TREEHOUSE
Group Project - 2013
[4 week sprint ]
Art Center College of Design
Proposed timeline - 2023
Field of Play
A profitable, future after-school program model addressing shifting parent needs, technology, and worklife.
Role
My role included trendscraping and analysis, team creative alignment, subject interviews (parents, SMEs) and presentation writing and pitching.
Customer story: The Logan family
The Logans' profile is based on discoveries and pain-points from interviews with several different families in our target demographic.
This is the Logan family. John is a business exec, and Brenda, an entertainment lawyer, both highly educated and motivated.
They work over 50 weeks a year, and, though they like their jobs, like many parents they face the catch-22 of trying to provide for the children they love, by working in careers that don’t allow enough time to spend with them.
Their son, Henry, is 10 years old. Digital native isn’t even a term anymore; Henry is simply connected, all the time, seamlessly to friends and social portals. The private school he attends has a rigorous curriculum, where all the books are digital, and standardized tests and homework take up much of the day.
Their world has become exponentially competitive. Money and GPA don’t even equate to a place in top schools, and businesses are increasingly looking to enroll and hire those with something called “character”.
Insight into opportunity
Socializing has become a passive, clickable pastime of convenience. Henry does have friends, but without the benefits of much physical interaction and engagement.
The Logans know that it is a crucial time for Henry to start making value-based goals, and understanding the connection between work and reward, thereby ingraining the cyclic habits of success.
The Logans think about Henry’s future and do what they can to ensure his success. For a future that is less and less predictable, this means teaching him how to quickly overcome obstacles and seize opportunities as they arise.
Treehouse is a workshop where kids build and make stuff they love, at a state of the art facility, guided by experts who know the crafts kids want to learn.
It connects kids to what they want to do, while structuring it in a project based learning intensive that instills in them crucial social skills and collaboration tools, and shows them goal oriented paths to success.
Treehouse, clubhouse, workshop
Learning while creating what they love
Set in a converted 7000 square foot commercial space, the Treehouse is built out in way that’s conducive for kids creativity, while making them feel like they’re part of the coolest club on the planet.
Treehouse is open to kids every weeknight from 5-8, with guided expert interaction 3 nights per week, and one additional weekend workshop. Technology allows experts to interact from anywhere. It also lets kids work with friends in other areas, or group with team members in a different city.
It’s staffed by great peer mentors that guide and help the kids, at a 10 to 1 ratio.
The right market for the expenditure
Subjects like making a toy, or game design, digital storytelling, are an ideal way for kids to skillsets that will prepare them for future careers in anything. It also keeps their interest, because it’s what the kids want to do. But it’s not about the subject matter. It’s about kids learning to work together in a special club and see the accomplishment they can achieve.
Henry knows that he is part of something special, something sought after. When you belong to Treehouse, you belong. Kids learn how to make something together, in order to be able to tackle just about anything.
PROCESS
Research, ideation, and aligning
on the right idea
Getting on the same page
Reflective of a process of collaboration and and the vitality of alignment, much of the work for this project, and often the hardest work in general, was coming to consensus on not just the 'big idea', but the strong base of 'why'. We interviewed parents and school adminitstrators, immersed in trend scanning, conducted workshops and meetings to oncover a strong solution. I worked hard to encourage full group participation, remove hurdles in the design process, and help keep on a critical track to meet our stated goals.
Future wheels
Part of the process was to cross different data, trends and future scenarios together for new discoveries.
