery phases of the project cycle including:
- In-depth secondary research
- Conducting Stakeholder and customer interviews
- Facilitating workshops for prototyping & research
​- Crafting a comprehensive business Canvas
- Leading co-creative idea generation workshops
- Documentation and presentation of project plans, updates, and deliverables
- Creating detailed customer journey maps defining the key touchpoints
- Formulating functionality roadmaps by area
- Team staff descriptions and tasks assignments
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Discovery & Design
Led the planning of research, sprints, workshops, and prototype testing activities, involving the orchestration of customer and member interviews, feedback sessions, facilitation of sprint activities, co-creative workshops, and taking the lead on writing the final documentation.
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Strategic Development
I drafted a project plan and timeline of design activities that kept updating and improving with each data gathering that I reviewed with the project partners at weekly meeting during 6-8 months until it got perfected and approved.
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As a Service Design Lead and Innovation Consultant I was responsible for the overall creative and strategic direction of the project, from building a strong team and planning the work, defining methodologies all the way to the customer and client engagement and attraction through research, concept creation, prototyping, testing and delivery.
Outputs
- Deepened understanding of users and customers, incorporating their experiences, needs, touchpoints and research insights.
- Implementation of strategic roadmaps.
- Clear business value and vision
- Cultivated team cohesion and empowerment
- Steady growth in user base and improved customer retention
- Transformation of members into proactive content creators
