Customer Interviews No. 3

For the third series, I aimed for students in the parking lot.
I had them read the business concept that I wrote, and asked them a few follow-up questions. For instance, I asked: "Do you feel like there's a need for on-campus parking?" and "Would this idea/concept help?"

   

Looking back, I think this is something that I think students really want and need. I wasn't really surprised to hear that this is something they'd like to see. It seems like any type of parking that would make the lives' of students easier would help.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

Michael Porter's "The Five Forces that Shape Competitive Strategy" was an interesting read. I also watched his video on Youtube about his article to better understand his message and how he wanted to convey that through his article. 

1. The part that surprised me the most was learning that there are more than just the competition out there that strategists face. The five powers, which are: bargaining power of customers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes and rivalry among competitors seems to break it down into clean sectors of the whole issue.

2. What confused me was how he said the framework of the five powers can help a strategist, or an entrepreneur, keep from getting trapped in a trend, or keep from losing a lot of profit, but can the framework really help you plan for that? I just think the market is always changing, so can you really plan for it?

3. How did you decide on the powers? How would you apply the framework of the business of journalism?

4. I don’t know if he’s right about competition always being the biggest barrier to making a profit or running a successful business. I’m not sure Mr. Porter can identify that in every field, because in the field of newspapers, the biggest barrier is the customer. How do we get them to buy the paper and fund storytelling? Unless of course, we look at the internet as being the biggest competitor… 

Idea Napkin No. 1

Based off of comments and feedback, here are my "napkin" ideas. 

1)    You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

I am a journalist. My skills involve learning the truth by gathering the facts, and making it readable. My skills are also people-skills, because I’m able to ease a conversation in a direction that I need. My aspirations include shining light on the truth, but also making the lives of people easier. My business concept involves creating a sustainable parking lot for students at UF. Sustainability and construction don’t really go hand-in-hand, but I’m determined to create something new and modern that combines them. This business could help improve my life and the lives of others.

2)    What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

I’m offering stress-free parking. The service is still being developed, but basically, it would allow off-campus students the chance to park in a local place, close enough for them to go grab their cars, but they’d ride a kind of tram system that would bring them to campus from the parking lot and vice versa.

3)    Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

I’m offering a way to get to campus. My product will be aimed at college students who don’t want to pay $80 for a one-semester long decal that doesn’t even guarantee them parking. This lot would guarantee parking at a cheaper price. It would only sell the number of decals equivalent to the number of parking spots. If the need is great, algorithms and math would be involved to ensure that anyone who wanted to park there would be able to. I think my customers will all have in common a need to find a haven for their cars, their babies, to go to school.

4)    Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

It’s valuable because we care. Here at Your Next Destination, we care about the needs of students... Because we are students too! We care about your needs, because they’re our needs too. We want you to use our service so we can incorporate them in other places. We want to combine sustainability for growing populations, but also the world. Creating eco-friendly parking spaces would not only be popular, but good.  

5)    What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

We want sustainable parking. Some people would consider that sentence an oxymoron. But that’s our mission, because we care about our futures and yours. We want you to get your education in a timely manner, which means avoiding circling the parking lots for 20 minutes and aggressively stalking people pulling out of spots. We’ve all been there. There’s no shame. But now, if we make this possible, we can all create a less-stressed campus and happier students.