Challenge

Reimagine Starbucks’ Barista Training program, with the goals of reducing attrition during the paid six-week training process, reducing hands-on manager and overall training time—while providing a globally-scalable digital gamified learning experience.

solution

A gamified, interactive, branded barista training experience that enables new baristas to learn and practice drink recipes, complex processes, customer service, and coffee knowledge. Advanced gamification turned knowledge into skills—without the stress of being trained on the line in front of real customers.

Handcrafted drinks, handcrafted design

The secret to success at Starbucks lies not only in their brew, but in the unique experiences they create in every store and interaction. We collaborated closely with them to craft a tailored look, feel and overall program strategy that matched their meticulously-curated brand

Stories from farm to cup

After conducting a comprehensive current-state analysis of materials and program structure, we moved into action on building new content and assets. Branded videos and training modules transformed traditionally technical content to teach baristas the history of Starbucks, how to get to know their customers and how to help customers make better cups at home.

Espresso Yourself

Knowing authenticity is important to the Starbucks brand, we prioritized using real baristas and stores to capture visuals for videos and modules. This ultimately allowed learners to feel more represented and connected to the updated training.

Brewing knowledge, one game at a time

With interaction design, game mechanics and learning principles, we transformed dry content into simulations that boosted retention and turned knowledge into skills. Baristas used these games to prepare for fewer mistakes behind the bar—they could replicate making drinks while saving on resources (like cups and drink ingredients) and without the added stress of practicing live in front of customers.

A new blend of training excellence

While baristas experienced the fully reimagined program—complete with new digital games, branded videos and learning modules—managers and trainers stayed involved with updated activity guides to help them coach employees.

Managers benefitted further from the advent of Fathom, which gave them a variety of tools for monitoring progress, assigning lessons and running custom reports to identify areas for targeted support. Learners could even do things like flag content they needed help with, which would then notify their manager so that they could focus on specific areas with employees as needed.

The buzz

Mindspace turned a stressful, resource-heavy, time-intensive, analog program into an engaging, gamified, digital learning experience.

Not only did creative solutioning extend into our design, gamification strategy and content development, but it influenced the technical decision to develop the Fathom LMS in order to house HTLM5 content and more custom reporting.

We were able to brew up the ultimate barista training experience by digging and finding the best solution—not just the most convenient one.

97% Content retention. 97% Content retention. 97% Content retention. 97% Content retention. 97% Content retention. 97% Content retention.

67% win rate (aligning to prize inventory). 67% win rate (aligning67% User engagement. 67% User engagement. 67% User engagement. 67% User engagement. 67% User engagement. 67% User engagement. 67% User engagement. 67% User engagement. 67% User engagement.

25% Reduction in training time.25% Reduction in training time. 25% Reduction in training time.25% Reduction in training time. 25% Reduction in training time.25% Reduction in training time.

Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups. Less wasted cups.

More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas. More happy baristas.

SERVICES PROVIDED

Strategy

Brand + Market Research

Competitive Analysis

User Research + Insghts

Learning Needs Assessment

Creative Approach

Engagement Strategy

Gamification Strategy

Content Strategy

UX Strategy

Evaluation Framework

Creative

Creative Direction

Copywriting + Content Development

Instructional Design

Scripting + Storyboarding

Video + Photography Capture

Art Direction + Visual Design

Motion Graphics + Interactive Element Design

UX/UI Design

Wireframing + Prototyping

Execution

Project Management

Video Editing + Production

Event Support

Front-end Development

Back-end Development

QA Testing + Deployment