Pro Baristas is an inclusive coffee training school based in Brighton, offering training and support to individuals often overlooked by traditional employment pathways. It offers a range of training courses and support to help their students enter and thrive in the specialty coffee industry.
Coffee-making drop-in, held at Pro Baristas, September 2023
A team of six Service Design Graduates from the Royal College of Art — me, Nicole, Maddie, Dewi, Trisha and Vivi, partnered with the Pro Baristas team to support them in communicating their graduates baristas’ value to potential employers. We supported the Pro Baristas team to visualise a new future for themselves and it took form in developing a new Coffee Guild in Brighton.
👉 routine agenda-driven meetings (bi-weekly with the Pro Baristas team, and weekly ones amongst the service design team).
👉 conducted multiple field studies
👉 interviews with cafe owners, students, and alumni, to understand their needs, and realign project goals.
👉 collaborative ideation to identify key opportunities. Ideas were co-iterated
Pro Baristas faced a mix of operational and strategic challenges including a lack of self monetisation techniques, a low % of graduate hires.