Matt's Blog

In this next phase of testing the hypothesis, I identified five interview candidates that at simple glance may have fallen under the “prototypical customer” label but upon further conversation I realize that they fall outside the boundaries of what would qualify them as prototypical customers described in my last assignments. In this phase, I interviewed Mason King (5 th year engineer), Jason Shur (5 th year Engineer), Joe Lavoie (3 rd year Political Science), Matt Davis (3 rd year Business), and Alex Idriss (4 th year Construction Management). I have identified the prototypical customer to be a college student at the University of Florida that has a desire and willingness to go to a campus library to complete assignments and other academic tasks. Who: Although these individuals are students at the University of Florida and all of them have demanding coursework that requires studying and completion of assignments, I found that these 5 students do not have t...

            The problem that I decided to select for a potential service/product opportunity is the problem of available seating in the UF campus libraries. Often, I find myself wandering around library hallways for long periods of time attempting to find seating to get my work done. I have spoken to many students and know that a lot of them face similar issues when going to libraries on campus.             The product that I am proposing is an app for iPhones and Android smart phones that utilizes campus library layouts and allows students to input open seating around them, input how much longer they will be in their spot, and even a specific number of seats that are available. Incentives such as point earning for accurate information that earns rewards for local Gainesville businesses is an idea that I have considered in order to keep the app operating a...

1.      Over the last few weeks, I have recognized several problems within communities, society, and the economy, that lead me to believe there are potential market entry solutions for most, if not all, of them. The one that I strongly believe would be a highly-welcomed product/service among the targeted customer base of college students is the idea of an app/software platform that relays open seating information in campus libraries to students.     2.      The Who : College students at the University of Florida, but can be extrapolated to include many different colleges across the country. The What : Students at the University of Florida find it very difficult to find open seating in libraries across campus. Often, a lot of valuable time is wasted by wandering the buildings looking for decent seating because of the large number of students on campus. The Why :   The size and layout of library buildings ...