Member Needs/Interest Assessment

[el Wray]

Based the advice/insight of this group, as the first step in opening a
new co-working space in Tallahassee, I've compiled an assessment to
identify the needs, interests and values of the independent
professionals in my community.

Questions for the group:

What's the best way to target the community when you're just starting
out? Online or by pounding the pavement?

Reaching out to members through social networks, such as Facebook -
Yay or Nay? I haven't read too much about ol' Facebook on this
forum...

Initially I was going to survey my colleagues who I think would
benefit from this new space and then ask each of them to forward the
survey/assessment on to all of their connections who they believe
might be interested. Too shortsighted?

Thanks to the group for the continued support!

Emily

[Susan Evans]

Hey Emily,

Congrats on getting started!

As many have discussed through this forum, the best way to target your
coworking community is to reach out and join communities of interested
folks. Participate. Reach out in person and online. But don't just
reach out to sell - reach out to start a conversation and continue to
be a part of it. And be sure to reach out to groups that YOU find
interesting - not just any group that you think might churn out more
members. Coworking needs to be meaningful not only to your members,
but to you as well - connect with new members that you find
interesting and to be doing interesting work. One thing we've realized
again and again at Office Nomads is that we have only been successful
in bringing in new members when we connect with groups and individuals
who we are interested in connecting with. Groups that we'd like to
participate in. It's much easier to spend a late night at the office
with a group (by hosting an event for them gratis) if you enjoy being
a part of it as opposed to feeling like you just have to babysit it.

As for Facebook, we haven't relied very heavily on it to reach out to
potential members, but have utilized it to pass updates to folks who
are interested in hearing about what we're doing, as well as to be a
place where members might be able connect with one another.

As for your third question - definitely not too shortsighted! Office
Nomads has brought in over 50% of it's members through word-of-mouth -
it is by far our most significant and successful way of recruiting new
members and keeping them around. Getting the word out through people
you are already connected to is a great way to get a start.

Best of luck on getting your space up and running! Be sure to spend
some time digging through the ol' threads here in the group for more
advise - the group has collectively answered similar questions to
yours many times over and much more eloquently than I just did, so be
sure to dig back through for more detailed info.

All the best,
Susan
___
Office Nomads
www.officenomads.com
206-323-6500

[Angel]

I found Tara's survey from years ago a helpful starting point to open
up discussion in my community. I believe I found it in this group by
searching 'survey'
-Angel

[el Wray]

Thanks Angel - I found Tara's survey and it was quite helpful.

I plan on finalizing my community survey this week and will post a
link here as a resource for all.

[Frederik Denkens]

Hi,

I plan on finalizing my community survey this week and will post a
link here as a resource for all.

We are considering opening up a space in Antwerp and actually, I was just working on my survey just now :-) Maybe we can share with each other what we already have. Some of it is inspired by Tara's older survey. Mine is currently in Dutch, but I'll translate. I hope to publish today or tomorrow.

Here's what we ask up to now (draft):

• General stuff
• Name
• Email
• Twitter alias
• postal code (to get feel a  feel for out-of-city members)
• How people are you (1, 2, 3 or more)
• Did you the concept of coworking before? (yes/no)
• What is your main workplace now? (home, officecenter,coffee-house, customer site(s), own private office, shared with other company, nowhere - I still need to start)
• What are the current issues at this workplace (free text)
• What is your preferred mode of transportation? (bike, tram, bus train, car) -> not sure if this is relevant
• Would you be interested in a coworking space in Antwerp (basically 5 options ranging from 'Absolutely' to 'nope')
• If low scoren, what could do to convince you otherwise? (freetext, guaranteed to have funny responses)
• What membership formula would you be interested in then? (Fulltime - private desk, full time - no private desk, some days per week, from time to time if needed)
• Then a range of items that I ask to score (heavily inspired by Tara) from 1 to 5
• Atmosphere
•  Community
• Cooperation and synergy
• Location (coolness, decoration)
• Networking-opportunities
• Reachability by tram/bus
• by train
• Silent rooms
• Security
• 24/7 access
• Private desks
• Space for events
• Parking for own car
• Remarks

Thanks!

Frederik.

Before printing this e-mail, please consider the impact on the environment.

[gerard]

Emily,

I was a bit delayed in replying to this, but we have a reasonable
survey up and you're free to adapt as you wish. Ours was itself
heavily "adapted" from I believe twincitiescoworking.org, though now
that I look, I can't find theirs there anymore.

http://bit.ly/cincycoworksurvey

Thanks,
Gerard
http://www.cincycoworks.com

[el Wray]

Thank you all for your responses to this post. I've completed our
community needs/interest assessment survey and am posting a link here
as a resource for everyone. Please let me know I've forgotten
something critical! I'm considering this a soft launch of the survey,
as I plan to incorporate any feedback received from this group.

http://www.homebasecoworkingspace.com/survey/

Slowly, but surely...

Emily
Homebase | Tallahassee, FL
http://www.homebasecoworkingspace.com/

On Jan 27, 11:45 pm, gerard <helloger...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Emily,
>
> I was a bit delayed in replying to this, but we have a reasonable
> survey up and you're free to adapt as you wish.  Ours was itself
> heavily "adapted" from I believe twincitiescoworking.org, though now
> that I look, I can't find theirs there anymore.
>
> http://bit.ly/cincycoworksurvey
>
> Thanks,

> Gerardhttp://www.cincycoworks.com

>
> On Jan 27, 8:36 am, el Wray <emilyw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Thanks Angel - I found Tara's survey and it was quite helpful.
>
> > I plan on finalizing my community survey this week and will post a
> > link here as a resource for all.
>
> > On Jan 26, 1:21 pm, Angel <fccowork...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > I found Tara's survey from years ago a helpful starting point to open
> > > up discussion in my community.  I believe I found it in this group by
> > > searching 'survey'
> > > -Angel
>
> > > On Jan 24, 2:19 pm, el Wray <emilyw...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > Based the advice/insight of this group, as the first step in opening a
> > > > new co-working space in Tallahassee, I've compiled an assessment to

> > > > identify theneeds, interests and values of the independent

[Angel]

Hi,
I just took a quick look at your survey. My only idear would be to
let people select more than one option on the question about where
they normally work-home, wifi etc. I have found few people who always
work from one place. OR change the question to "where do you spend
the majority of your time working?"
-Angel

On Feb 5, 2:16 pm, el Wray <emilyw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you all for your responses to this post.  I've completed our
> community needs/interest assessment survey and am posting a link here
> as a resource for everyone. Please let me know I've forgotten
> something critical!  I'm considering this a soft launch of the survey,
> as I plan to incorporate any feedback received from this group.
>
> http://www.homebasecoworkingspace.com/survey/
>
> Slowly, but surely...
>
> Emily

> Homebase | Tallahassee, FLhttp://www.homebasecoworkingspace.com/

> > > > > Emily- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -