10A – Elevator Pitch No. 1

https://youtu.be/cJFNmvW_v-o

9A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: 

For this new assignment I interviewed five more young adults that, from my hypothesis in the previous assignment, should fall into the target demographic for my service. These five individuals differed from the previous as they did not express interest in going out or needing to know what was around to be able to plan a night out. Two of the five explained that because of their work schedules and heavy course load, they did not go out and therefore did not see the appeal of using my service. These two represent a portion of the population of younger people that do not express interest in going out because of work or school taking precedence. The other three individuals simply did not find the information provided by the app as useful as they were not concerned with saving money or taking advantage of discounts/offers. 

What: 

            The need that my service is one of a lack of information. The lack of information about prices and discounts of local restaurants and bars. This is a different need than the need to be able to know what a local restaurants customer rating is. While they are both a lack of information, I believe that my services focus more on the monetary aspect while the other need is one for referential information about the business. This was echoed by the individuals I interviewed, as they did not have the monetary need and therefore would fall into the category of people who would be outside of that need and possibly in the other need relating to customer experience rating.

Why:

            The cause of the differing needs comes down to the importance of money. If someone wants to save and takes advantage of discounts, then they would be included within the original need. But if money is not a deciding factor then the appeal of my solution to the need is nonexistent and their needs will probably correspond to other information customer experience rating.

           

Inside the boundary		Outside the boundary
Who	Patrons who are interested in saving money or taking advantage of discounts/offers.	Who	Individuals who do not go out or who do not worry about money when it comes to making a decision.
What	Providing information about local restaurants and bars that are in a specific price range and provide discounts.	What	Providing information that includes customer experience ratings.
Why	Many people choose not to go out because they don’t know what’s out there that is within their budget.	Why	Potential customers not being able to see what other previous patrons have thought of their experience at a particular establishment.

           

8A – Solving The Problem

The solution I have come up with for the problem I posed in assignment 7A is an application/service that uses your current location and the data from local businesses (like restaurants, movie theaters, bars, clubs, museums) and aggregates them and displays them all based on average price and specials/coupons available. The problem of not being able to go out because of a tight budget can be alleviated if users are presented with options in their area that fit into their specific budget or price bracket. The application aggregates the data and will allow the user to manipulate it in order to find affordable options, things nearby, places offering daily specials and businesses that offer student discounts. If consumers are given the ability to see what is out there through data and price comparisons, they are more likely to consider spending their money at a place that is close, affordable and provides discounts. And if more people are able to go out that means more money into the local economy.

7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

The opportunity that I would like to capitalize and peruse is the need to try and provide UF, and college students in general, the ability to find restaurants, bars, and entertainment events that are affordable in their area. Many college students live on a tight budget, so money is always the deciding factor when choosing a place to eat or going to do something fun with your friends after a long week of studies.

Who: College-aged students or anyone trying to go out on a budget

What: Are sometimes unable to go out because of the high prices of restaurants and entertainment venues.

Why: Students especially, live on a tight budget that usually does not have much money set aside for entertainment and going out.

Testing the who: I believe that this problem is not exclusive to college-aged students. Although they are the intended demographic, I believe that this problem exists with anyone that is smart with their money and doesn’t usually spend a lot when they go out to eat or have fun with friends.

Testing the what: Obviously not all restaurants and entertainment options are expensive, but if people were able to more easily see the cheaper options in their area, I think that could fill a need.

Testing the why: I think that obviously not everyone runs a tight budget when it comes to spending money on restaurants or entertainment, but I do think if everyone had the ability to see cheap options around them and save money, they would make an effort to.

For this assignment I interviewed 3 UF students and 2 young adults who are not in college

UF Students:

When I asked them about the “who” element of this opportunity they all agreed that this is something that college-aged people go through any time they try to go out with friends. They explained that whether or not the option is affordable or not can really determine if they decide to go out that weekend or not. One of the students also brought up the point that if he was given the opportunity to know what was out there in his price range, he would have more incentive to go out. The two other students went on to add that the frequency that they would go out would go up if they were able to find more affordable options nearby that would make it possible to afford 2 or 3 weekends in a row versus 1 weekend where they spend a lot of money.

Young adults (non-UF students):

Right from the start both of these individuals expressed interest in a service that would help them choose more affordable entertainment options. Both of them have full time jobs so they both shared similar stories of trying to spend as little as possible on a night out but still trying to have a good time. Even though I explained that my target demographic was college-aged students, they both concurred that even though they were older, had jobs and were not in college, anyone that wants to save a little money when they want to go out could really benefit from a service like this. Lastly, when I brought up the question of what the root of the problem that caused this opportunity to exist, they had differing opinions. While one of them did agree with my idea that it is because people want to save money and entertainment is expensive, the other brought up the idea that people may want to save money but they also don’t go out because the more expensive options have higher visibility versus the more affordable ones.

Summary: After conducting the interviews I was glad to see that my hypothesis was supported by the people my solution was targeting. Seeing that there is an actual need and opportunity makes it an even more compelling proposition and something that should be capitalized. The one thing that I did learn about the opportunity from these interviews was the idea of visibility. If people want to go out and only see expensive options this will obviously discourage them and stop them from going out and spending money in the local economy.