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.