Revolutionizing Creative Space Access
The Soundspace Story
Soundspace exemplifies my strong initiative, leadership, and keen eye on customer experience. With a proven track record in strategic execution and deep understanding of user needs, I've demonstrated an ability to innovate and offer a robust, scalable solution. This expertise, particularly my focus on Lean UX design and automation, emphasizes my capacity to discern user challenges and deliver efficient, secure solutions.
Problem:
It's too hard to find and afford creative space.
The creative industry faced a significant challenge: inflexible and costly methods of accessing creative resources. The traditional hourly fee-based model restricted artists, making it hard for them to find affordable, reliable, and diverse access to crucial resources. Additionally, traditional methods such as Google searches or relying on word-of-mouth for finding creative spaces turned out to be a massive gamble. Space owners often provided little-to-no information, further exacerbating the problem.
Research
Through comprehensive white paper research and dozens of interviews, the core problem identified was the lack of consistently available and affordable spaces for artists. For many, it was not only about affordability but also the sheer unavailability of spaces conducive to creativity.
Insights
Where spaces were available, they often felt exclusive, resembling private clubs, making community-building within them particularly challenging.
Personas
Several personas were crafted during the research process, primarily focusing on needs like connecting, rehearsing, and recording. These were predominantly attributed to a demographic labeled as "the musical middle class."
A few of the most common personas.
How might we…
Address the challenge of making creative spaces more accessible, affordable, and community-driven for the "musical middle class"?
Address the challenge of making creative spaces more accessible, affordable, and community-driven for the "musical middle class"?
Solution
I first initiated a transformative shift from an hourly fee-based model to a flat-rate membership model, making creative resources more accessible. After addressing pricing, I streamlined the process of space discovery and comprehension.
Our platform automates bookings and subsequently guided users on maximizing the benefits of their chosen space. Using a no-code tech stack, I integrated cost-effective data, booking, and payment services, enabling Soundspace to operate efficiently and scale rapidly.
Lean UX design and style
The Soundspace platform adopts a space-first approach, with an emphasis on a lean design methodology. In this particular product, we prioritized using as little custom design and engineering as possible, ensuring high velocity and reduced costs.
The user interface for our website prioritized space, resources, and time availability, allowing users to find a space they resonate with, sign up for a membership, and then book and connect with others in the space.
The design underscores simplicity, ease-of-use, and transparency, facilitating users to swiftly identify and book their desired spaces. Additionally, a standardized onboarding experience, complemented by an AI chatbot, guarantees users consistently receive the assistance they require.
Upon entering any space, members are introduced to a uniform onboarding process, fostering self-sufficiency. From billing to 24-hour secure access, every aspect of our system is automated. However, we also ensure a personal touch in support, with our AI chatbot always at the ready to resolve technical challenges.
Reflections & takeaways
Soundspace's revolutionary subscription pricing model successfully disrupted traditional industry norms. Our system's inception and implementation led to the establishment of Soundspace as a respected two-sided national marketplace. We've carved a prominent local and national identity, creating a sustainable and scalable system that continually provides increased satisfaction for both employees and users. Furthermore, our innovative approach caught the attention of startup accelerator programs, such as Gener8tor and GrowthX, validating our strategy and emphasizing the significance of our contribution to the creative industry.
