O1 Overview

This is a community space located in downtown Richmond, VA. The space was created by Capital One as a way to give back to the community and provide non-profits and startups with an area to conduct meetings and learn about how to effectively run their businesses from other companies in the building. The Innovation Center has 3 main rooms that are open to the public for reservations. Currently users are prompted to fill out one of 4 different Survey Monkey forms in order to submit a space request. Capital One uses a 3rd party system for all of their space management processes, however the unique nature of the 1717 space has brought out a lot of faults with that particular system and how they use it. The approval process takes 2–10 days, it requires weekly meetings, several different spreadsheets of repetitive information, and a physical KanBan board where the process is physically tracked in the office.

My team was asked to come in and improve the process that community members, non-profits, and internal associates use to reserve space at the 1717 Innovation Center.

02 The Goals

Create an Automated Process
While there is not 100% automation for the space we anticipated that we could reduce a lot of the headaches that come from Survey Monkey through the use of a CRM software.

Reduce the Cycle Time
By automating the process we automatically reduce the current cycle time of 2–10 days to almost instantaneous for every event unless there is a security flag (ex: the presence of minors or alcohol).

Make Decisions More Quickly
The new process will introduce a very particular logic or rating system that will group requests into suggested response types which allows for more on demand approval of requests.

Eliminate Human Error
Humans are prone to making mistakes. There are times that events are unapproved due to miscommunication, time constraints, or a misunderstanding of the spaces true intent.

03 User Feedback

We quickly realized that this process was more than just a problem for the administration of the 1717 Innovation Center. Many users also expressed desire for a new and updated system through a post event survey sent out by the 1717 team. This survey simply prompted the users to finish the statements “I wish…” “I want…” and “I wonder…”

“I wish we could see reservation ability in real time.”

“I wonder if you could post the full calendar when you make the reservation so you could see what you were conflicting with?”

“The room reservation process was a little clunky in that I was a first time user and was passed through 3 different connections until I was sent a reservation form which, by the time I received it, put me under a 10 day time limit for requesting a room.”

“You can’t pick more than one room and there’s no preference selection, so there’s only one shot at requesting or you have to do it all over again.”

“You just have to sit and magically wait to see if you get what you wanted.”

“I wish there was a bit more guidance with respect to exactly what was needed as an organizer.”

“I wish you would allow us to choose the space we want to have our meeting in, since ours was a little too open and we were having trouble hearing each other.”

04 End User Improvements

By identifying areas of the requesters pain points mentioned above we were able to greatly reduce the amount of questions and time spent filling out space requests. By implementing a CRM software we will automatically reduce the repetition for repeat users from a max of 26 questions to only 7.

Current Request Process

Future Request Process

05 Administration Improvements

By also identifying the administrations pain points we were able to eliminate 3 main areas of repetition in their process. This allowed us to also set up a set of rules that we refer to as the logic flow that would automatically allow a system to process requests and sort them into 3 different categories: approved, pending, and denied. Letting the Capital One team focus more on maintaining and improving the center rather than spending countless hours approving people to come in and use the space.

Current Approval Process

Future Approval Process

06 The Prototype

Our final proposal was a customized application that could be used for all of Capital One’s reservable spaces not just the Innovation Center.

07 Application Goals

Adaptability
Knowing that Capital One uses the same 3rd party system throughout their entire company we wanted to see if others throughout the business shared the same frustrations. We met with our local Capital One Cafes to learn more about their experiences with the system.

We found that were already using another tool called Liquid Space, an online tool used to reserve office spaces. They found that it was a little tricky to set up with the Cafes because there was no charge for using a room, you just had to qualify under the right categories: student, startup, or non-profit. With Liquid Space there was also no way to track or monitor the equipment that people rented out so occasionally things were stolen or misplace.

This will not just be a space management system for the 1717 Innovation Center but it would be an entirely new, customizable space management system for all of Capital One.

Simplicity
Knowing the users frustration with the current system on both the requester and administration sides, we have created a single application to display, manage, and communicate through. Using a CRM software we can also determine what locations you have access to, so employees would also see another section for their office locations.

Transparency
We provide users with the information they want to see at every step of the way. Our copy throughout the application was very relaxed as a way to keep users interested, and it also made the experience more personable. We found that users really just wanted to see the exact times the spaces were available and adjust their own calendars accordingly before sending emails back and forth with the spaces to work something out. We also bring in transparency to the spaces themselves through photographs, descriptions, and available media, and customizable room configurations.

08 System Messaging

Copy plays an important role throughout an application. By using a more relaxed tone we were able to capture users attention and keep them from feeling frustrated throughout the process. In the case of a denial we introduced the option to request a manual review from the innovation centers team. The administration team then had the ability to review and override the systems decision. In the case of an override the system should log those details and use them in future decisions.