15A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

Upon conducting three more interviews, I have developed a greater understanding of how my app to limit social media usage can be improved to meet the needs of the younger generations. I interviewed my roommate, the president of my fraternity, and a high school senior. 

While interviewing my roommate on how he would purchase my service, I asked if he would rather buy an app on his phone for 99 cents or if he would rather see ads in the app for free.  He claimed that it depends, because he is a very patient person but believes many people dislike having to wait 10 to 15 seconds to watch an ad on their phone to us an app.  The post-purchase evaluation that stuck out to me in his interview was saying how he could get frustrated in paying for an app that restricts his social media usage. If he wanted to go on Instagram to search for a specific post but could not, he would be aggravated that he purchased my app. 

The president of my fraternity gave me great feedback during his interview.  He said that he would not look at the price of the app unless it was outrageous, but the quality of the app is essential.  He claimed that he would want to understand all of the features that the app offers, maybe even go through a tutorial for the first time he opened the app.  He also touched on the fact that the app should be compatible on several different phone models because he does not have the newest iPhone model and when he goes on the app store, there are several apps he cannot download because they are only operable on the newest iPhone model.  

The last person I interviewed is a friend of mine who is a high school senior girl.  She said in her interview that there should be a way to override the lock that the app places on social media apps, allowing her to go back on social media after she is locked out. While in a way this defeats the purpose of the app, she said that making this process to unlock the social media apps could be very long. This would make it to where it doesn’t even seem worth it to unlock social media unless it were for a legitimate reason.  She said this could be solved through watching an extended ad or having to solve a puzzle or equation that is harder than normal. 

After conducting these interviews, I believe I have discovered valuable information that I can incorporate into my app.  The marketing segment of demographics plays a huge role in my service because it is the younger generations that experience the over usage of social media and experience the negative health effects. After speaking with this demographic and getting constructive feedback, I can develop my app to better meet the needs of customers. 

14A Halfway Reflection

1.    In order to stay on top of all the requirements of this course while maintaining a good grade, I would say time-management is crucial.  While this is a 4-credit class, I am taking three other courses that include a heavy workload and it is very important for me to manage my time efficiently.  Making sure to submit the weekly assignments on time, even days in advance, is a great way to stay ahead of the game. 

2.    Recently, I have been overwhelmed with midterm exams and studying, as have most of my peers. There have been define moments where I want to fold and give up, but knowing that all of my friends are undergoing the same stress helps keep me motivated. Another reason for pushing forward is because I know that my immediate sufferings will eventually produce long term success.  Graduating with a degree from the University of Florida is an elite accomplishment, and I understand this will give me a competitive advantage in the future.  For now, I just have to keep my head straight and work hard. I feel that I have definitely developed more of a tenacious mindset after reviewing my progress halfway through the course. 

3.    For students taking this course next semester, I would say that in order to develop tenacity, you need to gain a desire for success, develop a schedule to effectively perform your duties, and have an optimistic mindset.  I believe the most important of these is to have a desire for success.  Without this, nothing can motivate you enough to get through the challenges that prevent you from achieving your goal.  The second most important of these tips is having an optimistic mindset. If you continually fear failure, you will never succeed because failure is inevitable. It's how you respond to failure that sets you apart. 

13A Reading Reflection No. 1

I read the book “Shoe Dog” by Phil Knight, the creator of Nike.  It was very interesting to learn how Phil started his company and all the trials and tribulations he experienced. 

1.    The thing that surprised me the most was that he began his shoe company selling Japanese shoes, not his own.  I always assumed big brands like Nike started up with an entrepreneur creating his/her product in their garage; but Phil was different. I admired most Phil’s unwillingness to fold in and give up, despite the debt and challenges he faced.  I found it astonishing how he would make up random names and store locations on the fly when negotiating with the Japanese. I least admired the fact that he would continually leave his first employee, Jeff Johnson, on read after receiving letters from him every day asking for advice and encouragement. When Phil was faced with the letter from the Marlboro Man regarding selling Tigers in America, Phil jumped on the next plane to Japan to try and negotiate with Onitsuka, which I found very inspirational.

2.    I noticed that Phil exhibited several competencies, including his ability to trust that everything would work out in the end and take risks.  After graduating college and serving in the military for a few years, he asked his dad for a loan so he could travel the world to discover new cultures and pitch his Crazy Ideato the Japanese.  His willingness to venture off without knowing whether the company in Japan would even see him is very brave. 

3.    One part that I am confused about from the reading is when he returned to work for his accounting firm, Price Waterhouse.  He said that he took 2 weeks off to focus on his shoe company, but didn’t discuss how or when he returned to the accounting firm. He simply mentioned the firm in the following chapter, and the chapters go by years. 

4.    I would ask how he opened up his store on the East Coast because he claimed that he was in debt when he had the idea but somehow managed to move an employee out there. Another question I would ask is where his friend Carter is, who he originally began his trip around the world with but ended up staying in Hawaii with a girl he found. 

5.    Phil expressed hard work in several aspects of his life. His hard work got him to be a runner for the University of Oregon and get his CPA and be an accountant for a top eight accounting firm in the US while starting his shoe company.  While I consider myself heavily involved with organizations here at UF and believe I work hard in the classroom, my devotion to these things is nowhere near Phil Knight’s devotion to the success of his shoe company. His opinion of hard work, if I had to guess, would be to not give up even in the darkest of circumstances, and I hold this opinion too. 

12A Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No.1

1.    The marketing segment that best fits with my opportunity is the demographic segment. Most social media users are younger generations that have grown up with Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook being heavily influenced as a social norm.  Consequently, most adults grew up without social media present and therefore either don’t use it at all or barely use it.  

2-4.  Interviews:

·      I first interviewed my 22-year-old brother who is a senior at the University of Florida. He claims to use social media - Twitter especially - for several hours a day.  After speaking with him about his habits, he finds himself constantly trying to refrain from using Twitter but often fails. When trying to overcome his problem, my brother turns off his notifications.  This works for a little while but does not prevent him from opening his phone to see what is going on in the social media world.

·     My next interviewee is my friend’s 11-year-old brother.  He reports using social media all of the time, even in school where phones are not permitted.  He says that whenever he receives notifications from Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram, he immediately opens his phone to check these notifications. While he uses social media quite frequently, he doesn’t comprehend that it is bad for him or that he is wasting time.  Because he is so young, he has grown up with social media always being a part of his life and never seen it negatively affect one of his peers. 

·     My final interviewee is a family friend of mine who recently graduated from college and is now living in New York City.  She revealed that she sues social media daily, but mostly after work.  She claims to be very busy at work and does not have the time to scroll through her Instagram feed until she gets home at night.  Because she finds herself only going on social media at night, she is not overusing during the day. However, to make up for lost time, she continually finds herself up late at night in bed because she is stuck on social media.  To combat this, she tries to make sure her phone is off by 10pm. 

5.  After speaking with these three people, I have confirmed that the unmet need for my app is present.  The younger generations of people are inclined to the overuse of social media because it is so heavily promoted and readily available in the palm of one’s hand. 

6.  In terms of the demographic segment, the need is primarily found among people 2 years old to 30 years old.  This is the age gap in which I have discovered the most people use social media daily.  While young adults understand the severity of overusing social media, adolescents do not grasp the big picture.  

11A Idea Napkin No. 1

1.    My name is Adam Cook and I am a Sophomore at the University of Florida studying Construction Management.  I have experience in the field of construction through an internship last summer working for a small residential construction company.  My goal is to be a project manager for a construction company in the Southeast United States.

2.    I am offering the ability for people to restrict their overuse of social media.  The app I develop will incorporate a lock setting which will disable people from going on social media after a certain amount of time spent on these platforms each day expires.  I also want to include a setting that prohibits all notifications from these platforms. 

3.    This app will be focused on people who use social media. Whether they use it for several hours each day or merely once every few days, people can continue to reduce their social media usage.  

4.    Many people aim to reduce the amount of time spent on social media but do not develop the self-control to do such a thing.  Other people may not even be aware of the negative effects it has on us.  I believe that once people begin to use the app, word will spread and through advertisements, the app will gain popularity. 

5.    I understand that the new iOS update for the iPhone includes a setting that informs people of how much time they spend on specific apps; however, this feature does not prevent people from staying on social media.  The main difference between this and my app is that my app will not allow one to go on social media after spending their allotted time on that platform. 

After reviewing these five elements of my business, I have recognized that my opportunity does not match up with my goals as a project manager for a construction firm.  While I did only recognize this unmet need because of this course, my goals could transform to incorporate this business idea.  

10A Elevator Pitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS3zMCJ5uI0&feature=youtu.be

9A Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Who: The people who fall outside of the boundary for my opportunity are those that do not use social media as well as those that use social media but very rarely.  After conducting interviews, I found that those who do not use social media would not need an app that regulates their usage of these platforms.  Also, those that do not use social media very much would not go above the time usage on social media.  

What: According to my interviews, there are a few things that I can change about my app to limit people’s usage of social media.  In order to get people to use my app, I could develop an incentive system where people receive rewards for spending less than a certain amount of time on social media. 

Why: The reason for creating an app to reduce the time spent on social media platforms remains constant. 

	Inside Boundary	Outside Boundary
Who	People who use social media more than they would like to	Those who do not use social media at all or do not feel they use social media too much
What	Help reduce the use of social media	Do not find themselves on social media very often or at all
Why	Social media can cause mental health problems and can be a large waste of time	They do not have the desire to scroll through their feeds to see what their friends are doing

8A - Solving the Problem

My opportunity is the problem of people overusing social media.  In order to solve this, I could make an app that is connected to all social media platforms on one’s phone.  You can select settings in this app that prevent you from using a specific social media platform such as Twitter or Instagram for more than an allotted amount of time in a day.  For example, if you select the setting to only allow you to go on Facebook for 1.5 hours a day, after you have been on Facebook for 1.5 hours during a day, you will not be able to open up Facebook until the next day.  This can help prevent people from habitually opening up these platforms. 

To combat the negative health effects of social media, the app will turn off all notifications from every platform.  This will prevent people from being reminded that they have received a “like” or that one of their friends has posted a new picture.  Taking away this notification will decrease the likelihood of people going on social media because they will not be constantly reminded about it.  I understand you can turn off these notifications through the settings in your phone, but I have attempted to do this and still receive notifications after turning them off. This app will ensure that no notifications will appear on your phone.  Also, you have to go into each app’s settings to edit the notification status for which ones you want to see/don’t want to see.  This app will skip all of that and turn off all notifications for every app in one step.

7A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Social media has become a huge part of people’s daily lives.  This can be positive for globalization and connecting people who were previously not connected, but the overuse of social media can lead to negative effects.  

·     The who:  People who use social media frequently. 

·     The what: They are overusing social media which can lead to a waste of time as well as negatively affect their mental health.

·     The why:  When on social media, people continue to find new posts and want to continue to read and scroll through their feeds, causing them to be on it way longer than intended.  

·     Testing the who: People all over the globe are using social media more and more as technology continues to advance. 

·     Testing the what:  The boundaries of the need might include people who just thoroughly enjoy using social media and it does not negatively affect their mental health. 

·     Testing the why: Everyone who overuses social media can relate to experiencing lost time or the feeling of missing out because they see their friends doing fun things on social media. 

1.    I first interviewed my older brother, who is a senior at the University of Florida. After speaking with him, he claimed to use social media several times a day.  His reasoning was because he has done it for so long, his natural instinct is to go on his phone and check Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter to see what his friends are up to.  He said he does not recognize any negative health affects but does believe he wastes a lot of his time on social media.

2.   My next interviewee was my friend’s roommate who is a girl and always complains about her social media addiction.  She claims that she finds herself comparing her life to those on her feed of Instagram, which can lead to a loss of self-confidence.  

3.    I then interviewed my roommate, who is constantly on his phone looking at Twitter and Instagram.  After speaking with him, I discovered that his reason for being on social media so much is because he will look at one post that he finds interesting, then a link to another post similar to that one will appear, and he will follow this trap for up to 30 minutes scrolling through meaningless posts.  While he enjoys looking at these cool/funny posts, he soon realizes that he has wasted a portion of his day that could have been put to much better use.

4.    I also interviewed my mom, because she has social media but did not grow up with it like my generation has.  She says that because she did not grow up with social media being a major part of her life, she has no problem going on Facebook for a short period just to check up on her friends.  This represents a healthy social media usage. 

5.   Lastly, I interviewed my friend who is a girl my age.  She says that she can recognize when she has been on social media for too long, but sometimes does not gain the self-control to put it away. She also said that many times it is just second nature for her to pick up her phone and go on Instagram without even consciously realizing it. 

After interviewing these five people, I have found things that are new and confirm my hypothesis. I found that many people go on social media as more of a habit than anything else, leading to a large waste of time.  I also found that people compare themselves to those on their feed and this is where the health concerns come in to play.