Interviewing Customers No. 3

The questions I asked during the interview:

1. Do you carry a lot of keys with you?
2. Do they ever annoy you? Do they hurt your leg when they're in your pocket? Are they too bulky? Is it a hassle to find the right key?
3. Would you be willing to buy a product that fixes those annoyances?
4. If it came with a feature that would help you locate your keys if you lost them through an app, would that be an incentive to buy it?
5. How much would you be willing to pay for this kind of product?

From these interviews, I learned that people could really benefit from having a new kind of key chain. People want a more compact, less noisy, and easier way to store their keys. What surprised me the most is how much people are willing to pay for it. Throughout the interviews people said they would pay $10-$20 for the product. I didn't think people would go over $10. Because of these interviews, my thoughts on the product has changed. I'm more confident that this product is a good idea and would actually benefit a lot of people.

Week 6 Reading Reflection

1.) What surprised me the most in the reading was the Airlines were less profitable than Knitting Mills from 1992-2006, with Airlines averaging 5.9% ROIC and Mills 10.5%.

2.) One part of the reading that confused me was the shaping industry structure part. The idea of an industry reshaping itself was not sticking with me.

3.) One question I would ask the author is what he thinks the biggest barrier to entry is for incumbents. He listed 7 but surely there is one that more hindering than the other. Also, I would ask how big of a threat are substitutes. There are five forces that shape industry competition, so much do substitutes effect that.

4.) The thing that I disagree on with the author is on Rivalry. He says that rivalry is especially destructive to profitability if it gravitates solely to price because price competition transfers profits directly from an industry to its customers. I think in the long term rivalry can be beneficial to profitability as it fuels competition to make the better and more affordable products. Rivalry can set which company is the best.

Idea Napkin No.1

1.) I have experience designing apps for student and professional projects. My aspiration is to have a career that is both creatively rewarding and can provide benefits to people. If I were to start this business, this could achieve that aspiration. I would dedicate all my time to designing my key holder product and knowing people are willing to buy it would give me the sense that I'm having a positive impact on society.

2.) My product, KeyBrain, is meant to replace the regular key chain. Having a lot of keys in your pocket can be annoying. They can sit uncomfortably in your pocket, takes up a lot of space, are noisy, and can be a hassle to find the right key when you need it. KeyBrain is a new key holder that is meant to fix all those problems.

3.) This product would be great for individuals who carry a lot of keys around with them all the time, like college students. This would also be great for any organization or business that has a lot of rooms, like a hotel or convention center. Every time I got to a hotel, I see workers who have these huge amount of keys on a small key chain. They always chain them to their belt buckles and have a hard time finding the right keys to every door they need to open.

4.)  The product itself is a small rectangular container that holds and organizes all of your keys. Its compact so it takes up less space in your pocket and is more comfortable, removes the clattering of keys, and makes find the the right key easier. The idea is that you put your keys into the container and when you need to take a key out, there is a knob in the side that slides the key out and back in. Depending on the number of keys you carry, you can have the container hold 5 to 10 keys at a time. So for staff workers at a hotel instead of carry a huge bundle of disorganized keys, you can carry 2 or three KeyBrains that have the keys sorted together.

5.) What sets me apart from everyone else is my determination. No matter how far fetched or impossible something might seem, I'll do my best to things work. What I have that nobody else has is that at my age I have experience with working with professional clients on making a new product from scratch.

I think that all five of these elements fit together well for me. My experience with designing apps gives me some insight on how to develop an idea from the ground up. The product that I'm offering can really benefit a a large demographic of people. The people I listed would care about my product and everyday people could use it as well.Also my core competencies are things that will help me move my business further if I wanted to start it.