Forming an Opportunity Belief

Beginning Point: Belief
I have a belief that college students are struggling to motivate themselves to study at home during the global pandemic.

Describing My Belief
The unmet need is motivating college students to study and complete their assignments with as much effort as they would have exerted in a semester with access to the typical resources offered at college, such as a library, coffee shop, or private office area in an apartment/rental house. While I am not sure as to how many students currently have this unmet need, I would confidently say that at least 50% or more of college students are currently struggling to motivate themselves to complete assignments and study. As mentioned before, college students, including both undergraduate, and graduate/professional students have this need. The desire for a way to motivate college students recently came from the COVID-19 global pandemic. Before the pandemic, libraries, coffee shops, and other resources were fully operational with no restrictions. Students could work in outside areas without at-home distractions.

In order to attempt to meet this need, students are forcing themselves to complete their assignments or study, often doing the bare minimum to pass the class. Other students are creating a routine for themselves, hoping that a sense of normalcy will motivate them to put the required amount of effort into studying and completing assignments. However, many students are not attempting to meet this need, as it may seem too hard to meet, or the effort required to meet the need is not worth the hassle.

Prototypical Customer
The prototypical customers are undergraduate and graduate/professional students. These are the types of customers I interviewed.

Interview 1
I interviewed a senior in college who attends UCF locally and commutes every day from her home.

Interview 2
Next, I interviewed a first-year law student who attends law school in New York and commutes to school from his apartment.

Interview 3
Finally, I interviewed another senior in college who attends UF away from her hometown. She lives in student-affiliated housing near her school.

Reflect
I learned that my opportunity is very situational. College students are lacking motivation significantly because of the global pandemic. Once the pandemic is over, college students may not struggle as much with finding the motivation to complete assignments and study. The most surprising thing I learned about my opportunity is the different motivators college students would enjoy. The UCF student liked the idea of an app that provided some sort of reward or a way to lock the phone and prevent distractions. The law student said he wouldn't use an app at all, but rather suggested a supplement that increased motivation. The UF student suggested getting paid to increase her motivation, rather than use an app or a supplement.

I also learned that not as many students as I expected are affected by the closure of libraries and coffee shops. The UCF student prefers to study at coffee shops, but because she attends college locally, she is very used to studying at home with her family. The law student mostly studies in his apartment, so the closure of coffee shops and libraries only affected him when he returned to his home. The UF student however, was greatly affected by the closure of libraries. She usually studies at libraries, and has found it quite difficult to motivate herself to study at home.

Summarize
I believe that some of my original opportunity is still there. It is plausible to create a product, whether it is an app or a supplement, to increase motivation and help college students study better. However, I am unsure of how effective this hypothetical product would be at fulfilling that need. After all, having the motivation to complete assignments varies greatly from person to person. A product might not do well enough to increase a student's motivation due to the individualization of motivation.

I believe that my new opportunity is more accurate than when I started because I received insightful consumer feedback. When I thought of this belief, I based it off of my perception of motivation during the global pandemic. When I interviewed three prototypical customers, I began to see the perception of people who could potentially use the product. College students study differently, and depending on their academic program, they will vary in the amount of motivation necessary to succeed. A law student will likely benefit more from extensive amounts of motivation compared to a freshman student taking general classes. Nonetheless, the insight I gathered from the three interviews led me to a more accurate opportunity.

Entrepreneurs should adapt some aspects of their opportunities based on customer feedback. At the end of the day, consumers will not buy a product if the product doesn't fit their unmet needs. Customer feedback allows the entrepreneur to understand current unmet needs, and adapt their opportunities without wasting resources on a product that won't sell. However, the entrepreneur shouldn't completely change their opportunity because customer feedback varies widely, and some customer feedback is not useful or suitable for particular opportunities.