is a Community Interest Company that has the goal of making professional performing arts more diverse by training and managing young professionals from underrepresented communities in Lambeth.

The aim of the MFT is to consolidate all the expertise acquired in a Master's degree by way of an integrated practical exercise. The teachers in charge of tutoring will advise students on how to apply this learning in their respective MFT.

The performing arts industry in the UK faces significant systemic inequalities, with workers from BAME communities, women, and working-class backgrounds being underrepresented and facing disparities in opportunities and treatment. The COVID-19 pandemic has further compounded these issues, affecting workers economically and professionally

This work used the design thinking method to understand and empathise with the users and understand the system that affects them,  to understand the social economics, the performing arts industry and the relationships between different stakeholders in the UK, focusing on London.

The research happened in three steps through two distinct cycles each. The steps were preparatory, secondary and primary research, with the second cycle as a way to deepen the research in specific areas that the first cycle unveiled.

Two noticeable insights that came from the research were:

Boury is not a star... They are a constellation!

This insight is the understanding that Boury has a great relationship with its current stakeholders; all of them used family and professionalism to describe the Academy with a feeling of union and companionship across the board.

The most significant pain points related to the students is where Boury acts, are related to four different areas:

Access to performing arts
Systematic inequality
Access to the industry
Social matters

Structure is the key... To go above and beyond.

The second insight is how Boury can optimise and structure itself to improve its already excellent service.

The most significant new opportunities for Boury now are related to the new space. A new investment with an immense capability of increasing its offerings and client base. As said before, structuring the business is essential for this new phase to be successful.

The reframed problem for the Ideation phase now must be: How might we scale a successful business without losing its family-like approach and atmosphere?

The idea is to go from a constellation to the biggest that we can see, from a bunch of stars together to Hydra, the biggest constellation we can see from Earth, and for that, based on the insights, three pillars should always be analysed: Service, and its quality, Scale, and its sustainability and Brand, and its consistency.

Considering the three pillars for developing solutions for Boury, three co-creation workshops, one with Boury Academy, one with business people and one with designers. The idea is to generate ideas based on the three aspects of design thinking, Boury for feasibility, designers for desirability and business people for viability.

Based on the ideation phase, three ideas were selected. They are a newsletter, a pricing trial and a landing page for Boury. All of them fulfilling all the three pillars' needs

With the new space, Boury has the opportunity to increase its impact on the community, and the pillars will be essential to shaping its future.Another tool used to help Boury going forward was the competitive marketing benchmark. It was advantageous for understanding how to position themselves and localise in which areas they can improve.

It will be convenient to understand the competitors' offerings, services, target users, communication and intangible assets in the future. In the same way that, understanding the needs of different stakeholders will facilitate actions on how to reach them and generate fidelity.

Digitalization should be a key component of Boury's growth strategy. It involves digitalising outreach, services, creating an omnichannel experience, implementing a loyalty program, automation, and community engagement.

The aim is to reach new clients, increase scalability, improve the user experience, and create brand awareness

The new space provides an opportunity to engage with the community and industry partners, which will help in expanding its online presence and increase brand awareness. Through automation and digitalization, Boury can improve its productivity and focus on delivering quality services.

Working with a functioning business was both challenging and enriching. One of the biggest challenges was the number of stakeholders involved, and understanding social inequalities and the disparity of opportunities in the performing arts industry, with which I had never had contact with it before.

I used design tools to help translate ideas between stakeholders, analyze information, and create the foundation for future development, helping me apply and consolidate learnings from the classroom.

Overall, it was a transformative experience, and I am very grateful for the opportunity.

Working with Boury has been a fantastic experience, where I had the opportunity to support the team in improving their service and mapping out a plan for their future growth.

The passion and drive of everyone involved was inspiring, and it was evident that Caroline, the CEO, had a clear vision for the academy.

We are now working on implementing some of the recommendations with a focus on the three pillars, always considering the balance between value created and cost.

It has been a privilege to work with such a talented and passionate team and I hope to continue this project in the future.

I'll be working with Boury to implement the recommendations mentioned, develop new outreach strategies, map out different stakeholders' journeys, and create a brand new website.

This is all part of an effort to better serve the community and empower even more students to achieve excellence in professional performing arts.