NYC Office of the Mayor, Daniel Sanchez

Context

A city agency underserving its stakeholders

The NYC Office of Nightlife provides resources, policy guidance, and support to nightlife businesses across New York City. Despite high name recognition, the office's programs were poorly understood, and the industry, still recovering from the pandemic, felt that NYC was adversarial rather than supportive.

Our team partnered with the Office to identify communication gaps, rebranding opportunities, and ways to integrate data for proactive engagement. We set three objectives: raise awareness of existing services, find the right rebranding moves, and build a case for using data proactively.

Problem Statement Refinement workshop on Miro with remote stakeholders

Kickoff: Problem Statement Refinement workshop aligning stakeholders on project context, scope, and success metrics.

My Process

Non-linear service design within a six-week sprint

Focused on a non-linear service design framework: defining the right problem before solving the problem right, for more effective impact within a six-week deadline.

Problem IDIdentified where in the design process the team was landing and how to capitalize on resources, seeking opportunities for technology and brand marketing.

Research1-on-1 stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiry, field research. Consumed numerous nightlife reports and conducted 10 interviews with industry groups, DJs, bar and restaurant owners, and community board members.

IdeationBrainstormed solutions for marketing, re-establishing brand identity, and promoting NYC Office resources to the community. Developed 5 unique prototypes for client feedback.

Service DesignMapped the infrastructure of service-to-client relationships to understand the entire ecosystem and scope of NYC Nightlife, including what touchpoints existed and where they broke down.

Feedback & IterationReceived stakeholder feedback on preferences, design choices, and budget constraints. Narrowed five prototypes down to two main initiatives.

HandoffDelivered a tested, validated concept, not a shipped product. Reviewed begin-to-end process and presented final iterations to stakeholders, who took the work forward internally to make the case for funding and implementation.

NYC ONL project process timeline: Kickoff, Research, Synthesis, Prototyping, Testing

Full project arc: Kickoff through Testing, each phase grounded in data from 10+ nightlife industry interviews.

Research Insights

Four findings that shaped the intervention

The pandemic fundamentally altered the nightlife industry, its users, and vendors, creating new unmet needs the Office hadn't addressed in its programs.

The Office of Nightlife was seen as limited and only helpful in niche situations, despite having a broader mandate and resources available.

NYC feels adversarial to nightlife business owners, a perception that fundamentally undermined trust in available resources.

Office awareness was high while specific programs were less understood: a communication problem, not a reach problem.

Design Proposal

Three interconnected interventions

Technology integration. A concept for integrating data into service alert systems, allowing the Office of Nightlife to proactively focus on targeted sectors of the city where businesses needed support most.

Social media strategy. A marketing approach to align brand perspective and highlight Office services to nightlife businesses, meeting them where they already were rather than waiting for them to seek help.

Guerrilla marketing. Visual layouts for storefront businesses in high-traffic sectors, focused on the community programs showing the highest impact.

C.U.R.E. guerrilla marketing poster on a NYC bar storefront

C.U.R.E.: one of the brand initiatives prototyped as guerrilla marketing for high-traffic nightlife storefronts.

The Dashboard Concept

What the 89% approval was actually testing

The concept that tested so well was a prototype dashboard giving the Office of Nightlife a heat map of 311 call volume by category and neighborhood, so staff could see where noise, food safety, or licensing complaints were concentrated and direct outreach there instead of waiting for complaints to escalate. Alongside it, we mapped how a single 311 call would move through the system over time, from a raw data point on day one to a prioritized, actionable signal once the platform matured.

Prototype heat map dashboard showing 311 call volume by category and neighborhood

Open Nightlife roadmap showing progression from MVP 311 dashboard to a proactive nightlife platform

Left: prototype heat map concept, used to identify high-volume complaint areas for targeted outreach. Right: the roadmap showing how the platform was designed to evolve from a basic 311 map into a tool for proactive engagement.

Stakeholder Presentations

Delivered to C-Suite in six weeks

Daniel presenting prototypes on screen to stakeholders

C-Suite stakeholder presentation in a conference room

Prototype review sessions: presenting lo-fi concepts to Office of Nightlife leadership, then re-presenting to new C-Suite audiences.

Outcomes

Results that earned a second audience

89%

of participants expressed excitement for the dashboard concept to be implemented

6 wks

from kickoff to delivery to executives, program leaders, and city stakeholders

Team asked to re-present to new C-Suite audiences to establish value for policy investment

This was a research and strategy engagement, not a build handoff to my own team. What I can confirm: the concept tested well enough that leadership brought us back to make the case for funding it. Implementation timeline is tied to the city's budget process, which sits outside this project's scope.

Team

Daniel Sanchez, Strategy & Research, UX (JDS Design)

Patrick Labbe, Innovation & Creativity Lead

Tim Jakubowski, Service Design & CX Lead

Abby Roskind, Front End Developer & Designer