30A - Final Reflection

Final Reflection

Most formative experience: The experience I had in this class that has had the most profound impact on me is the pitch video. Learning the key elements of a proper pitch has helped me succeed outside the classroom, specifically in a company I am starting right now.

Experience I'll remember years later: The experience that I think I will remember years later is the venture concepts. Learning how to explain a venture concept and all the elements that make a business successful will be stuck in my mind forever.

Most joyous experience: My most joyous experience from all of my posts is the growing your social capital assignment.

Most proud of: The experience I am most proud of is also the venture concept again. It took me a lot of thought to piece together exactly how I would go about selling a cooling controller and I am proud of myself for it.

I do see myself as an entrepreneur now and I have definitely moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset.

One recommendation I would make to students going down this journey in the future would be to stay on top of due dates and to make sure you fully do every assignment to get the most out of it. To perform best in this course, I recommend you read the instructions carefully and just make sure you take the most out of each assignment. To foster the mindset, I recommend that you take on every assignment like it is a real life business venture.

29A - Venture Concept No. 2

Venture Concept No. 2

After playing video games for 16 years of my life, I recognized there was an untapped opportunity that if correctly exploited could be very profitable. This opportunity arises out of a pain point in gaming and something that has always been a problem, the fact that there is no way to limit the amount of sweat you release on to gaming controllers. Playing video games has always been fun but when you have to wipe off the controller every time you use it or someone passes it to you, it takes away from the phone. The force in the environment that created this opportunity to create a gaming controller with an internal cooling system is the fact that too many people get frustrated from sweaty controllers and no other company has fixed this problem yet. The market is defined demographically rather than geographically. Our target market is basically anyone who plays video games and uses gaming controllers. However, the prototypical consumer for our product tends to be males aged from 10-21. Customers currently attempt to satisfy this need for a way to reduce sweaty controllers by either just wiping off the sweat with their shirt or towel, or they buy controllers that have grips. Although these grips make it easier to hold on to the controller while you sweat, it does not actually limit the amount of sweat there is. They are not very loyal to these grips because it is not that efficient. This opportunity is huge solely because there is such a need for it and no other company has created a controller with an internal cooling system yet. The window of opportunity will be open until someone creates the actual controller.

Our product is a controller with an internal cooling system specifically designed to limit the amount of sweat that gets released from one's hand to the gaming controller. It basically works when the sensor inside the controller senses it is getting overheated and then the cooling system gets to work. By making the cooling system start with a sensor, we are able to save money in production because you can use a smaller battery. We will sell the cooling controllers for 75 dollars.

Our innovation will solve the problem of sweaty hands while playing video games. Customers will definitely switch to this new product because there is currently no product like ours out there. They will easily switch over from using grips to using our product when they hear that our product will completely solve the problem rather than just attempt to make it a little less worse like grips do. There are no direct competitors but companies that put grips on controllers would be the closest competitor. They are very weak and vulnerable because grips just make it easier to hold sweaty controllers, it does not actually make you sweat less. Packaging plays a huge role because the customer should be able to clearly see what our product is and how it works from the packaging. I would rent out a big factory and pay employees to make the product. I would probably need about 50 employees for production. I would need about 25 employees to package the product and then another 25 to distribute the controllers to retailers.

I think my most important resource will be my human capital. My perseverance and hard working nature will make my company successful because I will never give up on my product until it is is successful. It is impossible to match someones personality and that gives us a leg up on competitors.

Our next venture will be to get our technology, the internal cooling system, in to any small device that gets overheated such as iPhones or even computers.

In five years, I want to be the leading gaming controller company and as an entrepreneur, I want to have had started another company in a different segment to diversify my portfolio. This venture helps with my vision because it gives me valuable experience on how to run and start a company.

I received some feedback on my last venture concept that was very helpful. I received feedback from people asking me how it would be possible to have a cooling system inside of a controller without it making it heat up and actually make you sweat even more. We would have to make a system inside the controller with a fan, using technology already developed today like someone told me in one of my feedbacks. This would make it cost less to design the controller as we would not have to spend as much on R & D. This is the only way I would change my venture concept because now we could charge less for the controller and make it more affordable for the average consumer. 

28A - Your Exit Strategy

Your Exit Strategy

1. In 5 years if my business is returning profits of more than 10 million a year, I would protect the venture as a family business and pass it down to my family. However if the business has been mildly successful over the 5 years, I would strongly consider selling it to a larger corporation for a large return so that I do not have to worry about running the daily operations that a business entails.

2. I choose these exit strategies based on the amount of money that the company will have brought in over the 5 year span. If a company is highly profitable, there is no reason to sell it for a lump sum when you can bring in recurring revenue every year for the rest of your life.

3. I do not think my exit strategy has affected how I identify an opportunity. However, it definitely affects the way I plan on acquiring resources and growing the company. I definitely want to put more resources in to the company and grow it as big as possible so that I am bringing in enough profits that I can keep the venture in the family. However if the resources do not help the company grow, I would limit the amount of resources I would acquire and just sell the venture in 5 years. 

27A - Reading Reflection No. 3

Steve Jobs

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

·       What surprised you the most?

·       What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

·       What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

·       Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

What surprised me the most about Jobs was that even though he agreed to have this book written about him, he did not want to have a say in what was said about him and he did not even want to read it. I admire this about Jobs more than anything because it shows he does not want to tell people to think about him in a certain way. He just wants to live life and let people express themselves how they please. He focused Apple around this type of ideology. What I admire least about Jobs is that he focused too much resources on projects that could have never been completed the way he wanted them to be. They were lost causes.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

I noticed that Jobs is hardworking and resilient which are two keys to his success.

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

The part that confused me the most in the book was when he talked about Bob Dylan’s music. I don’t understand the meaning behind this excerpt in the book.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

I would ask how he decided that his role in life was to be someone who would create products that have never been dreamt of before and I would ask him how long he thought of each product before deciding to get a team to work on it.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I think that I have the same opinion of hard work as Jobs and that is that you cannot give up until you have accomplished what you set out to do.

26A - Celebrating Failure

A time I failed this semester, specifically in this class, was when I submitted my first video pitch assignment. I did not read the directions correctly and unfortunately my video pitch was not as good as it should have been. I recorded the video without being dressed professionally and I was not as prepared as I should have been, thus it was a lackluster performance. I then make the second video and although it was better, it was not as good as it could have been.

For the third video, I learned from all of my previous mistakes and I think I made my best version of a video pitch. I dressed professionally and spoke clearly and concisely.

I think I handle failure pretty well because I see it as a learning experience rather than just a plain old failure. This class has helped me realize even more than you should take every failure as an opportunity to learn how to be better. I'd see I am just as likely to take a risk now as I was before this class.

25A - What's Next?

What's Next?

Existing market: The next move for us for our venture is to start making our controllers and to find a production facility that is affordable and spacious enough.
After interviewing three customers who are already part of our identified market, when asked what we should do that we aren't planning on doing, all three people told me that production is the most important thing to focus on which is exactly what I said. Production is the most important part of our venture because this is when the actual product is made. This is also where the profit margins either become big or slim.
In terms of growing in our existing market, the only way to grow more would be to increase production by hiring more people and creating more facilities. Also, we could spend more money on advertising so that we reach more people.

New market: A new market we could target is current gaming companies like Sony and Microsoft instead of targeting the consumer directly. This way, we could sell to them our entire product or just integrate our cooling technology into their current systems to make them better. This would reduce production costs for us and increase our profits. After interviewing two people, it is evident that the cooling technology mixed with established technology from a reputable company is a recipe for success.

I learned that the new market, targeting other companies rather than consumers, is actually very profitable because costs decrease. What surprised me most is how easily other companies could integrate our technology into their systems. This new market is as attractive if not more than our existing market.

24A - Venture Concept No. 1

Venture Concept No. 1

After playing video games for 16 years of my life, I recognized there was an untapped opportunity that if correctly exploited could be very profitable. This opportunity arises out of a pain point in gaming and something that has always been a problem, the fact that there is no way to limit the amount of sweat you release on to gaming controllers. Playing video games has always been fun but when you have to wipe off the controller every time you use it or someone passes it to you, it takes away from the phone. The force in the environment that created this opportunity to create a gaming controller with an internal cooling system is the fact that too many people get frustrated from sweaty controllers and no other company has fixed this problem yet. The market is defined demographically rather than geographically. Our target market is basically anyone who plays video games and uses gaming controllers. However, the prototypical consumer for our product tends to be males aged from 10-21. Customers currently attempt to satisfy this need for a way to reduce sweaty controllers by either just wiping off the sweat with their shirt or towel, or they buy controllers that have grips. Although these grips make it easier to hold on to the controller while you sweat, it does not actually limit the amount of sweat there is. They are not very loyal to these grips because it is not that efficient. This opportunity is huge solely because there is such a need for it and no other company has created a controller with an internal cooling system yet. The window of opportunity will be open until someone creates the actual controller.

Our product is a controller with an internal cooling system specifically designed to limit the amount of sweat that gets released from one's hand to the gaming controller. It basically works when the sensor inside the controller senses it is getting overheated and then the cooling system gets to work. By making the cooling system start with a sensor, we are able to save money in production because you can use a smaller battery. We will sell the cooling controllers for 75 dollars.

Our innovation will solve the problem of sweaty hands while playing video games. Customers will definitely switch to this new product because there is currently no product like ours out there. They will easily switch over from using grips to using our product when they hear that our product will completely solve the problem rather than just attempt to make it a little less worse like grips do. There are no direct competitors but companies that put grips on controllers would be the closest competitor. They are very weak and vulnerable because grips just make it easier to hold sweaty controllers, it does not actually make you sweat less. Packaging plays a huge role because the customer should be able to clearly see what our product is and how it works from the packaging. I would rent out a big factory and pay employees to make the product. I would probably need about 50 employees for production. I would need about 25 employees to package the product and then another 25 to distribute the controllers to retailers.

I think my most important resource will be my human capital. My perseverance and hard working nature will make my company successful because I will never give up on my product until it is is successful. It is impossible to match someones personality and that gives us a leg up on competitors.

Our next venture will be to get our technology, the internal cooling system, in to any small device that gets overheated such as iPhones or even computers.

In five years, I want to be the leading gaming controller company and as an entrepreneur, I want to have had started another company in a different segment to diversify my portfolio. This venture helps with my vision because it gives me valuable experience on how to run and start a company.

23A - Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1. My perseverance
This resource is very specific to me and is very valuable because not all business owners possess the same perseverance as me.
2. My background in gaming
This resource is not very rare but not every business owner has background in what they are selling.
3. Our state of the art internal cooling technology
This resource is rare and valuable because no other company has been able to make a small internal cooling system that can fit inside a controller.
4. Our financial resources
This resource is valuable but not rare because we need money but everyone has money.
5. Our grasp on the target market
This resource Is valuable because you need to know your target market before you spend advertising money.
6. Our understanding of the target market
This resource Is valuable because you need to know your target market before you spend advertising money.
7. Our employees
Our employees are valuable but not rare because they are hardworking and needed but there are plenty of people we could hire.
8. My dedication to success
My personality trait is valuable and rare because I will never stop until I'm successful.
9. My hardworking nature
My personality trait is valuable and rare because I will never stop until I'm successful.
10. My experience meeting with store owners
My experience meeting with store owners in other areas has given me valuable experience with how to convince a store owner to carry a certain product.


Top resource is experience because I have the ability to know how to react in certain situations based on past experiences.

22A - Elevator Pitch No. 3

Watch video here -> Pitch Link

Reflection: I realized that I needed to dress more professionally. I also got feedback that my video should be longer and I should be more enthusiastic. I think all of the feedback I received on my last pitch video were fairly accurate and I acknowledged them so I would be better the next time

Change: I decided to dress more professionally for this video because you have to dress to impress. I also made my pitch a little longer than my other two pitches. Also, I tried to be more enthusiastic for the audience and explain how our product differs from the competitors.

21A - Reading Reflection No. 2

Reading Reflection No. 2

1. The general theme of How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams is that the key to happiness and success in life is for you to look after yourself and your economics before you worry about your friends or family. He claims that if you do not look out for yourself first, you become a burden for your friends and family.

2. The book connected with and enhanced what I have learned in ENT 3003 because the book shows how you need to have a plan and an outline before you achieve a goal and we learn in this class that it is more important to find a problem for a solution then achieve a goal because there has to be a clear need for a product. The book also shows that you should do what you think you are good at because that is where you have the best chance of excelling.

3. I would ask students to talk about which 5 jobs they would sample to see where they feel comfortable enough to task a risk.

4. The one thing I read in this book that differed most from my expectations was that Adams shows that having mediocre skills and knowing how to use them as well as having good networking skills, you can be valuable. I never thought that just having skills that are mediocre could create such a successful career for myself, but Adams shows that you can.

20A - Growing Your Social Capital

Growing Your Social Capital

The first person I am going to talk about fulfills the domain expert area. This person is Brad Gamble and he is my supervisor at The Selling Factory. He co-founded the company, which provides the service that I would like to produce. The Selling Factory helps other companies find prospects and ultimately partake in outbound call and email campaigns. I found this person because he is my boss. We talked about how he came about founding this company and he just asks that I do my job well and help his company succeed. He could help me enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity by providing me with valuable sales experience and connecting me with future employers.

The second person I contacted fulfills the expert area of this assignment. This person is Sasha Bartnovsky and she is a genius at conducting customer research. She works for a major advertising and research agency in New York City and has moved up in the company greatly over the past few years. I found Sasha because she is part of my extended family and I gave her a call to get some feedback about what she thought of my product. She told me ways I could find out who the best target market would be based on my product and in return she just wants me to be successful in life. Including this person in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because she can always help me with research and knowledge in terms of target market and advertising.

The third person I contacted fulfills the important supplier to my industry part of this assignment. This person provides services to other organizations in my industry. They help companies scale their company by providing consulting services. I found this person because they are a friend of my dad and they told me the best way to successfully scale a product or business in the right time frame. This will help me in the future because now I know limitations to businesses and how quickly you can scale a product or company.

This assignment will definitely help me in future networking events because I know have experience reaching out to experts in a field I am interested in. I have never done a networking experience like this before.

17A - Elevator Pitch No. 2

 Elevator Pitch 

Video Link

The feedback that I received on my last pitch video was that I was not active enough with the audience and that I did not explain the benefits of my controller adequately enough.

Thus, for Elevator Pitch No. 2, I decided to be more active with the audience by speaking directly to them and by walking around the room. I also outlined the benefits of my product and why you should get mine compared to the competition.

19A - Idea Napkin No. 2

Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am Reed Sherman and I am a very personable, outgoing individual. I pride myself on being very sociable and easy to work with. I am a business major and I am proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD, and Hubspot. I hope to be able to use my experience that I got from helping businesses grow when I was an intern and create a profitable business model for a cooling gaming controller.

2. I am offering to customers a revolutionary gaming controller that has an internal cooling system, which in turn reduces the amount of sweat and germs spread when people share gaming controllers.

3. I am offering this product to any person who owns a gaming console like an Xbox or a PS4. Specifically, I expect the typical buyer of this product to be generally teenage or a little older than teenage boys. All of these customers have in common the fact that they may use a gaming controller on a daily basis and realize the need for this product. 

4. People will pay money for my product because it will reduce the amount of sweat transferred from one person to another when they share gaming controllers while playing video games. What distinguishes my product from other companies products is that there is currently no other product on the market that has an internal cooling system in the controller. There exists controllers with grip to limit sweat, but no cooling controllers. 

5. What sets my product away from every other is a special cooling system inside of the controller that no other controller has. I set myself apart with my perseverance and willingness to work until I meet my end goal.

I think that all 5 elements mentioned come together to create a strong business model and in turn can be very profitable. There is no other product like mine on the market, which distinguishes us from competitors. I think I have correctly identified the best target market. I also think I can relate to my target market well and can thus predict the best products. I am very perseverant and with a plan and a strong goal in mind, I will definitely make this a successful product.

Feedback memo: I received feedback from a peer that I should include what distinguishes my product from my competitors. Thus, I included in this go around how my product, a controller with a cooling system is different than any other product out there. I stated that there is currently no other company that has made a controller with an internal cooling system. 

18A - Create a custom avatar

Create a Custom Avatar



I attached above my custom avatar. My prototypical customer would usually be younger kids, aged 13-21 who own gaming consoles such as the Xbox or PS4 and play video games on a daily basis. The types of hobbies that my prototypical customer would partake in would include playing video games on their gaming console, playing outside with friends, going to the movies, or anything that a typical teenager would partake in on a daily basis. They would usually not drive because my prototypical customers range from 13-21 and the customers who would be most likely to buy it would probably be the younger ones who have more time to play video games. They would not have children and probably would watch tv shows on Nickelodeon or Disney Channel.

I have in common with my custom avatar the age range as well as hobbies. I used to play video games a lot with friends but I also used to spend just as much time playing sports with friends outside. I do not think this is a coincidence, I think it makes sense that I would target a market that I already know about.

16A - What's Your Secret Sauce?

What's Your Secret Sauce?

1. I think I am a very outgoing individual who is able to make lasting connections very easily. I think I am very goal oriented and makes sure no matter what, the end goal is always reached. I am very thorough, I make sure every step is covered before declaring something finished. I am very good at selling a product to someone and making them aware of the benefits. I am very persistent and do not stop until I reach my end goal.
2.

In this video, my friend Jake highlights how hard working I am. 

In this video, my friend Ty highlights my determination. 

In this video, my friend Lisa mentions my hard working nature. 

In this video, my friend Jason highlights my determination and how I never quit.

In this video, my aunt Debbie mentions my trustworthiness.

3. I think I have a pretty accurate idea of who I am and what type of worker I am. All of my peers and family as well as those I interviewed confirmed that they also see me as a perseverant individual who never gives up with a goal in mind. I would not make any corrections to the list and I think the interviewees are correct about me.

15A- Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Figuring out Buyer Behavior No. 2

For this assignment, I interviewed three new students who are in the primary segment that I targeted. This segment includes mostly male students aged 13-21. For these interviews, I interviewed a 15 year old kid from my neighborhood and then interviewed two 19 year old boys from school. I presented them with a set of alternatives to my cooling controller idea. These alternatives were a set of other controller's that had grip on them. There were three controllers, all different quality of grips and three different prices. When I presented all three alternatives to the people I interviewed, the 15 year old choose the one that cost the most and the two 19 year olds choose the one that cost the least. Of course, the most expensive one was the best quality grip and the least expensive was the worst quality grip. I think price matters the most because the 19 year olds have to use their own money and are on a budget because of college whereas the 15 year old does not care because his parents would probably pay for it. I think quality and price are the most important factors for my customer segment, but price is the most important of the two.

Our segment is more likely to buy online according to who I interviewed. However, I think that if we asked a larger sample, there would be about an equal amount of people who buy in store compared to online. People find it easier to buy online, but I also know that people enjoy going into gaming stores to look around before buying one. People would use cash to buy this because it is not expensive enough to finance.

When asked how they decide if they made the right purchase, the 15 year old said if he performs better at his games then he made the right decision while the two 19 year olds said they never even considered if they made the right decision because it was all they could afford. I think people consider a purchase a bad idea if they find the same product for cheaper somewhere else or because it breaks or is faulty.

I think that in terms of alternative evaluation, my segment focuses primarily on price and always pay with cash or card because a cooling controller is not expensive enough to finance. Post-purchase behavior is typically positive because it is hard to not be happy with a controller.

14A - Halfway Reflection

Halfway Reflection

1. I have developed many behaviors from this class that have helped me at my internship as well as in life in general. These behaviors have also helped me to do well in this class. I have been very attentive to the due dates and I have not missed an assignment yet. I also have made sure to be very careful when doing every assignment to make sure they are all done properly.
2. I had a moment where I thought about giving up when I was interviewing five people for one of the assignments. I was so frustrated that I could not find a fifth person, but knowing I needed to find someone for a good grade, I pushed through and looked for hours and finally found someone. I do feel like I have developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months. I think the experience I just mentioned about finding a fifth person to interview has contributed to this as well as when we had to record a pitch video.
3. Tip 1: If you ever feel like giving up on an assignment, just know you have what it takes and if other people can do it, so can you. Tip 2: To develop a tenacious mindset, make sure you have an end goal in mind for every assignment. Tip 3: Make sure you stay up to date with due dates and submit on time.

Reading Reflection No. 1

Reading Reflection No. 1

I choose to read Shoe Dog, an autobiography of Phil Knight.

1. After reading about Phil Knight, what surprised me the most was the fact that he started his career in the industry by selling shoes that were imported from Japan, not manufactured by himself. I was not aware that Nike started off this way. The thing that I admire the most about Phil Night was the fact he started Nike with just $8,000 in sales in the first year and $25 million in fines but still was able to overcome adversity and create a billion dollar corporation. The thing that I admire least about Phil Knight is the same as what I was surprised about, the fact that he imported his first shoes from Japan. The adversity and failures that Phil Knight encountered only made him want to work harder. As mentioned above, they faced adversity from a $25 million customs fee and also faced lawsuits from Onitsuka and had constant problems with manufacturing and finances as well as failed new shoes.

2. The main competency that noticed Phil Knight exhibits is the characteristic of perseverance. He was able to take a small amount of money and a lot of hard work and dedication and create a billion dollar company.

3. The part of the book that was confusing to me was the part about the lawsuits with Onitsuka. I do not understand why they have a right to sue just because they worked together before.

4. If I were to ask two questions, I would ask when he realized there was an issue that needed to be solved in the shoe industry and I would also ask how he was able to take $8,000 in sales after the first year and turn it into billions years later.

5. I think the entrepreneur has the same opinion as me about hard work, that it is necessary in order to guarantee success. Nothing can be achieved without hard work, as Phil Knight would agree.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

The segment that I choose to interview people in is the segment of kids aged 18-21 that own an Xbox.

After conducting three interviews, one on a freshman who owns an Xbox and two on juniors who own Xbox's, I realized that the need awareness for a cooling gaming controller is very high for people in this specific segment. These three all noted that they become aware of the need for a cooling controller when they are getting a sweaty controller from someone else and have to use their shirt to wipe it clean, often inefficiently.

Also, all three people who I interviewed stated that when they first become aware of the need, they use their shirt to clean the controller, a situation that my product would eliminate. When they would search for it, they would either look for a controller with grip, which helps to limit the amount of sweat spread or they just buy sanitizing wipes to clean off the controllers every time they switch. They do also talk to friends and family about the problem.

This segment is very aware of the need for a way to limit sweat on controllers and my cooling controller solves this problem. They are very receptive to new solutions since grips have not been a sufficient solution. Always open to new information.

Ideal Napkin No. 1

Ideal Napkin No. 1

1. I am Reed Sherman and I am a very personable, outgoing individual. I pride myself on being very sociable and easy to work with. I am a business major and I am proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe XD, and Hubspot. I hope to be able to use my experience that I got from helping businesses grow when I was an intern and create a profitable business model for a cooling gaming controller.

2. I am offering to customers a revolutionary gaming controller that has an internal cooling system, which in turn reduces the amount of sweat and germs spread when people share gaming controllers.

3. I am offering this product to any person who owns a gaming console like an Xbox or a PS4. Specifically, I expect the typical buyer of this product to be generally teenage or a little older than teenage boys.

4. People will pay money for my product because it will reduce the amount of sweat transferred from one person to another when they share gaming controllers while playing video games.

5. What sets my product away from every other is a special cooling system inside of the controller that no other controller has. I set myself apart with my perseverance and willingness to work until I meet my end goal.

I think that all 5 elements mentioned come together to create a strong business model. I think I have correctly identified the best target market. I also think I can relate to my target market well and can thus predict the best products. I am very perseverant and with a plan and a strong goal in mind, I will definitely make this a successful product.

Elevator Pitch

Elevator Pitch

Attached is an elevator pitch for a cooling controller.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Inside the Boundary
Who is in: People who have gaming consoles and hate when they get sweat on their controllers and have to share with their friends
What the need is: to find a solution to constantly having to pass around wet controllers
Why the need exists: because there has yet to be a device made to limit how much someone sweats when they are playing a video game

Outside the Boundary
Who is not: people who do not having gaming consoles, people who do not sweat that much, or people who do not care about sharing sweaty controllers
What the need is not: the need is not to have a grip on a controller because that just helps someone hold on to the controller, it does not limit how much someone sweats
Alternative explanations: outsider's needs may be different because they do not care about how much they sweat and may just want a grip on a controller because it helps you hold on even if you do sweat

After interviewing 5 people who should have the unmet need I have identified, but, for whatever reason, do not, I realized that the main reason people do not have this need for a cooling controller is because they do not think it is worth the extra 50 dollars or however much the new controller would cost. All 5 people, when asked and interviewed, said that they would not want to go out to the store and buy a whole new controller and would just deal with having sweaty controllers. All 5 people interviewed were college students and thus are tight with money, which could be the reason for them not having the need to fulfill the unmet need that I identified. They did say that they would be happier with a cooling controller, but it is not an absolute need and it would not change their gaming experience enough for them to spend a considerable amount of money on a cooling controller. 

Solving the Problem

Solving the Problem


Problem: The problem that I identified in my previous exercises was the problem of gaming controllers lacking cooling systems and thus causing people to sweat profusely and eventually pass germs to someone else when people share the controller.

Solution: My solution to this problem is to create a gaming controller that has an internal cooling system that keeps the controller at the perfect temperature to prevent hands from sweating profusely. These would solve all of the problems concerning passing on sweaty controllers and would thus limit how many germs are passed from one person to the next.

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

I would like to pursue the opportunity of cooling gaming controllers. People all over the world are unable to safely play video games with one another without having to worry about the spreading of germs through hand sweat and it takes too much time to use a sanitized towel to wipe the controller clean every time you want to pass it off to the next person.
Every individual who owns a gaming console would have this need because although grips have been added to some controllers to limit the affect that sweat has on the controller, there has been nothing down to limit how much one sweats on a gaming controller as of yet.
The boundaries of this need extend to all people who having gaming controllers. However, this need could expand to mobile phones that heat up when people play mobile applications and cause them to sweat all over the phone and even break it due to water damage.
The "why" for this need applies to everyone who has a gaming controller that also is unhappy with how sweaty their hands become when playing a game. Then, when passing off the controller to someone else, you are transferring your sweat to them, which transfer germs easier. A cooling controller would limit how much someone sweats and thus limit the transfer of germs, indicating a healthier society. This need is able to be exploited because neither Xbox nor PS4 has released a controller that limits how much someone sweats.
After interviewing 5 people, I have come to the general consensus that there is definitely a need for a cooling controller in the tech community. Every person I interviewed owns some type of gaming console, whether it be the Wii, the Xbox, or the PS4, and they all experience profuse sweaty from their hands during intense games at least once a week. They would be inclined to purchase a cooling controller should one be available to limit how many germs get passed between each person every time they play a game. I now know that there is definitely a need for a cooling controller after conducting my interviews because even the oldest person I interviewed, 24, has a gaming console and is no longer in school but still thinks there is a need.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

Identifying Opportunities in Economic and Regulatory Trends

1. The economic trend of financial markets controlling oil, gas, and food prices is definitely one that presents an opportunity. I found this trend when I was looking online for economic trends in America and came across an article about the top 6 economic trends in America right now. I found this article on a website called The Balance. This information leads me to think an opportunity exists because now that supply and demand have become not as important in terms of controlling prices, commodity traders have more power when it comes to setting prices for oil, gas, and food. The prototypical customer would be any consumer interested in buying/selling oil and gas and obviously every person on the world would be a prototypical customer for food. I think that the opportunity for commodity traders is very easy to exploit because everyone needs oil, gas, and food and if they are able to set prices, they should easily make a lot of money. I think that I saw this as an opportunity when other people did not is because I have experience talking to commodity brokers and know that oil and gas are always in demand and if you can set the price yourself, you're golden.

2. Another economic trend that presents an opportunity is the fact that Baby Boomers are not retiring. I also found this trend on the website The Balance in the same article about the top 6 economic trends in America right now. Due to the Great Recession and retirement crises, the older generation has to stay in the workforce longer because they cannot afford to retire. This leaves less room available for millennials to get typical jobs in the workforce. However, I think this creates an opportunity and opens the door for more millennials to be entrepreneurs and work in more innovative fields where they can work on something they love and make money rather than just work 9-5 everyday and hate your job. I think that this opportunity is fairly hard to exploit because it is not easy to go out and create your own successful business. I think that I see less jobs available due to less retiring baby boomers as an opportunity when most wouldn't because of my mindset for innovation and entrepreneurship. I would much rather work hard and create my own job rather than work for an established company, which makes me see this as an opportunity for millennials rather than a problem.

3. A regulatory trend that I think presents an opportunity is the trend toward more attention and medical coverage for first responders. They have needed extra attention and expanded coverage for things such as PTSD and cancer. Recently, Florida passed a new law that recognizes PTSD as an occupational disease and does not require someone to also have a physical injury to be treated for it. I found this regulatory trend on a website called WorkCompWire in an article titled "4 Current Regulatory Trends and What They Mean for Pharmacy Management". This trend leads me to think an opportunity exists for doctors offices and pharmaceutical companies because now that more first responders can be covered for PTSD and cancers, there will be more opportunity for doctors and pharmacies to make money off of treating these diseases. The prototypical customer would be the first responders suffering from these diseases and I think that this opportunity would be relatively easy to exploit. I think I saw this as an opportunity when others might not because my mom had cancer before and I witnessed first hand how easy it is for doctors and pharmacies to make money off of treating someone who has an illness that requires treatment.

4. Another regulatory trend that I think presents an opportunity is the trend toward legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is now legal for medical purposes in 30 states and the District of Columbia. I found this trend also on the website WorkCompWire in the same article titled "4 Current Regulatory Trends and What They Mean for Pharmacy Management." This information leads me to think an opportunity exists for medical marijuana companies. They can exploit the fact that more and more people want access to medical marijuana and are suffering from conditions that deem them able to use medical marijuana to treat these conditions. The prototypical customer would be any patient suffering from a conditions that deems it allowable to be treated with medical marijuana such as chronic migraines or even eating disorders. I think this opportunity is relatively easy to exploit because of how many people want to use marijuana nowadays. I think I saw this as an opportunity when some may not because my aunt owns a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado so I know how lucrative of a business it could be if managed properly.