Problem
Creative professionals are working in isolation, yet ideas thrive on collaboration and inspiration.
The pandemic took a toll on creatives working from home, feeling less engaged with their coworkers. Creatives searched for community to bounce ideas off of through apps like Soho House, Bumble Bizz, Parlor Social, or working from cafes. We took a human-centered approach, conducting 50 interviews with creatives to understand their needs. Our research revealed a strong desire for in-person creative communities, echoing sentiments like:
"I'm looking for new experiences, collaborations, connections, and opportunities."
Henry DaCosta
Director
"[I'm excited to] have a creative community to share ideas and explore art with in the city."
Owen Davies
Photographer, Brand Strategist
"I want to improve my graphic design skills. I'd love to chat about my sources of inspiration, creative practices, tips and tricks."
Kiya Kim
Multidisciplinary artist
"I'm looking for potential collaborators in a new creative agency endeavor, with a strong interest in sharing knowledge and brainstorming ideas. "
Frida Braide
Photographer
Our Product Development Process
1
Understand user needs
Creatives are currently looking for community, whether that's through online Discords or events, but many fail to meet their needs for in-person collaboration.
2
Problem Framing
How can we facilitate in-person interaction and design a brand that is friendly and matches the unique personalities of creatives?
3
Wireframing
We diverged and converged on a different design concepts, ranging from explore to profile to "invite to coffee" experiences. I worked with engineering to understand the feasibility and address edge cases.
4
MVP Launch
Would a creative instantly invite someone to coffee for collaboration on a project, networking, or mentorship? We tested our initial hypothesis by launching a responsive web application.
5
Iterations and Growth
We consistently monitored the experience through Clarity and focus groups, iterating on the experience to accommodate the needs of creative types, launching features including new direct messaging UX patterns, incentivizing in-person collaboration.
From our findings, I shaped our core problem statement.
How might we enable creatives to connect in person?
What if we launch a tool that introduces creatives over coffee to find meaningful connection, collaboration partners, and new gigs?
Meet the creative community around you.
Branding
Warm, inviting, community-driven
Jamie and I crafted a brand identity mirroring the essence of grabbing coffee with a fellow creative at a cafe. We intentionally designed the brand to reflect the warmth and camaraderie of collaborating within a vibrant creative community - shaping Fika's distinct, niche product experience, setting it apart from networking apps, like LinkedIn.
To validate interest, we launched a landing page where creatives could sign up to meet others in person. We hypothesized value props and abstracted our product to see if users were interested in the experience. Within the first 3 weeks, we saw ~200 creatives sign up, ranging from directors, graphic designers, and product designers.
Application Flow
We intentionally designed the experience to maintain a strong community reputation, especially custom to creative collaboration.
This enabled us to learn basic information about creatives before designing a strategic product.
Explore
Starting broadly with an explore feed of creatives helped us learn about behaviors.
In alternative explorations, we explore single swipe, recommended members, tailored experiences and carousels.
My Coffees
"My Coffees" enables creatives to easily see upcoming and archived chats, with synced calendar invites, emails and text reminders 24 hours before their scheduled invite.
In a future state, Fika allows members to reflect on what they enjoyed about each coffee chat via text to promote users to regularly using Fika.
Outcomes
Starting and scaling a web application is a process of iteration and continuous improvement. It was rewarding to launch an application and see how it impacted a variety of creatives in NYC. We additionally formed a partnership with Industrious, offering co-working sessions for Fika members to collaborate on works in progress. In the process, I've enjoyed learning about what it takes to start and scale a company, hire a team, and deliver a product with genuine value, with a lot of room for improvement. Fika started as a simple idea and became a thriving creative network.
Creatives
2,032
Coffees Sent
193
Events
5
Fika Events
Facilitating creative collaboration
We hosted in-person events to give creatives new ways to connect and collaborate. From our kickoff at Sey Coffee to social hours and recurring coworking sessions, these gatherings brought together creatives different types. They sparked fresh ideas, inspired joint projects, and helped attendees discover future collaborators. Fika members walked away with meaningful connections and lasting partnerships.
