Interviewing customers No. 3

Interviewing Customers No. 3

The opportunity that I came up with is: an app that allows people to sell or rent their home/apartment/dorm décor. Understand that there are other websites and apps like this such as eBay and craigslist.  However, to make me opportunity better, the idea that I have is to make the app only work for current college students living within a certain radius of the campus. BY doing this you can ensure that you are getting stuff that is close to you and that works for the apartments or dorms that you may live in.

I still believe that the people who should have this unmet need are students that attend college that move from dorms to apartments or vice versa. I believe I need to make a wider selection of people including boys and girls living on and off campus. I think now I should ask questions about how other services have caused problems.

Questions for “customers”:

1.       Have you ever used eBay or amazon?

2.       What problems did you have?

3.       What was the longest you waited to get your package?

4.       How much do you normally pay for shipping?

Outcome:

I found that by changing my question I was able to get better feedback. By figuring out what problems people had with other sites, I am able to eliminate those problems with my site.

 

Week 6 Reading Reflection

I think the biggest surprise of this article is that overall, most businesses don’t understand that competition isn’t just between competitors but rather a broader range of factors. In the article five broad topics are listed but each one goes into greater detail. What I got confused about was a few specific forces such as structure of the company versus how the company is regulated. I am just confused because a lot if the stuff in the article sounds the same; however, porter compares it to one another. If I were to ask him a question it would be how he distinguishes between the different specific factors such as the structure. The only thing I disagree with would be that rivalry is destructive. I understand that too much can be damaging but I do believe that a little bit of rivalry is healthy. It pushes the companies to do better.

Idea Napkin No. 1

Idea Napkin No. 1

1.       I am currently a college student pursuing a degree in general business. My experiences in business including working in merchandise at Walt Disney World and creating a nonprofit organization. If I were to start this business, I believe that it would help me enhance my skills for running a business that is not a non-profit.

2.       My product is an app that allows college students sell, buy, or rent apartment/dorm décor from students who live within a certain radius of the campus.

3.       I am offering this to any college student who is not a commuter but rather lives either on or close to campus.

4.       This app cuts out the uncertainty if whether or not the décor will work in your space, the difficulty of transporting large décor from large distances and time that shipping takes.

5.       What sets this app apart from things such as eBay or craigslist is that it only works for students attending the university.

I believe that all elements fit together except for maybe the first. I am not sure that I am capable of creating such a service or ensuring that the app becomes successful. I also am not very good at describing or going in-depth of certain ideas. I am more of a big picture person. This causing me to overlook small details that may affect the success of the service.