Context
Service Systems Design MSc · Aalborg University Copenhagen · Team project
Other members: Nicholas Steinkamp, Shane Anderson, Pál Király

Understanding the challenge

KBHFF is a Copenhagen food cooperative built on shared values and volunteer work. The project focused on how to attract and retain young members for KBHFF.

The challenge was to explore how the cooperative could better engage a younger audience while staying aligned with its core values and structure.

Problem

KBHFF’s service model relies on synchronised, time-sensitive logistics, which makes the pickup experience inflexible for young members and contributes to disengagement over time.

Initial design question

How might KBHFF become more attractive and sustainable for younger members without compromising its cooperative values and volunteer-based structure?

Research approach

To move beyond assumptions, we combined qualitative and quantitative methods: observations at pickup locations, interviews with current and former members, survey material, a visual workshop, systems mapping, empathy mapping, and thematic clustering. These methods helped us understand both the visible pickup experience and the less visible tensions around commitment, time, volunteering, and value exchange.

Methods and tools used

• Observation to understand the pickup flow, signage, visibility, and member behaviour

• Interviews to explore motivations, pain points, routines, and commitment

• Survey to understand grocery habits and attitudes among young people in Copenhagen

• Visual workshop to explore emotional associations around community, health, volunteering, and sustainability

• Empathy mapping to organise what users said, felt, saw, did, and thought

• Thematic clustering to narrow the material into key design themes

• Personas — to translate research findings into concrete user situations and test design directions against different member needs

• Journey mapping to compare different pickup experiences over time

• Systems mapping to understand value exchange and stakeholder relationships

• Service blueprinting to connect member-facing actions with backstage operations

What we learned

The research showed that young members could value KBHFF’s mission, produce, and community, but still struggle to participate consistently. The issue was not simply lack of interest. Pickup timing, visibility, confusion, commitment, and value proposition appeared as recurring themes across the material.

Reframing the problem

The project was reframed from a broad attraction-and-retention challenge into a more specific service design problem: KBHFF’s synchronised, time-sensitive pickup model makes participation difficult for younger members with changing schedules. The challenge became how to introduce flexibility without weakening the cooperative logic or adding more pressure to volunteers.