Opportunity Belief

1) Beginning Point - I believe that an opportunity exists in addressing the problem with how animals dangerously cross roads in residential areas. 

2) Describe Your Belief - The unmet need that suburban drivers living in residential areas have, is something that deters animals from crossing the street while cars are on the road. This need hasn't always existed, it is the result of urbanization and habitat encroachment. To meet this need now, drivers will either honk their horns (which is disruptive to their neighbors), get out of the car and shoo them away (which is dangerous to the driver), or sometimes the animals can get struck by the car. I am 80% sure this opportunity exists. 

3) Prototypical Customer - A person who drives and lives in a residential area with wildlife. 

4) Interviews

Interview #1:

     In my first interview, I interviewed my Dad. My dad is the person who brought up the problem to me in the first place. In our neighborhood, there is a lake in the center of the community, ducks cross a road to travel to the pond. My dad became aware of the need for a way to deter animals from crossing the street when he told me he saw a duck trying to cross the street was struck by a car. He believes that this has been a problem ever since we moved to South Florida, especially since we live in an area next to the everglades. When ducks do cross the road while he's driving, he either waits for them to cross, tries to drive around them, or honks his horn. He's not happy with the options of dealing with the animals. If he drives around the ducks, he crosses into the oncoming lane of traffic, if he waits he wastes time, and if he honks his horn he can bother other residents. 

Interview #2:

    For my second interview, I interviewed my friend's mom, Carole. When I asked her if she was aware of the problem of animals crossing the road, she told me she didn't think about it too often. She only becomes aware of the need when she is waiting for animals to cross the road. She told me she's not too sure when the problem started for her. Carole told me that her solution was to wait until the animals crossed and the road was clear. She told me that most of the time she is fine with waiting for the animals to cross, but she told me she hopes that others are just as patient or mindful about the animals crossing. 

Interview #3:

    For my last interview, I interviewed my friend Ali. Ali lives in an apartment complex in Gainesville that is located next to a lake. She told me that groups of ducks are always waddling around the parking lots slowly. The day I interviewed her, she told me she had an incident where ducks stood in front of her car, unafraid of the vehicle. She told me the ducks weren't afraid of her car and just stood still in the middle of the road. She told me it was annoying waiting for the group of ducks. When I asked about her method of dealing with the ducks, she told me that she usually wait for the ducks. She is unhappy and annoyed when the situation happens, and she doesn't like waiting for ducks in the parking lot. 

5) Reflect - What I learned about my opportunity is that it is very common for people who live in areas next to lakes or other habitats. Also that this problem is applicable not just to South Florida, but to other parts of the state and perhaps the country. From all of my interviews, the only methods my interviewees told me they had was either: waiting for the animals or honking their car horns. Two of my interviewees were not satisfied with their options with dealing with animals on the road. One of them didn't really care about waiting for the animals, but was still concerned for the animals' safety.

Summary:

I believe that there is still a lot of my original opportunity, however it has shifted from focusing on ducks to maybe different animals and different areas as well. I think that my new opportunity is more accurate as well as more general than it was before. Entrepreneurs have to adapt to their environment and their customers/audience. I think that customer feedback is one of, if not, the most important aspect of developing a product or service. However, I also believe that they have to stay firm in their research that they acquire while developing their product or service.