OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and the situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Name and describe your organization.

The organization I have chosen is Starbucks Coffee Company, and more specifically the
Starbucks Innovation Lab, known as the Tryer Center. This location is a sector of the
corporate headquarters that hires Starbucks baristas for extended lenths of time called
Time-Limited Assignments (TLAs) to act as subject matter experts who test prototypes
within projects from differing departments in the company. The testing process is very
intensive and both equipment and procedures are tested by Starbucks partners. Starbucks
Coffee Company’s Tryer Center works closely with the Store Operations team and
Sustainability (to name a few) and uses the feedback from in-store partners to gain
knowledge and insight into their prototypes. The primary goal is to better the lives and
working conditions of employees in stores from a partner perspective. This includes
consideration of environmentalism, inclusivity, application accessibility, labor, and more.

2) Describe your role in the organization (it can be an internal or external role).

My role in the organization was as a Starbucks barista working in the TLA. During my
time as a lab partner, I worked with project managers, program managers, and
implementation specialists. Most of the testing I performed was either on future
equipment to be put in stores, potential store layouts, or UX/UI feedback for different
applications and programs. I also participated in Sprints for specific project teams.

3) Describe the situation, including information you think the will help the reader
understand the most important elements of the situation. (This will require
selectivity: part of the art of case writing is separating the essential facts from the
mass of information that might be included).

The situation I have chosen is the rather complex yet thorough analysis of Starbucks
Coffee Company’s mission in driving sustainability by supporting the use of personal

1
 cups. When I worked at the Tryer Center, I was part of a testing process for a new
prototype to make the use of personal cups both more simplified and more accessible for
customers and baristas alike. I was personally interviewed by Associated Press during
this test and was able to give insight into the perspective and work of the Sustainability
Team and the Lab Team who worked to make the test possible. This does come with two
outlooks, however, because the current waste that Starbucks produces is more than the
environmentalism that it provides. Starbucks’ mission statement regarding sustainability
is to give more than it takes from the environment, and this is one step to completing this
goal by using less plastic, but they are still far from reaching the goal by the projected
date. The Tryer Lab Innovation Center worked on designs for this prototype and follow-
up feedback so that it could be of better use to promote using personal cups throughout
the next several years.

2
 References

Warnick , J. (2019, June 11). Inside the Tryer Center, the Starbucks lab where anything is

possible. Starbucks Stories. https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/inside-the-tryer-

center-the-starbucks-lab-where-anything-is-possible/

Prengaman, P. (2023, September 20). Citing sustainability, Starbucks wants to overhaul its

iconic cup. will customers go along?. Associated Press News.

https://apnews.com/article/starbucks-cup-disposable-sustainable-climate-

5a3a5d7d4a66725f9747cbab23cb586d