4A – Forming An Opportunity Belief
My Beginning Point: I believe there is a need for campus food delivery.
Describe: It will be a great opportunity if UF employs students on campus to deliver food from the restaurants or dining centers on campus. The fee could be different if it's an order out of campus. Also, it will be awesome if the delivery could be included in the meal plan(maybe pay with flex bucks). The customs would mainly be the people who live on campus especial for those who have a meal plan. I think this is the opportunity that always exists for those who live on campus. If there's not a delivery service he would just make his own food or walk to the dining center.
Customer #1 My roommate Kevin who lives on campus but doesn't have a meal plan.
Interview #1
He doesn't have a great demand for delivery since he doesn't like the food on campus that much. In that case, he would cook his own food instead of buying a meal plan. However, he also said if there is a delivery service he would definitely order some food on campus sometimes. If the delivery fee is about $2(we live in Jennings, so it's only 1 min bike away from Fresh Food Company), it is absolutely a reasonable price and he would like to pay for it. He also thinks that the delivery service probably would encourage more people to buy the meal plan if the delivery fee is included in the plan.
Reflection: I Learned it is probably a doable idea from #1 interview. It really surprised me that the delivery service will encourage him from ordering food from campus even though he doesn't have a meal plan.
Customer #2 Mikey who lives in Jennings and doesn't have a meal plan.
Interview #2
Mikey thinks that the delivery service is not needed for him since he doesn't like the food on campus and the choice is limited. Other places do delivery as well anyway. He would go to the grocery store and make his own meal. It is way cheaper than the meal plan so it doesn't make a difference for him if there is a delivery service.
Reflection: I learned that people don't have a meal plan usually don't eat on campus restaurants for various reasons. In that case, the delivery service will not make a difference for them. It is pretty surprising that the delivery service will not affect him at all.
Customer #3 My roommate Andrew who lives in Jennings and has a meal plan.
Interview #3:
He said he will definitely use the delivery service with a reasonable price if it's included in the meal plan or can be paid with flex bucks. He has realized the problem before, like last week late at night he feels hungry but he already changed his pajamas. He doesn't wanna change and there's no on-campus delivery. So he just had some snakes he had.
Reflection: The surprising thing is I got the same problem with him. I would want some food delivery especial late at night. I learned that people who have a meal plan, it would be a great deal.
Summarize: The thing changed would be the consumer group I targeted before. The delivery service is really not a great need for people who don't have a meal plan. The final idea of my opportunity is to provide delivery service for people who have a meal plan (The delivery fee can be paidwith flex bucks). The new opportunity is definitely more accurate and more doable than what I started. I think an entrepreneur should listen to more feedbacks and adapt the ideas that are commonly motioned.
Describe: It will be a great opportunity if UF employs students on campus to deliver food from the restaurants or dining centers on campus. The fee could be different if it's an order out of campus. Also, it will be awesome if the delivery could be included in the meal plan(maybe pay with flex bucks). The customs would mainly be the people who live on campus especial for those who have a meal plan. I think this is the opportunity that always exists for those who live on campus. If there's not a delivery service he would just make his own food or walk to the dining center.
Customer #1 My roommate Kevin who lives on campus but doesn't have a meal plan.
Interview #1
He doesn't have a great demand for delivery since he doesn't like the food on campus that much. In that case, he would cook his own food instead of buying a meal plan. However, he also said if there is a delivery service he would definitely order some food on campus sometimes. If the delivery fee is about $2(we live in Jennings, so it's only 1 min bike away from Fresh Food Company), it is absolutely a reasonable price and he would like to pay for it. He also thinks that the delivery service probably would encourage more people to buy the meal plan if the delivery fee is included in the plan.
Reflection: I Learned it is probably a doable idea from #1 interview. It really surprised me that the delivery service will encourage him from ordering food from campus even though he doesn't have a meal plan.
Customer #2 Mikey who lives in Jennings and doesn't have a meal plan.
Interview #2
Mikey thinks that the delivery service is not needed for him since he doesn't like the food on campus and the choice is limited. Other places do delivery as well anyway. He would go to the grocery store and make his own meal. It is way cheaper than the meal plan so it doesn't make a difference for him if there is a delivery service.
Reflection: I learned that people don't have a meal plan usually don't eat on campus restaurants for various reasons. In that case, the delivery service will not make a difference for them. It is pretty surprising that the delivery service will not affect him at all.
Customer #3 My roommate Andrew who lives in Jennings and has a meal plan.
Interview #3:
He said he will definitely use the delivery service with a reasonable price if it's included in the meal plan or can be paid with flex bucks. He has realized the problem before, like last week late at night he feels hungry but he already changed his pajamas. He doesn't wanna change and there's no on-campus delivery. So he just had some snakes he had.
Reflection: The surprising thing is I got the same problem with him. I would want some food delivery especial late at night. I learned that people who have a meal plan, it would be a great deal.
Summarize: The thing changed would be the consumer group I targeted before. The delivery service is really not a great need for people who don't have a meal plan. The final idea of my opportunity is to provide delivery service for people who have a meal plan (The delivery fee can be paidwith flex bucks). The new opportunity is definitely more accurate and more doable than what I started. I think an entrepreneur should listen to more feedbacks and adapt the ideas that are commonly motioned.
I think that your idea is very interesting. Although I am not overly confident that this entrepreneurial venture would be successful, I like how you thought it out. You remained flexible with your idea and listened to the feedback you received during the interviews. As you stated, entrepreneurs must listen to the feedback of their prototypical customers and adapt their ideas accordingly.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to see the interview videos, which were supposed to be uploaded in this post. When uploading my videos, I uploaded them using SoundCloud and put the links in my post. My videos were too long to upload directly to the blog post and Madalyn Messner recommended that I upload them that way. Maybe that course of action will also work for you on future assignments requiring video uploads.
Shi,
ReplyDeleteI think this unmet need that you have identified is interesting because we have a lot of food delivery services that cater to Gainesville as a whole, but the University of Florida Campus doesn’t have a delivery service that caters only to campus. It is important for an entrepreneur to be flexible with their ideas, and you were able to do that by identifying and dissecting the unmet need through the interview process and adjusting your opportunity belief based off the feedback you got from the prototypical customers. I think the campus food delivery idea could really work if it is economically feasible for consumers of this idea.
Shi,
ReplyDeleteThe unmet need or "opportunity" you describe is very specific towards a certain audience (those with a meal plan who desire delivery service included in their meal plan purchase). Living on campus, I believe UF attempts to best provide service for students to the best of their ability and creating a delivery service that doesn't charge a set delivery fee may create a problem of being able to run a business and to profit from it.
I think you should maybe go out on the UF campus and interview students that live on campus to see if this even is a prominent, unmet need of students. From my observation, the restaurants available for on-campus students seem to work efficiently, as they aren't too far from the dorms AND most students don't mind paying a delivery fee for restaurant food. Interviewing your roommates as your three potential customers seems to create possible bias and not enough research to come to a solution for your unmet need.
As food delivery service is becoming a highly demanded business, especially in a college town, I think you should research more potential customers, how to start up delivery services, and think of creative alternatives that may not already exist to solve this problem. Your unmet need has potential that you should look into with the mindset of a true entrepreneur.