It took me a really long time to think of an opportunity. I wanted to think of something student related because that would be the easiest group of people to interview. I was thinking of opportunities when I looked at my textbooks and realized how awful buying textbooks is for a lot of students and how that unmet need could be turned into something positive. Coming up with questions was pretty simple. I still don't have a clear idea of what I want to do with textbooks but I think an app could be a pretty good way to solve the problem. So in my questions I asked people what their experience buying textbooks is like, where they get most of their textbooks, and if they would be interested in an app. I tried not to have any one sided questions and keep it fair in order to get the best results.
After going over the interviews, I discovered that people find the textbook process pretty easy now that everything can be done online but people did complain about the delivery process and pricing. The majority of people either use Amazon, Chegg, or the UF bookstore in order to get the textbooks. People seemed to have an interest in the app because it would be an easier alternative to the Facebook page or buying them online. People did say it would have to connect them to people within their major to make it easier. As for the actual interview process, I found it very frustrating especially since the first seven people I asked said no. I realized I had to change my methods a little bit and ask people that were sitting or standing around rather than people who were walking somewhere. Once I did this, the process became significantly easier.
Dear Matthew,
ReplyDeleteYou certainly tapped into an issue that every college student will have to confront so that was excellent. You'll probably have to talk to more people and identify a specific niche to focus on like textbooks for a specific major or for a certain type of student, etc. The learning you mentioned at the end was excellent; talk to people sitting around versus those who are trying to get somewhere. Take a look at my interviews here http://taleemreflections.blogspot.com/2016/01/customer-interviews-no-1.html. Thanks.
Farrukh
Hey Matthew, I really liked your idea about the app and the overall idea of asking students about textbooks. It was a clever way of finding something everyone had in common because all students have to deal with having to get textbooks at some point or another in their student life. I personally would like to have an application like that because it would make it easier to interact with people from the same major and to sell and/or pass on old textbooks that just sit there gathering dust. I also liked that your idea impacts thousands of thousands of students because it is something all students deal with. Interviewing students that were sitting down or standing around hanging out was a smart move and I am glad it worked out. I encountered a similar problem when asking people passing by for an interview. They would say no or that they were busy, I felt it was best to ask people that looked like they had time to talk or that were sitting down. Here are the links to the interviews I conducted, the first one is the summary and the second one is the videos
ReplyDeletehttp://ent1646.blogspot.com/2016/01/customer-interviews-no-1_31.html
http://ent1646.blogspot.com/2016/01/customer-interviews-no-1.html