Student Roost NYC
Student Housing Concept Design for Brookfield Asset Management
Knowledge Areas:
Business Design
Service Design
Design Strategy
Business Strategy
Experience Design
Methods:
Quantitative Research
Qualitative Research
Service Map
Customer Journey Map
Capabilities Map
Playing to Win Framework
Strategic Logic Flow
Business Model Canvas
Porter's Five Forces
Background
This project done over the course of 5 months was the final deliverable of the Design Strategies class I took as an elective at New York University while studying a graduate program in Management of Technology. The course was taught by Executive Creative Director, Sean Rhodes, and Business Strategist, Sam Dix from Frog Design NYC.
My Team
To make this project successful, I was teamed up with a couple of classmates, Brittney Mc and Yiyang Zhang (Rex) from the course. The three of us worked on every step together and had weekly meetings.
Overview
Brookfield Asset Management is an investment company that is invested in long-life, high-quality assets and businesses in more than 30 countries around the world.
Brookfield has built a significant student housing portfolio through multiple acquisitions and developments. Its Student Roost is the fourth-largest company in the UK, with 17,000 beds across 53 sites, 49 of which are operational with the other four under construction. The portfolio is 95% occupied, according to an investor presentation.
Problem Statement
With an ambition to scale their student-housing business in NYC we were asked to hypothetically help Brookfield define their strategy for doing so. We aimed to ultimately increase the lifetime value (LTV) of tenants and improve their overall NPS score in order to drive organic growth.
Our Assumptions
Students from outside New York City may find themselves in a culture shock because of the vibrant and diverse lifestyle. These students, with no friends and families in New York City, leave the warmth of their homes and arrive here and strive to cultivate a similar environment. They want an easy way to meet like minded people and explore the City of New York.
How Might We create a housing for students that are New to New York City and want a frictionless moving experience?
Design Process
Ethnographic Research ➔ Generative Research ➔ Strategic Logic Flow ➔ Ideation ➔ Business Model Canvas ➔ Capabilities Map ➔ Service Map
Personas
Research
Our team was able to conduct quantitative and qulaitative research before ideation. We kept the personas and the target market in mind while carrying out our research.
We were able to gather facs and numbers of related to our market, some of which can be seen below in the final pitch deck. There are also a few graphs and numbers attached to the appendix section of the pitch deck.
As for qualitative research, our team interview a few people who were similar to our sample personas.
The team also explored porter's 5 forces to conduct an industry research to gain insights on the competitive landscape of the market. This helped us develop our solution strategically in order to maximise profits by fitting in a unique position in the market.
"NYC is the best city to live in your 20's"
"cheapest and safest options are the top prioroty"
"1 month to decide everything"
"staying at home is depressing"
"you can feel isolated in New York"
"I go home during the holidays since I'm not from New York"
"It would have been convinient to apply (for housing) online"
"She (roommate) was too dirty. I shared a bathroom with her"
Our Solution
Our solution entailed a housing service for students with a plathora of features to make their moving and living experience frictionless. We focused mainly on the market of students who are 'New To New York' as we find that the market size for students coming into NYC annually is fairly large. We also identified that there is no other student housing service that directly solves the pain points of these students.
Our solution involved a variety of concepts, details of which can be found in the final pitch deck below. We explored bundeling services from companies that already exist in Brookfield's portfolio in order to capitalize on standing relationships. We also introduced featuers to make the move in process for students easy, while also innovating and designing a suitable living experience which would offer students new to New York a home away from home.
We also decided to include a credit card service for our residents such that they could spend money at partner facilities and services to earn reward points. These reward points would be redeemed on a monthly basis resulting in reduced rent.
Final Pitch Deck
Scroll on the PDF attached below(Find concepts in the deck)
Student Roost NYC.pptx