Assignment 4

Forming An Opportunity Belief 

Our conceptualization of an opportunity tends to change over time. As we act and interact with our surrounding environment, the beliefs we form related to an opportunity change, shift, and recombine in unique ways. This exercise is meant to capture the experience of opportunity conceptualization, which is the development of a belief that an opportunity exists. Opportunity identification can happen instantly (i.e., you notice that a new regulation is going to require firms to hire a lot more CPAs). Other opportunities form over a period of time. This exercise focuses on the latter. It's almost like you're cultivating an "pet opportunity" ...

Here's what you should write in your post:



1) Your beginning point. Do you have a belief, supposition, or feeling that an opportunity exists? This belief may have come from your completion of prior exercises. Only select one belief.



I believe that all students should be given the option to use a carpool service that will allow you to go to the supermarkets every Sunday and Wednesdays of the semester.



2) Describe your belief. Be sure to include a few things. First, what is the unmet need? Second, who has the need? Third, where did the need come from (is it new, or has it always existed)? Four, what are people doing to meet this need now? (These four elements are important -- we'll come back to these.) At this point, how sure are you (say, in percent terms) that this opportunity exists?



The unmet need is the fact that people have to wait for buses and other individuals to be able to go grocery shopping. The need can be for all individuals that live on campus but more specifically, for people who do not have access to a car. This need has always existed, but I never realized it until I saw all of the people who ask for rides to groceries stores in my floor group chat. Currently, students have to wait for their friends to go to the store to tag along or they have to take a bus.



Within this opportunity, I want to offer a service that allows you to use an app to where you can schedule when you need to be picked up to get groceries. The service will charge you $5 upon picking you up and 5 cents for each minute that you are in the store. This service will also give you the option to pay for individuals to take your groceries up to your room.

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This is an opportunity that I feel 100% exists because it can be distributed through an app or website. Students who have a car may not use this service as much, but it can still be beneficial.



3) Identify the prototypical customer.

4) Iteration No. 1: Go talk to a prototypical customer. Ask questions related to the four criteria above. Questions can (should) include: What is the exact nature of the need? When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? How long have they had the need? When did they first become aware of their need? Why? How are they currently addressing their need? How satisfied are they with this solution? (This is not a 30-second interview -- these interviews should be lengthy enough to help you capture rich information.)



I asked three different individuals how they felt if this service was offered to the University of Florida population. Two individuals responded that this need is for college students that live on campus. The third person replied that this service would be great for her because she was a person who lived on the top floor of the residential halls. All of these individuals did not realize that this was a need until their freshman year of college. The demand that they experience is not always lingering in their mind, but it is at least one time a week. Some of the individuals have found out that the need has been around for their three years while in college. The other individuals no longer have the need because they have received or bought themselves a car. Until people have a car, they will continue to ask their counterparts for rides or take the bus.



5) Reflect. What did you learn about your opportunity? What was the most surprising thing you learned about your opportunity? (You may reflect after each iteration or you may simply include a single reflection that captures all three iterations.)



Through these interviews, I have realized that this opportunity is not for everybody. I have also recognized that this service has many advantages that people can utilize. The most surprising thing about this opportunity is to see how many people struggle to make it to the grocery store every week when they want to. These students felt that this was a service they desperately could have used as a Freshman and/or Sophomore but instead had to struggle by cramming their groceries on a city bus.



7) Summarize. It's very likely that your opportunity belief changed between the outset and as a consequence of your customer interactions. Three questions:



How much of your original opportunity is still there?

This opportunity is still wide open. This opportunity can be advantageous to a majority of the people that are first-year students that live on campus.



Do you believe that your new opportunity is more accurate than when you started?

Through my interviews with other people, I feel that I was able to enhance the opportunity that I had in the first place. I was able to realize that this service can be offered to a variety of people outside of just the University of Florida. Students at other universities as well as older individuals who are not in school can also utilize this service.



How much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback? (In other words, is there a trade-off between adapting and staying firm?)


There is a great difference between adapting and staying firm to your idea. If your feedback changes the complete idea and you do not like that, then you should remain firm to what you first envisioned. If customer feedback has caused you to adapt to other options that you did not once think of, then you should choose to adapt to this situation.