Forming an Opportunity Belief- 4A

Assignment 4A

1. From feedback on my bug list and from talking to my left-handed friends, it seems that many people have a problem with smearing their pen ink when writing. 

2. I believe the unmet need is a need for a pen that does not smear as easily or some other way to solve this ink smearing problem. From my own experience, I know that left-handed people have this problem all the time when writing with a pen. I could imagine that right-handed people might sometimes have this problem less often, but it probably still occurs. This need has always existed since writing with ink has existed. I would say I am ninety-five percent sure that this need exists. 

3. I would say a prototypical customer is a left-handed person. 

4. When I asked one of my left-handed friends, Trevor, about his experience when writing, it was clear that he had this problem as well, but it didn't bother him that much. Additionally, Trevor said that he usually writes with a pencil instead of a pen, which means this problem is much less likely to affect him, since a pencil cannot smear as easily. It was pretty clear at this point that Trevor really did not have this problem, since he rarely uses a pen.

5. I was very surprised after talking to Trevor about his writing. He noted that the ink smearing really did not bother him that much when he did use a pen. This was the most surprising thing that Trevor told me, since it bothers me immensely. It might just be his own personality, so for the next person, I will interview I will try to find someone that might be easily bothered by this problem.

3B. I would now say that the prototypical customer is someone who is left-handed, and writes with a pen more often than not.

4B. I queried one of my other left-handed friends, Bo, about his experience when writing with pens and if he was ever bothered by the ink smearing. He was very adamant about this and said that he was always looking for a pen that would not smear when he is writing. He said that this was the characteristic that mattered most in a pen to him because he hated when the ink would smear when he was writing. He noted that what he did not like about this was that the ink got on his hand when it smeared, not that it made the writing look messier. To address this issue, he says that he continues to search for a pen that does not smear onto his hand when he is writing. He said that he was yet to find a viable choice. 

5B. I was not surprised at all by my talk with my good friend Bo. Since he is one of my close friends, I knew that this would be a big problem with him. This interview reveals to me that there might be a personality trait in people that would draw them more to this product: cleanliness and neatness. When the ink smears when you are writing, the ink inevitably smears onto your hand and creates a smudge of ink on the paper. After talking to Bo, it seems more clear to me who my prototypical customer might be. 

3C. I would now say that my prototypical customer is a left-handed person who writes with a pen more often than a pencil, and who values cleanliness. 

3B. I interviewed one of my other close left-handed friends (almost all of my best friends are left-handed), Evan. When asking him about how he writes, and if he seems to have this problem, he was very clear about what he thought about this: he realized that this was a problem, but unless there was a pen that was no more expensive than the pens he usually bought, there was no way he was willing to pay a premium to fix this problem. He said that he uses regular pens, and when they smear, he is frustrated. Despite this, his frustration is not enough to justify an uncharge for such a nominal advantage. He said that he valued cleanliness, but he did not think this qualified as uncleanliness. 

3C. After talking to Evan, I was a bit disappointed. I thought that he was a person that would be perfect to talk to about this opportunity, but I was incorrect in this assumption. While he seemed to value cleanliness and neatness, he didn't see this as a bother. This revealed to me that it might take an extreme value of perfection and cleanliness to desire such a problem to be resolved. Despite this, I believe talking to him about this issue revealed to me that the market for such a pen would be difficult to appease. 

7. These interviews with my friends revealed to me much more than I initially would have thought. One of these revelations is that there are two directions I could go with this opportunity: One way would be to make a pen that is the same price as other regular pens but has a clear advantage in terms of smearing. Another way to go about this problem would be to market a more expensive pen towards a smaller market: a market of left-handed people who use pens more often than pencils, but value cleanliness and neatness to the extent that they are willing to pay a premium on such a product. Both of these directions present clear hindrances so I am now more unsure than ever whether this is really an opportunity, or if it is just an unavoidable nuisance for us left-handers. I do believe that this problem is much more defined than it was when I started the interviews, but it might be so defined that the practicality of this opportunity might have been diminished. I think that entrepreneurs should seek to define their products towards their customer’s needs since the customer is who is going to buy the product. Staying firm in one’s beliefs about their product leaves some looking for a market for their specific product, and to paraphrase Professor Pryor, “it is easier to find a hole first, and then get the peg”.