Assignment 15 - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Interview Summary/Evaluation:
I interviewed two sophomore UF students and a friend’s father, who fit in my market segment. I found that the two students valued a balance of quality and price for shoes they use for running and working out. The father I interviewed heavily valued quality above the other factors. It might be worth further dividing my market segment into younger athletes, though it would not be difficult to have users set preferences. The how/where they buy tends to be shopping online first, then in-store for the students. For the older interviewee, he tends to go to a store in-person when his shoes are wearing out. The rightness of the purchase is to them determined by how long the shoes last them and how comfortable they are.

Conclusions:
This segment puts a large amount of value into the comfortability and quality of their shoes. The students that I interviewed did value price and style more than the father I interviewed but are likely willing to compromise if the comfort outweighs those factors. The fact that the students tend to look online at shoes first is more fitting of my market segment because if they had what I am suggesting they could decide to buy then and there. The post-purchase evaluation would be the real test of how well my service worked, if they have good experiences with the application then they are likely to use it again and show it to others.

Assignment 14 - Halfway Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course?

Tenaciousness is defined by persistence and relentlessness; I would say that persistence has been something I have struggled with throughout this course. The assignment schedule for the class is needlessly confusing, due dates at 12 pm on Mondays and Fridays just aren’t good times to have things due with, in my opinion, a poor rationalization of “pretend the due date is Thursday night then”. I had to start setting alarms and reminders to remember to work on the assignments for this class. At this point, I am somewhat used to the deadline, but I still wish the deadline would be pushed to 11:59 pm.

2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

I have felt like giving up a few times in this course. Most of the time it was because I did not have time to complete an assignment. I am taking 15 credits this summer with one of them being summer A statistics and another being summer C Physics 2, both of which have an absurd workload. Finding time to complete work for this class tends to get pushed back to the last priority. Trying to schedule a time for this class has helped with this some but it still takes a lot out of me when so many of the assignments do not feel worthwhile.

3) Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset'?

1. To be tenacious you need to learn what is entailed in your goal, read syllabi, look at assignments early, and stay a bit ahead.

2. I think the ‘tenacious mindset’ is developed through experience and perseverance, keep at your work and you will become more tenacious naturally.

3. Focus is important, remove distractions when working on assignments in order to be more efficient.

 

Assignment 13 - Reading Reflection No. 1

Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

I enjoyed reading this biography of Steve Jobs, in middle school, my dad played listened to the audiobook version of this book when driving to drop me off at school, so it was kind of nostalgic. I was most surprised by the beginning of the book, having listened to the book before, I remembered a lot about him, but I must have missed the parts about his upbringing. I was surprised to learn about his situation, having been adopted and his struggles surrounding that. I kind of find how eccentric he was to be admirable, starting out he seemed to just pursue whatever sounded fun. Walking into a company and demanding work is something next to no one would do or at least not expect to be successful in doing. I think along with his eccentrics came some head-strongness. I think the clearest obstacle was when he was fired from Apple when his vision for the company diverged, though he moved on to Pixar which was later acquired by Disney and eventually made his way back to Apple. Jobs was very competent with technology and how he could use available technology. The first time I listened to the book much of the stuff about how they designed the Apple computers was confusing but this time through after having taking classes that relate to computer hardware they were much more digestible. If I could ask him any two questions, I would like to know how he got over a lot of the mental issues he faced growing up, and how much he thinks his spirituality affected his life. I am sort of interested in learning how different people overcome their mental struggles, mental illness has been a growing problem especially in respect to the current circumstances. There was a weird spirituality movement in the 60s and Jobs seems to have somewhat participated in it, so it would be interesting to hear his retrospective on it. I feel like Jobs's thoughts on this would have varied depending on when he was asked this question, I think in later years he was a bit more serious about his work, but I don’t know if I could reasonably assign a hard position to him.

Assignment 12 - Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Segment:

Broadly 16+ years old (when feet have stopped growing), interested in buying shoes online.

Interview 1:

Interviewed my father who I know has ordered shoes online in the past, he tends to think about buying shoes when it is a necessity. He does a lot of running so he needs to buy shoes more often than the general population. He tends to buy shoes online from brands that he has bought from in the past, and only occasionally must return one. Rather than particularly search for a solution he opts for just assuming the best and adjusting from there.

Interview 2:

Interviewed a friend who attends UF, he tends to order shoes around holidays/shopping season. With a lot of shoes going on sale he will look at deals online but not know if the shoes will fit him. He tends to find shoes that he wants online then go to the retail store and try them on there before buying them.

Interview 3:

Interviewed another UF student, he thinks about ordering shoes when his current pair is worn out or when he sees advertisements for a shoe he likes. When he starts looking at shoes online that is when he realizes the need. He tends to look at the reviews on the product to see what people are saying about the fit of the shoe. He will also Google the shoe to see what he can find, search terms “*name of shoe* fit”, “how well does *name of shoe* fit”, and “*brand of shoe* brand comparison”.

Summary:

There are multiple ways to go about this issue as shown by the interviews. All of them could be made more efficient through my solution. I am unsure what amount of people will go about the solution in what way, though I think most of the people I have interviewed would use my application if it existed, they knew it existed, and it worked well. I think I might have gone a little broader than I was meant to with this segment but I do think people in the segment and most people in general are aware of this problem.

Assignment 11 - Idea Napkin No. 1

1)     You.

-        I am a Junior Computer Science major at UF, my main talents are problem solving and computer literacy. My aspiration is to find something that I enjoy working on and leaves me enough time to learn about whatever, likely unrelated, topics interest me. The role this business would play in my life if I were to start it, would be as a side project at first until it became profitable to work on full time, if it were to become successful enough I would probably sell the business off to a buyer.

2)     What are you offering to the customers?

-        Software as a service, a web/mobile application that helps the user find a well-fitting shoe based on their current shoe or by some user entered data on size and classification of their foot.

3)     Who are you offering it to?

-        People who have a difficult time finding shoes that fit and have struggled with having to return shoes bought online.

4)     Why do they care?

-        Convenience, because more people will be able to find shoes that fit them without traveling to a store, they will be able to save time.

5)     What are your core competencies?

-        I have personal experience with this issue because have difficult feet to find supportive shoes for. I have been to a podiatrist and know him on a somewhat personal level and may be able to consult with him on this. I also have experience working on application development and web development.

I think the 5 elements above fit together well in regards to my business concept. My skills with computers and application development mean I can realistically create an application like this, and I have connections and experience that others may not have. I also am motivated to create this because it solves a problem that I personally face.