Assignment 4--Forming An Opportunity Belief

I believe that there is an opportunity regarding students that don't want to wait in the huge lines at the box office here at UF for their football game day tickets. The unmet need is a desire to get their game day without having to wait in line for them. Those who have the need will be all UF students. I believe that I can provide a service that allows for the delivery of students' tickets right to their doorsteps. The need came from people no longer wanting to wait in line for their tickets, which has been around for a long time. To meet this need right now, they have friends go and pick up their tickets for them with their IDs. I feel that I have a 55% chance of making this work through a website that users purchase the delivery through. The following are chats with some prototypical customers:

1. UF Female Sophomore:

• How often do you go to our home football matches?
• "Pretty often, I go to almost all of them."
• How often do you come to the box office to get your ticket?
• "Only sometimes, I try and get my friends to get mine for me."
• Have you ever had a dispute with friends over who is picking up the tickets?
• "Yeah, actually."
• How would you describe your experiences of picking up your tickets?
• "Pretty unpleasant, for the most part. It's always so hot and crowded, I'd rather have my friends get them for me."

Reflection: Prototypical customers of this sort are likely going to be open to a service similar to the one I have in mind. The sort of customer I am referencing is an undergrad student who regularly attends football matches. 

2. UF Male Junior:

• How often do you go to our home football matches?
• "Every time, I have season tickets."
• How often do you go to the box office to get your ticket?
• "For every match, for me it's part of the tradition. I don't mind going."
• Have you ever had a dispute with friends over who is picking up the tickets?
• "Nope, we all like to go to together."
• How would you describe your experiences of picking up your tickets?
• "Well I wouldn't say it's pleasant but I definitely wouldn't say it's torturous, either. It's alright."

Reflection: Customers like these seem perhaps a little more enthusiastic about picking up their tickets at the box office. However, should the opportunity of a delivery service come there way, I don't feel they'd shy away. 

3. UF Male Graduate Student:

• How often do you go to our home football matches?
• "Only once or twice a year."
• How often do you go to the box office to get your ticket?
• "Every time I decide to go to a game."
• Have you ever had a dispute with friends over who is picking up the tickets?
• "No, I always just go pick up mine."
• How would you describe your experiences of picking up your tickets?
• "Hot and crowded. But that's a given, it's no big deal."

Reflection: These types of customers are not likely to be very receptive of the opportunity at hand, given that they don't often go to games anyway. 

Summary: After speaking to some prototypical customers, I see now that a bit of the opportunity has been lost. I would say that there is around a 30% chance of making this work now, which is likely a more accurate figure than the original. I think that entrepreneurs should definitely adapt their opportunities a decent amount based on customer feedback. Examples of such could be targeting more specific markets, or adjusting a product a bit to fulfill customer needs. Adapting too much can cause the opportunity/product to lose originality, so it's important to find balance.