Assignment 4A- Forming an Opportunity Belief

Unmet need: For this assignment, I reviewed my bug list to determine if any of these "bugs" would lead to possible opportunities. One of my bugs was when people do not pick up after their dogs. With this being said, I believe there is an opportunity to have "stations" placed within neighborhoods where pet owners can dispose of the soiled bags, or they can grab a clean one at the station so they can pick up after their dog.

Beginning point:

• What is the unmet need? The unmet need for this problem is the two-prong problem of owners not picking up after their dogs. Besides the debate of "common courtesy," this is also a health issue because there are disease-causing bacteria in the stool that is harmful when it comes into contact with humans and other dogs.
• Who has the need? The people who have this need are pet owners, especially those who walk their dogs daily or have multiple dogs to walk. 
• Where did the need come from? This need always existed. There is no specific solution to this problem.
• What are people doing to meet this need now? I haven't seen a solution for this need in my neighborhood, but I still believe this is an unmet need.
• I am 90 percent certain that this need exists.

Prototypical customer: The prototypical customer is pet owners.

Prototypical customer #1: a woman with two German Shepherds

• What is the exact nature of the need? "People are walking their dogs in our neighborhood, and some do not pick up after their dogs."
• When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? "Most of the time. I walk our dogs twice a day."
• How long have they had the need? "For the past seven months, I noticed it getting worse."
• When did they first become aware of their need? Why? "Within the past seven months. I see people not picking up after their pets, and I noticed more people in our neighborhood moving in with pets. So, the need has become greater. And I recently started walking our dogs into a different part of the neighborhood and saw that there was more dog waste than on the street, so this is a significant problem all around."
• How are they currently addressing their need? "There is none. There is dog waste all over." 
• How satisfied are they with this solution? "Very excited about a possible solution."

Prototypical customer #2: a man who has a Beagle and walks in my neighborhood every morning.

• What is the exact nature of the need? "To keep my community clean from dog waste."
• When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? "When I noticed a lot of dogs not on leashes and owners being very irresponsible."
• How long have they had the need? "Since I moved into my neighborhood three months ago."
• When did they first become aware of their need? Why? "When I took my recycle bin out and encountered a dog running down the street. I noticed it didn't have an owner and a leash, and I saw it pooping on several different lawns, and no one was there to pick it up."
• How are they currently addressing their need? "There isn't anything being done. I didn't know where the dog lived, I wasn't able to notify its owner to pick up after the dog waste, so I'm very disappointed." 
• How satisfied are they with this solution? "There is no solution. I hope to see one put into place rather than punching the owner if I ever saw them or calling the pound and having dogs be taken."

Prototypical customer #3: a woman with three young children who have lived in my neighborhood for two years.

• What is the exact nature of the need? "Well, there are a lot of my neighbors who have a lot of dogs, and they just don't pick up after their waste."
• When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? "All of the time because on my street we don't have sidewalks, and my little girls like to ride their bikes, and unfortunately my little girl ran into dog poop."
• How long have they had the need? "Ever since we moved in two years ago."
• When did they first become aware of their need? Why? "Within the past two years. Well, again like I mentioned before because we don't have sidewalks and most of my neighbors let their dogs run all over. Actually, the dogs are super cute, they're not big dogs, they're little dogs. So they'll come over and play with my girls and they're nice dogs but they're not even on leashes so they get to go all over the street, our lawns, my neighbor's lawns, they're just unattended."
• How are they currently addressing their need? "At this time, my husband shovels the poop and throws it in the bush."
• How satisfied are they with this solution? "I mentioned it to my neighbor and she seemed just as frustrated as I was."

Reflection: Throughout my three interviews, I received similar responses indicating there is a need for my opportunity. This similarity in responses shows that they also experience the same need. What surprised me during my interview with the first prototypical customer was when she described the increase in dog waste in our neighborhood and how this affected her walk with her dogs. I was also surprised by my interview with the second prototypical customer and his level of frustration towards the amount of dog waste in our neighborhood. This response indicates an unmet need in this area.

Summary: After completing my interviews, I still believe that my original opportunity is present. I also think that my new opportunity is just as accurate as when I started based on the information I obtained from my interviews. I firmly believe that entrepreneurs should be willing to "adapt" their opportunities based on customer feedback. Considering customer feedback is a building block to creating a profitable product. If this feedback is not utilized, then the entrepreneur's target audience will not be properly identified and tailored to the product.