Title: Restaurant Business Adaptation. Post-pandemic Scenarios. Subtitle: Case Kupittaa

The topic of this Master’s thesis is to study and theoretically develop services of the Kupittaa area lunch restaurants through service design methods by utilizing a design thinking approach in order to design a restaurant concept in Kupittaa for the post-pandemic society. The first aim of this thesis was to study current services and customer flow of selected restaurants in the Kupittaa area. The second aim was to develop a set of scenarios for a post-pandemic restaurant business and make suggestions for further development. The research methods which were used to reach these aims are a combination of future studies research methods and tools such as future scenarios, including Dystopia, Utopia and Business as Usual which are based on the SWOT and PESTEL -analyses combined with trends and weak signals. General research methods also used in this thesis were netnography, benchmarking, brainstorming, semi-structured interviews, survey and document analysis. In order for research to be complete, the following service design methods were used: service blueprint, observation, mystery shopping, personas and mood board. References from Stickdorn, M. (et. al. 2018); Curedale, M. (2013); Miettinen, S. (2013) and Tuulaniemi, J. (2011), were used to describe relevant theory on design thinking, service design, and various service design methods. Netnographic sources, such as relevant journals, newspapers, magazines, and online articles were used to depict the most recent situation in the restaurant industry. The results of this thesis can be applied for further research or business development in the post-pandemic future by hospitality marketing and management scholars, restaurant industry professionals and other dedicated stakeholders