Convene WorkPlace
In 2019, I led the MVP launch of Convene's WorkPlace member app and portal to book rooms, register guest, order food, and more.
Convene's WorkPlace offers a modern co-working solution for discerning companies and individuals who prioritize the quality of their work environment over overcrowded office spaces.
The member experience transformation
Convene's vision is "Humanizing the Built World." We saw the tools members will use to book rooms, register guests, and order food as an opportunity to deliver on this value prop with empowering tech with a hospitality touch. Most off-the-shelf co-working software was designed to limit human interaction, so we built the core WorkPlace tech, believing this provides the greatest opportunity for a uniquely Convene experience.
In 2019, I led a dedicated team of ~8 to launch the WorkPlace member tools across the web, iOS, and Android. Within the first 10 months, these tools supported over 1,500 members, facilitated more than 26,000 room bookings, and over 17,000 guest registrations. This success resulted in over $250,000 in supplemental revenue.
Screenshots of the MVP WorkPlace iOS App with "Book Now," guest registration, and property FAQ.
Key objectives:
Our objectives for the MVP launch were clear and impactful:
Establish technology as a core component of Convene's future.
To ensure a timely deployment for the opening of our flagship location at 530 Fifth Ave in NYC.
To create a seamless visitor experience.
To implement a frictionless system for enforcing room booking policies.
To develop a system to report and track issues easily.
Photo after a roadmapping session with Convene leadership.
Early concept illustrations for the WorkPlace web portal.
Over the next 6 months, we were scrappy. Convene tech was in the early stages. Our team was very lean and with limited experience launching new products. As PM, I played a crucial role in ensuring the success of this launch:
I sourced existing members and provided direction for user research to validate our WorkPlace goals and priorities;
Collaborating closely with leadership, I aligned the MVP features and strategy, addressing the 'build vs. buy' dilemma.
To enhance the feature set and inform the design, I evaluated potential integration solutions with our engineering team.
I donned my designer hat, creating user flows and high-fidelity screens (until we welcomed our first full-time designer, Jeff).
I led our agile scrum team, creating a backlog to establish the development pipeline, a backend connecting various integrations, and a cohesive user experience across the web, iOS, and Android.
I also developed training and onboarding materials for our Operations and Customer Success teams.
Screenshots of the MVP: Onboarding email, homepage, and guest registration.
Key learnings post-launch
We quickly built upon the MVP with community events and food ordering while continuing to learn about our members' needs. A few key learnings:
Room booking in the apps were designed around the "book now" concept due to time constraints. We discovered that users expected feature parity with the web portal to reserve rooms in the future.
Individual memberships proved popular, prompting us to seek a scalable solution for automatically collecting monthly payments to ease the burden on our Finance team.
The role of an office manager in guest registration and room booking became evident and important since they influence our buyer persona and renewals.
Screen recording of the iOS WorkPlace app showcasing the in-app scheduling feature.