Forming an Opportunity Belief

Forming an Opportunity Belief

1) Beginning Point: What belief, supposition, or feeling do you have that an opportunity exists? This belief may have come from your completion of prior exercises.  

This opportunity comes directly from my “Bug List” post (#10), where my roommates (five in total including me) are not collaborating to clean the house. It is a sensitive subject because you must realize that you are living with these people for an entire year, so constantly pushing them to clean may not preserve the positive relationships roommates desire.

2) Describe Your Belief: What is the unmet need? Who has the need? Where did the need come from (is it new, or has it always existed)? What are people doing to meet this need now? At this point, how sure are you (in percent terms) that this opportunity exists?

The unmet need is efficient and balanced teamwork among roommates, as to least maintain a relatively clean house. What I have noticed thus far is that something will not get cleaned unless it is an actual problem (such as our dishwasher that was leaking water all over the kitchen), or if a roommate gets fed up and decides to clean the particular mess – which is my mentality if no one else pitches in to help. To my roommates, it does not appear that they share this feeling of an unmet need, though it is obvious that this need applies to all of us. Furthermore, I would rather have a somewhat tidy kitchen and living room if I invite some friends over – especially new friends.

This need comes from the opposing personalities, background, and lack of communication between my roommates. This problem has not always existed, as we have only been living with each other for about three weeks in total. If the need is not settled soon, it will accumulate into more serious disputes where no roommate wants to contribute. It is here where this unmet need is applicable to so many people around the world living with roommates, college students or not. In reality, it is more of an epidemic of human behavior than a small, easily fixable bug.

Currently, I am slowly and peacefully trying to get all my roommates to help. Admittedly, two of my roommates do cooperate, though only on occasion or random acts of cleaning sprees. Since our hectic schedules often do not align, it is difficult to get together and discuss tackling this unmet need unless we commit to doing so. In summary, there is not much we are doing to meet this need. After completing this assignment, hopefully I can improve how to approach and resolve this delicate issue.

At this point, I am 99% sure this problem exists in my house and 85% sure it exists outside of my house (other University of Florida students).

3) Identify Prototypical Customer:

The prototypical customer for this unmet need is not every person living with roommates (too large a sample pool), though rather University of Florida students who live with roommates, on or off-campus.

4) Customer Interviews: Go talk to a prototypical customer. Ask questions related to the four criteria above. Questions can (should) include: What is the exact nature of the need? When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? How long have they had the need? When did they first become aware of their need? Why? How are they currently addressing their need? How satisfied are they with this solution?

Interview 1:

Daniela Lamastus; Junior, University of Florida, Business

1. What do you feel is the exact nature of this need – why does this need exist?

Daniela: “It exists because like you said, they come from different backgrounds, lack of communication, um… For one, are you guys all guys?”

Me: “Yeah”

Daniela: “The problem with men is that you guys don’t really bring it all out there, you kind of just avoid the problem… you’re not really going at it head-on. So, I think that the nature of the problem might be males? But I don’t have a problem with my roommate. My roommates a female and she’s great. But, it’s also her personality. She’s one to keep clean in the common room, (her room may not be nice, but neither is mine). But with guys, you guys don’t really vocalize that. You don’t sit out there saying, ‘alright guys let’s keep the common room clean-’”

Me: “Why do you feel that?”

Daniela: “Um, because you guys avoid confrontation – unless it’s physical confrontation.”

2. When did you become aware of the need – that is, did you experience the need all at the same time or only sometimes?

Daniela: “I think that this kind of need would build up over time, you would see it once and probably disregard it, then you see it again and you’re like ‘okay,’ you notice it. Then the third time you’re like it’s starting to bug – it’s becoming a bug. And if it consistently keeps happening, it’s just, you have to do something about it.

3. How long have you had the need?

Daniela: “Actually I had, when I studied abroad earlier this year [Spain], I had ten roommates [in one apartment]. So, this is actually pretty applicable to me now that I’m thinking about it. Um, the problem became – we all became aware of the problem a week after being there because we were eleven people living in one apartment. You kind of become aware of it pretty quickly when the kitchen is a disaster, and the plates start piling up, and you see certain individuals are taking the responsibility. I was one of those individuals.”

Me: “That’s pretty much me at my house.”

Daniela: “See! So right now, in, like comparison to like the ratios and stuff, if it was just four of us there probably would have been like one person that would have taken the responsibility. Which was the case for many – many other of my friends who were in the program. It came about within the first couple of weeks just because we started realizing that I was doing the dishes. I’m pretty sure my roommates took out the trash maybe twice the entire time I was there… I took out the trash almost every single time. It just got annoying because I remember getting home one weekend from Madrid, I cleaned before I left, got home from Madrid, and it was Super Bowl Sunday. So, my roommates were all making little appetizers, snacks, whatever… I get home and one, I hear screaming the moment I walk in and I’m like “oh my God.’ So I walk in and I see grey, black skid marks all over the kitchen floor, I see that the dishes are piled up, there is shit everywhere, there’s food everywhere! I’m just super annoyed…”

Me: “No yeah, I can believe you, just maybe not to that extent.”

4. When did you first become aware of this need? Why?

Answered in the response above; within the first week.

5. How are you currently addressing the need?

Me: “How did you address the need in Spain with all of your roommates?”

Daniela: “We all, okay so… We all called like [an] apartment meeting and we had a group Snapchat, so we were like ‘hey guys we need to meet this afternoon or whenever you can-’”

Me: “Was it you that sent out that text?”

Daniela: “It was me and my three other roommates, because we were realizing that we had to keep washing the dishes, we had to keep cleaning the floors, I was the one mopping all the time, I bought the floor cleaner, I bought the laundry detergent, dish soap, sponges… It was just a lot. But we addressed it by coming together. We had to come together every couple weeks because this problem always kept coming up… I just stopped eating in the kitchen. I just started eating out for the rest of the time, I cleaned my dishes immediately when I used them… so I knew that it wasn’t me. There were those people who were like ‘oh we clean, we clean-’”

Me: “How did you address those people?”

Daniela: “You call them out. You call them straight out. My roommate was one of those people and she, she was a model… she thought she could get away with her looks. And kind of just finesse her way basically. So, I would clean everything for her… because well one, we went to high school together and she was like one of my first best friends. And I told her ‘dude, I know you’re one of the people that doesn’t clean the dishes, I see you, I wash your dishes, and if I don’t wash your dishes they stay there. You eat late at night and then you just leave the dishes there because you’re too lazy to clean it for God knows what…’ So, I kept telling her that, and I told the other people that too. So, what you have to do is confront them – because if you don’t, you don’t approach them with the problem, they’re just going to continue to do it.”

6. How satisfied are you with the results or solution?

Daniela: “I was happy temporarily and then I was mad again because it kept happening. But then, towards the end, everything just went to shit and I wasn’t happy honestly. I was unsatisfied, they broke my ceramic Valencia, Spain spatula placeholder when I went to clean the kitchen… I was completely unsatisfied, and you need to find a solution to this problem! There was no solution.”

Reflection: Daniela, who was by far the most informational of the three interviews, brought up some great insights regarding how she believed it was a male-to-male issue. In comparison to the other two interviews, both male, who did not view the unmet as a male-to-male relationship issue. Also, I was surprised with the amount of effort she went through to keep an apartment with ten roommates clean, the majority of whom did not contribute to keeping the common area clean. Furthermore, she kept repeating how crucial it was to take initative and call out roommates when an issue begins, before it becomes your problem.

Interview 2:

Lance Curtis; Junior, University of Florida, Construction Management

1. What do you feel is the exact nature of this need – why does this need exist?

Lance: “Laziness. Basically, a generation of super lazy people who are dependent on other people to do their own stuff. Even things like simple tasks.”

2. When did you become aware of the need – that is, did you experience the need all at the same time or only sometimes?

Lance: “Yeah it was every day.”

Evan: “Explain.”

Lance: “Apartment wasn’t clean, mountain of dishes… I had a problem where I would only use my air fryer and I couldn’t even use my air fryer because there was a pile of dishes. Everything smelled. The only thing that smelled good in that apartment was my room. So yeah, every day was a problem.”

3. How long have you had the need?

Lance: “The entire time I was there [sophomore year]. Even leaving, like moving out, that was still a problem.”

4. When did you first become aware of this need? 

Lance: “I mean I had problems when I was little too because all of my friends didn’t do chores, so I can imagine that led to them coming here and expecting other people to do it for them. And after about a week of moving – and my dorm wasn’t that bad [freshman year]. But, moving into my apartment [sophomore year] you had more of the freedom, you don’t have someone cleaning your bathroom, you don’t have someone doing stuff for you. So, it’s just laziness… and I mean understand that if you’re having exams and studying that you don’t clean but, if you do use a dish and don’t wash it later on, it just piles up and piles up. And then you expect other people to do it when it’s your own mess, like it’s pretty disrespectful to everybody.”

Me: “So basically you’d say it was a problem within the first week?” 

Lance: “Yeah, within the first week.”

5. How are you currently addressing or have addressed the need?

Lance: “We had a group chat. We definitely tried to communicate through there. Always sending random messages like ‘yo, there’s a huge pile of dishes, you gotta clean your mess.’ But also, whenever my two other roommates were there, it was like ‘yo you know there’s a huge pile of dishes you haven’t cleaned, clean your shit.’ And, even to that point, it still didn’t work.”

Me: “So did it work?”
Lance: “Every once in a while.”

Me: “So when you guys hit that brick wall, what would you guys do?”

Lance: “It got to the point where I would just get pissed and clean it myself. It’s bad because you have people coming in from out of town and your apartment’s a mess. Nobody really gave a shit that it was a mess.” 

6. How satisfied are you with the results or solution?

Lance: “Yeah that situation [sophomore year] was never resolved. Even till the day I moved out it was a problem. Like the fridge was disgusting. In the fridge we had it separated by row, and their row was just fucking gross. It had like tar everywhere.”

Reflection: Overall, Lance’s analysis on his challenges of living with roommates did not stand out to me as much as Daniela’s, for Lance and I agree that the root of this unmet need is poor or lacking communication. In addition, I learned that this bug can be a generational issue as well – something I had not considered before the interview process.

Interview 3:

Alex von Hilsheimer; University of Florida, Graduate Business

1. What do you feel is the exact nature of this need – why does this need exist?

Alex: “Alright well I feel that a lot of roommates, with a lot of people in one area and it becomes hard for everyone to magically work together to clean the kitchen. I think it’s more of a problem with the more people you have living with you, your cabinets become full more easily kind of shit. And yeah, I’d say it’s definitely a problem.”

Me: “But why do you think this problem exists?”

Alex: “Just lack of communication and some people and some people are just not as good or respectful, to be blatant, as other people.”

2. When did you become aware of the need – that is, did you experience the need all at the same time or only sometimes?

Alex: “Well I’d say like here, I’d say I got pretty lucky with my roommates, like I think everyone is pretty respectful. But I’ve heard of horror stories of people not being good roommates, and not cleaning up their stuff, dishes… So, just sometimes. Like it’s hard to clean my dishes with a sink full of other dishes and stuff. I think that’s the biggest thing for me is the dishes in the sink. And then sometimes stuff in the fridge will get moved… When you’re living with somebody you’re going to experience that need at some point because it’s just inevitable living with someone. You like the thermostat at 72 degrees and your roommates likes it at 75, that’s the problem.”

3. How long have you had the need?

Alex: “I feel like for me, more than most people, I haven’t had issues. But there’s definitely like small issues we’ve had in the past. Like, I used his [Alex’s roommate] measuring cups for water instead of food, stuff like that. I disorganized his spices. So, stuff like that.”

4. When did you first become aware of this need? 

Alex: “When I came to college because that’s the first time I had a roommate.”

5. How are you currently addressing or have addressed the need?

Alex: “Well I think the best way to address the need is communication. You know, people like to be passive aggressive, but you have to tell people ‘do this, do this.’ If you have an issue, say it. It might be uncomfortable but sometimes you have to deal with those uncomfortable situations.”

Me: “When you were open like that, how did your roommates respond to that?”

Alex: “Most of the time it’s like, ‘okay I’ll do it.’ But one time in particular it was a big issue.”

6. How satisfied are you with the results or solution?

Alex: “I’d say I’m satisfied most of the time with how my roommates have reacted in the past.”

Reflection: After completing my third interview with Alex, I noticed that every problem with their roommates is contained within the kitchen, except for when Alex mentioned air conditioning. With Alex, who appeared to be very honest about how he felt with this unmet need, he also recognized that small mistakes are inevitable and cannot be prevented. Furthermore, I have to recall how sensitive this unmet need is and make note that some disputes are not worth fighting for – mistakes are a natural part of natural human behavior.

7) Summarize. It's very likely that your opportunity belief changed between the outset and as a consequence of your customer interactions. Three questions: (1) How much of your original opportunity is still there? (2) Do you believe that your new opportunity is more accurate than when you started? (3) How much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback? (In other words, is there a trade-off between adapting and staying firm?)

Of my original opportunity, the majority of my opportunity is still there. Although the interviewed students are living well with their current roommates, they have all experienced grievance, anger, frustration, and annoyance in different capacities with this bug. Thus, I believe the unmet customer need of roommates not collaborating is still a viable and applicable opportunity, with a long future ahead. After conducting the interviews, I feel that this opportunity will be more accurate if the problem is specified even further to roommates not collaborating in just the kitchen alone. This appears to be driving force of their complaints, a space that can perhaps be adjusted to remove some of the occasional tension within roommates. It is vital for an entrepreneur to adapt their opportunities based on customer feedback because it will be counterintuitive to sell a product that customers do not relate or react to; yet it is also important to maintain your original idea as to separate your vision from like-minded competitors.