Menu&Me
“Michigan Ross and U-M Students Create Designs For Equitable Enterprises
The goal of this course is to translate research findings into impact in the world, and, along the way, train students to be architects of the 21st century.”
From a Ross School of Business Article
Menu&Me
“Menu&Me allows restaurant-goers to have a more tailored food experience and restaurant owners to learn more about who eats in their restaurant by creating customizable menus for both owners and customers. The digital menu tool provides insights into a restaurant's ingredients, supply chain, treatment of workers, and other concerns, allowing restaurant owners to gain insights into customer behaviors and customers to make informed decisions about where and what they eat.”
Why?
“How can you use the tools of design to create a more just and inclusive economy? To build enterprises that uplift rather than deplete their communities? To enable sustainable livelihoods rather than financial precarity?”
“Using the tools of design, we will prototype new forms of enterprise in an industry undergoing radical change around the globe right now: restaurants. Covid rapidly accelerated changes already underway, from a shift toward ghost kitchens and delivery to the use of QR codes in place of human servers. How might we use these same technologies to reimagine capitalism? To create equitable enterprises that provide a living wage and foster community?” - +Impact Studio
Initial Problem Statement.
How might we use stakeholder insights and enterprise
transformations to design equitable food business models that are
financially sustainable and delight stakeholders?
How might we use the lessons learned more broadly to reimagine
capitalism?
Working definition of equitable models are those that*:
actively redistribute power and transform systems of inequity
create good jobs (provide a living wage of $20/hr+ and stable
hours)
○ are designed to actively contribute and positively impact the
communities they are a part of
○ take into account climate change and adaptation