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We launched our new website Mid-February, but not after many animated discussions debating content and late nights putting it all together. We were lucky to be working with a great team of coders who had sat beside us six months while we conducted our day to day business. They understood what we were about. (Just one of many benefits CoWorking brings to the table).

But the best coders and designers in the world need content to work with. And that’s where the heavy lifting comes in. This would be version 2.0 of rsfLA’s digital real estate and we needed it to reflect our unique approach. There were many hours spent revising the Mission Statement, generating Case Studies, and organizing Testimonials. But what stumped us most was the landing page. As they say, you never get a second chance at a first impression. How would we differentiate ourselves in a meaningful way, in both design and function?

Many weighed in on this, which is the culture in a CoWorking space, but nothing ever seemed to resonate. What I have found is that if you stick with it, and welcome inspiration on its own schedule, you will often be rewarded. Late one evening my wife and I (who also happens to be one of our lead designers) were sitting in a quiet bar in deep discussion about our site. One of the bigger challenges concerned the dichotomy between the landlord and tenant service line. One cannot exist without the other, but they are two very different audiences, especially when many of your tenant clients are start ups. A major failing of our first site was a design that spoke to both these audiences at one time.

That’s when it came to us. Instead of combining all sections of the website to address both audiences, separate them, right from the start. A napkin and pen were quickly produced and the idea was sketched. I still have that napkin, which if you examine closely, includes the “space matchmaker” theme we used in our Valentine’s Day email announcing our launch. It’s a reminder that the birth of an idea can come anytime, and that it pays to be ready to capture it.