25A – What’s Next?
Existing Market
I believe my next step is to develop a blueprint of the product with an engineer so we can work out the heater's mechanics.
The first person that I interviewed is in a service club at UF with me. She always carries around a Hydroflask, so I thought she was worth talking to to see if she would ever use my product. she loved the idea, though she was confused about the battery life and replacement of the heater. I explained to her that when the heater goes out on the product, you bring it back to the store you got it to have them put in a new heater. They would take your old heater, fix it up, and then give it to another cup that comes in and is need of a new heater. She told me my next step was refining that concept and figure out the heater's battery life with an engineer.
I talked to one friend about the next steps of the product and she was explaining to me that my next step is to definitely get an online shop/ website. Most college students don't shop in person anymore. Technology is taking over so I agree with her that an online element is going to have to be my next step.
I interview a guy in line at the Hub Chick fil a. He liked the buy one get one system I had implement to benefit the homeless. We got on the subject of hurricane Michael after I told him I was from the Panhandle. He said to further my business, I could definitely reach out to American Red Cross or something to get my product to natural disaster victims, who unfortunately, don't have kitchen access.
I got great feedback on how to move forward with this idea from these interviews. I know the importance of incorporating online aspect to a product, but have never thought to do it for this. Also the interviews assured me that I need to figure out the logistics of the recyclable heater and expand on my segment by reaching out to disaster relief organizations.
New Market
The new market I decided to explore were busy parents/office workers. Though I had only really focused on college students and the homeless before, I still feel like this product could be of value to this segment because they are always on the go and could use this convince in their lives.
I went home for the weekend and went back to visit my old dance teacher. When I was in the lobby waiting for her class to be done, I saw a frantic mom. She was trying to get her son ready for baseball practice and was saying to the secretary that she hoped the dance class ended soon because she had to get her daughter and then grab a fast food dinner before dropping her son off at baseball. I thought about it, there are so many of these kinds of parents that have jobs but have to run their kids from place to place after. While we were both waiting for the class to end, I struck up a conversation. I explained my concept and asked her about it. She loved the convince aspect, adding that it would be perfect for the hectic nights she was going though and it would help her make healthier meals than fast food for her kids. I explained that my usual segment is college students, but asked what I could do to appeal to a parent segment. She brought up that with parents busy schedule, going back and getting the heater recycled every so often might be challenging, but to look into just having a charging port for the heater.
I was at my moms office working on my homework when one of my moms co workers said she was hungry but was way too busy to step away from her desk. I thought this was a perfect opportunity for my product to come into action. I explained my product to her. She was fascinated and said she wouldn't have to keep leaving her desk when she needed food or her coffee got cold. I asked her what I could change to appeal to an office space because I had just been focusing on college students. She told me I should add fold away silverware in the lid to enhance the convince purposes.
I took away a lot from these new market interviews, ideas and concepts I had never thought of. It also allowed me to expand my market and see a glimpse of what the future could be for my product. The charging port was genius. That way recycling heaters won't be as confusing. I had thought of adding silverware, but never truly considered it until the interviewee said it added to the overall attractiveness and usefulness of the product.
I believe my next step is to develop a blueprint of the product with an engineer so we can work out the heater's mechanics.
The first person that I interviewed is in a service club at UF with me. She always carries around a Hydroflask, so I thought she was worth talking to to see if she would ever use my product. she loved the idea, though she was confused about the battery life and replacement of the heater. I explained to her that when the heater goes out on the product, you bring it back to the store you got it to have them put in a new heater. They would take your old heater, fix it up, and then give it to another cup that comes in and is need of a new heater. She told me my next step was refining that concept and figure out the heater's battery life with an engineer.
I talked to one friend about the next steps of the product and she was explaining to me that my next step is to definitely get an online shop/ website. Most college students don't shop in person anymore. Technology is taking over so I agree with her that an online element is going to have to be my next step.
I interview a guy in line at the Hub Chick fil a. He liked the buy one get one system I had implement to benefit the homeless. We got on the subject of hurricane Michael after I told him I was from the Panhandle. He said to further my business, I could definitely reach out to American Red Cross or something to get my product to natural disaster victims, who unfortunately, don't have kitchen access.
I got great feedback on how to move forward with this idea from these interviews. I know the importance of incorporating online aspect to a product, but have never thought to do it for this. Also the interviews assured me that I need to figure out the logistics of the recyclable heater and expand on my segment by reaching out to disaster relief organizations.
New Market
The new market I decided to explore were busy parents/office workers. Though I had only really focused on college students and the homeless before, I still feel like this product could be of value to this segment because they are always on the go and could use this convince in their lives.
I went home for the weekend and went back to visit my old dance teacher. When I was in the lobby waiting for her class to be done, I saw a frantic mom. She was trying to get her son ready for baseball practice and was saying to the secretary that she hoped the dance class ended soon because she had to get her daughter and then grab a fast food dinner before dropping her son off at baseball. I thought about it, there are so many of these kinds of parents that have jobs but have to run their kids from place to place after. While we were both waiting for the class to end, I struck up a conversation. I explained my concept and asked her about it. She loved the convince aspect, adding that it would be perfect for the hectic nights she was going though and it would help her make healthier meals than fast food for her kids. I explained that my usual segment is college students, but asked what I could do to appeal to a parent segment. She brought up that with parents busy schedule, going back and getting the heater recycled every so often might be challenging, but to look into just having a charging port for the heater.
I was at my moms office working on my homework when one of my moms co workers said she was hungry but was way too busy to step away from her desk. I thought this was a perfect opportunity for my product to come into action. I explained my product to her. She was fascinated and said she wouldn't have to keep leaving her desk when she needed food or her coffee got cold. I asked her what I could change to appeal to an office space because I had just been focusing on college students. She told me I should add fold away silverware in the lid to enhance the convince purposes.
I took away a lot from these new market interviews, ideas and concepts I had never thought of. It also allowed me to expand my market and see a glimpse of what the future could be for my product. The charging port was genius. That way recycling heaters won't be as confusing. I had thought of adding silverware, but never truly considered it until the interviewee said it added to the overall attractiveness and usefulness of the product.
Hi Sara;
ReplyDeleteYour post does an excellent job of describing what should be next for your venture. I specifically found interesting your idea of exploring busy parents or office workers as a new market. I think your product can be of great use for this group of people since, as you mention, they are always “on the go.” For the future, keep on developing great ideas. Go Gators!
Great job with your What’s next post. I had a friend who had an idea for a product and went through a process of getting her vision to reality. She hired an engineer to design the product for her and then she had a prototype built. Once the prototype was built, she found a company that could produce a batch for her. Once the batch was built she started selling them from a website and started approaching larger retail stores showing them her product. She was able to get a couple of large box stores to put a display in their stores and start selling her product. It sounds like your product could take a similar journey.
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