4A-Forming An Opportunity Belief

I have a belief that an opportunity might exist with SNAP since you have to plan ahead when you want to order a SNAP or that it can sometimes take a while for it to arrive or to get to their destination.

The unmet need is that people who have to get to the other side of campus for an appointment or a scheduled event after 6:30 p.m. and doesn't want to pay for an uber or doesn't want to walk there which would cause them to leave even earlier, resort to SNAP. SNAP can take a while to come sometimes and even takes longer to get to their destination so it's not the best of solutions. The people who have this need are the students who utilize this service to get across campus. The need has always existed ever since uber and left come around and people need to be picked up at certain times so they can arrive at their destination on time but Uber and Lyft requires money while SNAP is free to students. People and companies such as Uber and Lyft are addressing the need by allowing customers to set up scheduled pickup times that they can set up days ahead. At this point, I believe that 80% that this opportunity exists since students who have appointments would utilize SNAP if you can set up scheduled pickup times since it would be a cheaper alternative then Uber or Lyft.
(The NEED referred to in the questions below is scheduled pickup times from SNAP)

1. Male Freshman student who uses SNAP a lot
• Exact nature of the need: "To ensure that I arrive at places early and on time."
• When do you become aware of the need (Do they experience the need all the time or only sometimes): "I experience it frequently, and I become aware of it whenever I'm running late to something"
• How long have you had the need: " A couple weeks after college started"
• When did they first become aware of the need and why: "I first experienced  the need after a couple weeks into starting college when I was running late for a meeting for a club"
• How are you currently addressing your need? "Waiting for over 20 minutes for the SNAP to arrive."
• How satisfied are you with your solution? "No."
2. Male freshman student who barely uses SNAP and has a car
• Exact nature of the need: "In case of emergency when I'm running late for whatever I have to go to."
• When do you become aware of the need (Do they experience the need all the time or only sometimes): "I only experience it sometimes whenever I use it
• How long have you had the need: "Since college started."
• When did you first become aware of the need and why: "When i first used it and it took a while to arrive."
• How are you currently addressing your need? "I just use my car instead"
• How satisfied are you with your solution? "So freaking satisfied."
3. Male Freshman student who used SNAP a lot in the fall but not anymore.
   • Exact nature of the need: "All i reuire is that i get picked up and dropped off n my destination at a timely manner."
   • When do you become aware of the need (Do they experience the need all the time or only sometimes): "When they don't arrive in a timely manner. I only expereince it sometimes"
   • How long have you had the need: "Since the beginning of the year"
   • When did you first become aware of the need and why: " At the beginning of the year and because the snap took too long to get to the destination,"
   • How are you currently addressing your need? "Not using SNAP anymore"
   • How satisfied are they with their solution? "Pretty satisfied."

Reflection: What I learned about my opportunity is that the problem isn't really about scheduled pickups but more about not having enough SNAP buses around to decrease the waiting and arrival time. Some, however, chose to either stop using the service or just use their car instead.

Summarize: Not much of my original opportunity is still there since the problem is more about the insufficient amount of SNAP buses in the area and less about scheduled pick up times. I believe the new opportunity is more accurate since if the number of SNAP buses increased then the times would decrease and be much faster. Entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback but only if there is a bunch of complaints that reveal the issue. If one customer has a complaint it shouldn't be an issue because that person could just be a negative person so if a whole bunch complain then it's a real issue. Also if you adapt to customer feedback you can keep the customers as you will satisfy them as you adapt.