New York’s once thriving communities, came to a halt when the COVID19 pandemic first struck in 2020 - restaurants, salons, and most stores shut down. Which also resulted in most teenagers losing their summer or part-time jobs that were an integral part of their overall development and learning.

After identifying the problem space in the design research phase of this project, we started with:

Concept framing & testing,

Future-casting for business imagination,

Business model design

Landscape analysis,

Benchmarking & competitive analysis,

Defining functions & actions,

Prototype building & testing roadmap,

Prototype testing workshops,

Prototype development matrix,

Final venture pitch

1. Small Business Owners are the jack-of-all-trades for their businesses and have minimal or no time and resources to invest in digital strategy or in hiring and training employees.

2. Young talent lack the knowledge and awareness to convert their digital media skills to professional experiences.

3. Building a sustainable and ethical business model that is not just another service that already struggling business owners have to pay for without a guarantee of ROI

e-üt [이웃; neighbor; neighborhood] :

A non-profit organization that hires and trains young talent and connects them to local businesses to gain real-world experiences while providing their creative and digital media skills to uplift neighborhood shops.