La Prima Commons

A recurring conversation series at a quiet campus café, run by a student club so the coffee company only has to hold the space.

Methods

10 methods across 5 steps · choose one to see where it did its work

3service blueprints, one for each part of the service
48photos in my survey of the campus café
10people in 6 storytelling sessions

A-06DrawingService blueprint: event planning cycle, with the student club as the main actorAnswer the owners' worry about who runs it, on paper.

AskedFeb 2026

An espresso company asked for a new service.

La Prima Espresso, a Pittsburgh roaster with cafés across the city, sponsored an open brief for our service design class: find a service it could add.

Pre-mortem and team charterrisks ranked before the work began

La Prima Commons: come for coffee, stay for new connections

LearnedMar

The busy café refuses to be a workspace.

At the flagship café in the Strip District there is no laptop culture, and the room is full of people talking. The campus café in Gates is bright and modern, and everyone sits alone. I photographed Gates before we generated ideas, and argued we should not improve the café that already works but bring its conditions to the one that does not.

Servicescape photo survey48 photos of the campus café · led
Directed storytelling6 sessions, 10 customers
Rapid idea generation50+ concepts before the shortlist

Gates, Carnegie Mellon: a bright café where everyone sits alone

Strip District: a packed counter on a Sunday morning

TurnedMar 31

The owners would not run events, so the community does.

We pitched a modern "penny university" with La Prima running the events. The owners said they would not plan events. Our instructor read that as co-design, not a no. So a student club and community hosts run each event, lifelong learners join as a new audience, and La Prima only holds the space.

Service value hypothesis, reviewed with the client4 personas, value for each party
Value constellationstudent club, hosts, CMU Dining, lifelong learners

Ring: time on a 4-year dial · Stations: practice · Field: evidence · Red: the turn · Dashed: set aside · End mark: where it landed

Who does what: hosts, La Prima staff and students

MadeApr

Three blueprints, one for each part of the service.

One blueprint for how someone becomes a member, one for how each event gets planned with the student club as the main actor, and one for the day of the event. Around them: conversation cup sleeves, a membership card, a site with an event calendar, a poster and a short film.

Service blueprints3 linked, split by scope and actor · led
Physical evidence designcup sleeves, card, table activities
Narrative prototypesposter and a 2:42 film

Service blueprint: participant membership, from first hearing of it to active member

LandedApr 23, 2026

A working session, and Dining asked for a follow-up.

The final was a working session, not a pitch: timed activities with the owners and CMU Dining on partners, logistics and student roles. Dining offered printing, a student coffee ambassador and a follow-up meeting. The owner lit up talking about poetry and speakers from his own network. No pilot has run yet.

Facilitated client working session3 timed activities

Working session: what CMU Dining offered

Details

My role: Service designer on a team of four. I photographed and studied the campus café, framed the comparison with the flagship café that set where the service would live, built the three service blueprints, and worked on the slides and poster.
Team: Valerie Caña (client lead, field research, film), Erica Flora Yu (field research, poster and film), Ian Giles (mental-model study)
Proof: Six storytelling sessions with ten customers at the Strip District café, my 48-photo survey of the Gates café, owner and barista conversations, a call with CMU Dining, and written critique from the client and the class on our first hypothesis.
Set aside: Improving the Strip District café, which already works. A coffee-education concept built on what customers get wrong about coffee (another team took it, and well-informed customers might shop elsewhere). La Prima staff running the events (the owners said no).
Where it landed: Accepted in a working session with the owners and CMU Dining. Dining offered printing, a student coffee ambassador and a follow-up meeting. A 4 to 6 week pilot is proposed; none has run yet.
More numbers: 4 to 6 week pilot proposed