16A –What’s Your Secret Sauce?

1) Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique. What is it about you, exactly, that makes you different? Write this up in a detailed list. 

1-I have a keen sense of observation wherever I am and what I am looking at.

2-I have a great ability to convey a message to someone due to my involvement with the debate team in high school.

3- I have strong skills in math and science and have always had a passion for these subjects.

4- I have the ability make strong connections with people by bringing the best out of situations and looking at life positively.

5- I have extensive knowledge on the aerospace industry due to my degree and my future career goals.

2) Interview the five people who know you the best. Ask them what they think makes you different -- remember, focus on your knowledge, skills, abilities, emotions -- in other words, your human capital. Try to stay away from discussing your other types of capital (such as who you know). Record each interview. In your post, please post each interview, as well as a two-three sentence summary of each interview, explaining what your key takeaways are. There is no time limit on these recordings. As long as you cover the information asked for above, that's all you need to do. 

My first interview with my roommate Paul was rather encouraging. He expressed that very few individuals are able to survive an undergraduate engineering degree and he found it unique that I am able to do that.

My second interview was with my friend from high school, Bradley, and it was also very positive. He let me know that I have a great work ethic and able to focus on situations.

My third interview was with my friend from high school, Daniel, and he pointed out some great points. He pointed out that I am very driven and passionate about the things that I like.

My  fourth interview was with my girlfriend, Megan. She said I am very unique because I am creative.

My fifth interview was with Paul's girlfriend Carly and she found it generally unique that I am able to stay fit while doing hard engineering classes. 

3) Reflect on the differences. How do you see yourself, and how do others see you? Are there differences in how you assess yourself compared to others? What do you think causes these differences? Do you think your interviewees are correct about you? Finally, going back to your list from part 1, would you make any corrections to the list? How?

I definitely regard myself highly in terms of my human capital regarding my knowledge, skills, abilities, emotions, etc. and I have interpreted that my peers regard me with the same attitude. There are differences in how people perceive my human capital and how I see myself, but that is due to me being self conscious about my skills and abilities to impact the world. I think my interviewees were correct about me because they have known me for quite some time. I would make some corrections, but not based off what people gave as responses, but what I thought about in regards to my emotions about certain situations that make me unique.  

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

1) Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them. Just like last time, these interviews, if conducted properly, should take about 10-15 minutes. Any less, and you won't be able to obtain adequate information. These three people may NOT be the same people you interviewed last time. 

1- Co-worker that uses his phone a lot during the day

2- Uber Eats driver who's phone died in the middle of delivery

3- Resident Assistant who just wanted to charge their headphones

2) Begin with alternative evaluation. In the last case exercise, you determined how customers sought information related to solving their need. The outcome of this step is to produce a set of alternatives. Customers pick from among this set of alternatives. In this step, your job is to figure out how they do their picking. Does price matter the most? Does quality? Does style? Is there more than one factor that is important to your customer segment?

1- One factor that most important towards this customer segment was cost. If he were at Disney, the beach, or another large area often he would find the necessity to spend a lot on a battery pack, but for everyday use it has to be not so expensive.

2- One factor that was most important towards this customer segment was style. Although, this person identified in the interview that there are several factors that help determine a products quality, the most important was being different than the rest and giving off its own unique essence in the market

3- One factor that was most important towards this individual was practical use. They werent willing to buy a product based off a few uses. They were wanting their purchase to be a commitment and one that was long lasting.

3) How/where do they buy? Elements of the actual transaction can help characterize your segment. Is your segment more likely to buy online or in a store? Are they more likely to use cash or will they finance the purchase? Etc. If this is a B2B purchase, who's involved in the purchase decision? 

1- This interviewee was more likely to buy online and not in person because of the convenience.

2-This interviewee was more likely to buy in a store because they wanted to see the product in their hands. This person was also more likely to use cash to buy it.

3- This interviewee was more likely to also buy online because some things you just need to buy in bulk from Amazon.

4) Post-purchase evaluation. What matters most to your customers when they think back on the 'rightness' of the purchase? What helps them determine the purchase was a good idea? What sorts of things make them think a purchase was a bad idea? 

1- This interviewee determined that a product was a good idea if they were self invested into it and almost convinced others to do the same. A purchase was a bad idea if they had a negative experience with the product.

2- This interviewee determined that a product was a good idea based on how it made them feel especially if it was something they had to wear. This person thought a product was bad if it made them feel bad about spending money on it.

3- This interviewee determined that a product was a good idea based off its longevity. If a product didn't last long it wasn't a good one.

5) Report the findings. Simply summarize your interviews. 

6) Draw conclusions. Based on what you know about this segment and what you learned in your interviews, how would you succinctly describe this segment in terms of alternative evaluation, purchase decision, and post-purchase evaluation? 

This segment gave me insight towards how people in general identify qualities about certain products or items and creates an attitude towards it. People are more importantly buying something to see if it will change their life in any way and most preferably towards the better.

14A – Halfway Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is a competency. What are the behaviors that you have used (or developed) to keep up with the requirements of this course? 

The behaviors that I have used to keep up with the requirements for this course were being able to identify the wants and needs of individuals in my age group and other demographics. People share different opinions on what they deem as necessary for their life and thus trade in commodities that are appropriate towards their lifestyle. One behavior I developed while keeping up with this course was being able to listen to others about their thoughts. People have great advice towards items they would buy over others for specific reasons. If you are going to be a great entrepreneur you must be able to understand psychology.

2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. Talk about a moment or two when you felt like "giving up." What pulled you through? Do you feel like you've developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months? What experience or experiences most contributed to this?

I truly can say I developed a tenacious attitude towards this class in the past two months due to my endeavor to learn about entrepreneurship. The experiences that support my ideology would be the interviews with others on the products that I had proposed and they were both constructive and negative, but the most important thing about anything you try is persevering and not being against trying something new.  

3) Three tips. What are three tips you would offer next semester's student about (1) fostering the skills that support tenacity and (2) developing the 'tenacious mindset' ?

1- Be committed to being able to change or impact a person's life based on your product you design for them.

2-Do not be afraid to change your product completely, there were over 2000 ideas for the lightbulb and only one worked.

3- Get out of your comfort zone and ask people you don't know about the way they feel about certain products. 

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

1) You read about an entrepreneur:

• What surprised you the most?

I was surprised the most on the background of Steve Jobs being raised by adopted parents, not finishing college, and not exactly knowing where the company of Apple was going to go in terms of progress.

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

I admire Steve Jobs the most by his ability to think outside of the box, but still stay true to the human emotion and make advances that made people feel comfortable using computers, like calligraphy, color schemes, and most importantly the GUI.

• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

I didn't admire that he had a child with his girlfriend of few years and refused to accept that he had a illegitimate child and just named a series of Apple computers after her.

• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

Steve Jobs encounters several adversities and failures throughout his career, but most specifically when he was kicked out of the company by his Board of Directors of the company. He left Apple and used his talents of graphic art and design to start a new company, one that would now be called Pixar.

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

Other competencies that I noticed the entrepreneur exhibited were his ability to convince people to buy his products and his foresight of how computers were going to influence our lives forever. 

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

One part of this reading that did confuse me a bit was how Steve Wozniak left the company and separated from Steve Jobs within Apple. I'm sure if the two stayed together, Apple would be an even bigger company than it is today.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

I would first ask him which markets in today's world have high potential for growth and change because he always had a good sense of what was innovative and what people were ready to use in their daily lives. I would continue to ask him if he wanted to ever compete with Apple with a separate company when he got kicked out of his own because that is crazy to enter a separate industry and make it unique.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I believe Steve Jobs' opinion of hard work based on how Walter Isaacson illustrated it was learning about how a concept makes you feel and being able to make sure you were passionate about making a difference in someone's life with what you had created. I do share this opinion because I want to make an impact throughout the world.

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1) Pick a segment. 

For this exercise, I chose to target and interview a group of individuals who were all spending a lot of time at work, but not necessarily conducting work at a work desk or cubicle. 

2) Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them. 

These three people are my roommates who all are doing field work because they are business majors and a civil engineers working at a job site. 

3) Begin with need awareness.  

The need occurred for all of my roommates for when they are out on the job site for hours on end and not having anywhere to charge their phone or even forget to bring a charger because it may get wet or damaged. As the day goes on, all three of my interviewees agreed that their phone battery drains over time and by the end of the day when they are finishing up their work, they may need to use their phone or mobile device and inadequately use it because they are trying to conserve their phone's battery.

4) Move to information search. 

I asked my first interviewee what he had done to compromise his issue and his response was not to use his phone as much at work, but he is at a disadvantage because he wants to be the one taking pictures and communicating with others, but he always leaves it to people with better batteries than him. I asked my second interviewee what he had done and he searched on Google and found a rechargeable battery to plug into your phone via a wire. The difficulty he found was that he needs to remember to charge it and he forgets to bring it sometimes. Lastly, I asked my third interviewee and he searched battery saving tricks on your phone to conserve battery. The disadvantage is that you can only have a few apps open at a time.

5) Report the findings of your research. 

I learned that there is a huge need for those that need power in their phones throughout all times of the day.

6) Draw conclusions. 

I learned with this segment that these individuals with battery conservation problems have temporary solutions to the problem they face almost every day, but there are better solutions available that people might not be picking up on, including wireless charging devices.

11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. Who you are. What your talents are. What your skills and experiences are. Also: what are your aspirations? Specifically regarding your business concept, how do you see this business (if you were to start it) playing a role in your life?

I am constantly living through how my phone's battery is during the day. At the beginning of the day, my phone is fully charged and I feel as if I have more energy. It may be just the coffee, but I don't have any worries because my phone is fully charged and by the end of the day when my phone is close to dead, I feel nervous and that my whole life will end without my phone. Being able to have your phone fully charged at all times can be revolutionary.

2) What are you offering to customers? Describe the product or service (in other words, how you'll solve customers' unmet needs). 

I am offering customers to have a device that gives off current and ionizes that air surrounding it. If your mobile device or even laptop(anything with a lithium ion or polymer battery) it will be charging through the air.

3) Who are you offering it to? Describe, in as much detail as possible, the demographic and psychographic characteristics of your customers. Think especially of this question: what do your customers all have in common?

This device can have an opportunity to anyone with a wireless device. This device isn't exclusive for people with mobile devices, but gaming systems, watches, hearing aids, etc. The amount of opportunities this product has is unfathomable because the presence of small batteries is huge in our society.

4) Why do they care? Your solution is only valuable insofar as customers believe its valuable to them. Here, explain why customers will actually pay you money to use your product or service. 

Customers definitely care about their portable devices dying because people have become addicted and reliant on technology. People do not even want to think about their devices constantly needing to be charged or not having enough battery to contact others. 

5) What are your core competencies? What sets you apart from everyone else? Also: what do you have that nobody else has? 

This product is set apart from most concepts similar to this design because this device is portable. Most devices that are in beta testing of charging devices wirelessly are for home systems and not for people on the go. This give opportunity because people nowadays are barely at home. 

9A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Interviews:

These interviews were conducted for a product that gives users the ability to charge their phone with a disposable battery pack.

1) Person who couldn't find an outlet to charge her phone at the library

Inside the boundary
People who need battery are in.
The need is battery life.
The need exists because battery life is finite. Outside the boundary People who don't have mobile devices are out. The need isn't a longer lasting battery or charging wire. Alternatives are encouraging people not to use their phones. 2) Person in laundromat with a dead phone Inside the boundary People who need little amount of emergency power are in. The need is emergency power. The need exists because there are many situations where people need their phone and cant use it. Outside the boundary People who have portable chargers are out. The need isn't a full power pack. Alternatives are chargeable power packs. 3) Person in dorms that lost their charger Inside the boundary People who don't have anything to charge their phones with are in. The need is accessible power. The need exists because people will not carry around accessories to charge their phone. Outside the boundary People who have charging wires are out. The need isn't a easy to find charger. Alternatives are making phone chargers that aren't easy to lose. 4) Roommate who needed power to call his mom Inside the boundary People who need power immediately are in. The need is using your phone at all times. The need exists because people are dependent on their phones. Outside the boundary People who are constantly charging their phones are out. The need isn't power you need all the time. Alternatives are solar powered devices to charge your phone. 5) Roommate who's phone died at a concert and couldnt take pictures Inside the boundary People who go to concerts are in. The need taking pictures of an event at all times The need exists because people want to remember the times they had. Outside the boundary People who don't bring their phones to concerts. The need isn't charging stations at arenas. Alternatives are encouraging people to charge their phone before a concert.

8A – Solving The Problem

My selected opportunity is the regulatory change that society is facing today with the birth of artificial intelligence and how it is revolutionary towards commerce, trade, and computing. The problem the status quo faces is having inefficient ways of trading assets like stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, etc. The development of an AI Think Tank would push computer engineers to the test and create an artificial intelligence system to predict market changes and invest at pivotal moments throughout the year. The AI would be in development for quite some time that would require sponsorship and other endorsements to keep the research acceptable towards product development. The product would rather be a service and would curtail towards your needs and give you a representative increase in return from how much you are willing to pay the AI to make decisions for you based off market trends. The technology would work with the behavior of the current and past markets by analyzing the trends over time and be able to conclude that certain times will be more profitable to invest in then others.