Customer Interviews No. 1

The Opportunity:  Creating sound barrier between the walls of dorms to diminish a lot of neighboring sounds which will increase the happiness of annoyed residents and give the dorm better reviews.

Who has this unmet need: Students who live in resident halls


Questions:

• Are you a student here at UF?
• Do you live in a dorm at UF and if so, what are your thoughts so far?
• Can you hear people in other rooms or pipes in the walls? (If yes, how often. If no, move on.)
• Would you like it if the hall had sound barriers in the walls that would diminish the sounds you hear from other rooms, thoughts?
• If not said, ask if they think more people would want to live in that hall?

Talking with customers:

Learned about the Opportunity: The opportunity, to place sound barriers between the walls, will increase the happiness of the resident but it wasn't the biggest issue for people living in dorms.

Learned about interviewing customers: I couldn't remember everything that I was going to say until the few last tries of the interviews. Customers were more likely to tell me other issues for residents, such as themselves, if I asked them more vague question like their thoughts on living in a dorm, for example.

Week 4 Reading Reflection

Entrepreneurship: Theory, Process, Practice

1. One statement that stood out to me was that 'Probability Thinking' is a middling mind-set that tends to hinder the creative process. I do believe hat innovative ideas can come from not thinking of it outcomes, but at the same time it's wise to at least subtlety use this strategy. The author states that probability thinking prohibits one from taking calculated risks but I believe that calculated risks are calculated with probability thinking. 

2. The only thing that would seem a little confusing to me as that the we consider duplication of a product with a slightly different look is innovation. Usually when I think of innovation I think of a new use or new idea; not the same product with a different name.

3. What types of opportunities did you identify when you first considered yourself as an entrepreneur?

Did you fall for any of the misconceptions of innovation?

4. You don't need to eliminate all "muddling mind-sets" in this chapter. A few "muddling mind-set" can lead to innovative ideas and can also lead to fewer bad decisions. Just use those "muddling mind-sets" more subtlety than usual. 

Top 5 World Problems

From my last list about the top ten biggest world problems, I will now pick five of them and list them in order of 'most' to 'least' serious in my opinion. I will also list a ranking of the top five solutions by the possibility of implementation. 

Top Five Problems

1. Global Water Crisis

2. Famine

3. Loss of Biodiversity

4. Peak Oil Production

5. Education 

I ranked this list in order of what was going to help us survive as a human being first and then what was going to contribute in helping us survive as a species and planet to a better future and generations to come. Fixing the problem of water and food shortages keep us alive, while the latter may contribute to our economic problems and others unlisted such as (the possibility of) climate change and poverty.

Top Five Solutions

1. (Education): Following the ways of many other countries and how they keep college cost effective may help with education in the United States; Lowering the cost of attendance and amenities for students so they are more free to learn and have the desire to pursue higher education.  

2. (Peak Oil Production): To avoid a sudden void of energy or mass panic, it would be wise to slowly shift our choices of energy from nonrenewable fossil fuels to renewable, more environmentally friendly sources such as Solar, Wind, and Thermal Energy. 

3. (Loss of Biodiversity): Limiting the loss of biodiversity can be difficult since the process of creation that mankind seeks slowly reaps the land of it resources and in turn different species of animals, both land and marine, will find it harder to live. Implementing more areas that include what was taken in a large area where mankind will not touch to help improve the biodiversity such as making more havens/reserves for endangered animals and artificial reefs to create homes for marine wildlife.

4. (Famine): Researching a new type of soil for plants that wouldn't have to be tended as much as well as genetically creating plants that would serve the same purpose in giving nutrients but use up less water to grow and thrive.

5. (Global Water Crisis): With there initially being a limited amount of freshwater on the Earth and it may be difficult/expensive but worth it to turn seawater into freshwater in large amounts which in turn could helps droughts and thirst. (Although desalinated water contributes to less than half of our needs). The cost of desalination and the energy it takes will further increase it's difficulty.

What makes me believe that my top solution is the most implementable is the fact of it's smaller scale as I jut talk about he education in the United States while the others are more world-wide focused. Changing the cost of college will be lot easier than fixing the loss of biodiversity on our planet and attending to the cost and energy of the global water crisis.