Growing Your Social Capital

For my domain expert, I reached out to UF Advising. The advisors spend a lot of time helping students to set up schedules and plan out there semesters. In this area, they know how to read syllabuses and have plenty of experience planning out student semesters to help give the best possibility of success to students.  I have gone to the advisors every semester to have them help me set up my semester plan, so I was able to discuss informally with my advisor about her opinions on my product. The nature of our favor was pretty much if I produce this product I need to have a discount or demo version that an advisor could use to show and help students.
Next, I reached out to my boss at the UF bookstore as my expert on the market. I gave him a call and talked over my idea, once again we talked super casually, but he was also in favor of promoting my product so long as I used the bookstore as a place to purchase access codes for it. He works with lots of students and is selling school supplies and resources to students.
To cap it off, I found a programmer who works at my other job to be my supplier. I sent him over an email containing my business plan. He explained to me the magnitude of what a project like this would be, and how much a project like this would cost timewise. He thought it was really cool to have someone interested in his work so he was happy to explain all of the various aspects that go into creating programs and the job he does on a daily basis and wants me to keep him informed on what happens if I produce this product. By knowing someone in this field, he can help me to identify good traits to look for in potential partners or show me how to get started on my own.
Doing this project has helped me to feel more comfortable reaching out to people. I will continue to reach out to people whenever I have a project that I am passionate about to find the best team I can to help me achieve my goals.

Idea Napkin No.2

Since the last Idea Napkin, I feel a lot has changed. I switched my major from mathematics to anthropology, I found out that I much prefer to study how people live and work and their interest versus numbers. I have not given up on numbers, but I want to be able to do something with my life that will help people and I feel that through my product I can take steps towards that goal. I am offering a program where you upload your class syllabus for each class you are taking and it will create a calendar for you that alerts when due dates and lectures are coming up. You will also be able to upload events or other programs into this student assistant app. This would be a tool for students to use to help them make the transition to college, and managing their college lives easier. Targeting students early on to get them set up for success in their early years of college while not being exclusive to them, I would target anyone who is trying to improve how they manage their time and wants to do so as efficiently as possible. Students go through a lot of stress as they explore their college careers and meeting deadlines for classes is a big part of this stress, so having a system that helps them stay on top of this stress would make students' life easier. My product would have all of the capacities of a normal calendar, with the ability to mass upload items. It is on this ability that I will be able to beat all the individual resources that UF offers, and other calendar programs out. This will be like having a personal assistant in your pocket.
Looking back I think that my future interests do not reflect what this business would be. For me this would be a project to help myself to finish college strong, so once it stopped affecting me immediately I would not continue to pursue this path. Looking back at the feedback, it seems like my target demographic would also eventually outgrow this app and without constantly throwing this idea to new generations of students it would die out rather quickly.

Create a Customer Avatar

My customer avatar would look just like any other focused and driven college student. They wear nice jeans or slacks to class with a polo or button-up shirt. Nice stylish shoes with fun socks, and plenty of college memorabilia. They would be trying to get there degree on time while exploring their interests, but get overwhelmed once in a while. They would spend 5 days a week, Sunday through Thursday studying or going to club activities, Fridays and Saturdays would be spent partying and relaxing. Some of the clubs would be athletic, others academic, and of course they would be representing a fraternity too. He's busy, she's busy, all of us in our own way are busy, no matter part of campus life we engage in I haven't met a single college student who was complaining about being bored with too much time on their hands. I feel like I live a similar life to those that I am trying to reach with my Student Assistant Calendar. After all, I am a student too.

Image from floridagators.com

What's Your Secrete Sauce

Looking at myself, I think the five qualities that set me apart the most from others include; being able to separate myself from a situation and look at things objectively, listening but also encouraging others to talk, learning from what others have to say, applying new strategies or technologies, and a great dedication to complete tasks as efficiently as possible while maintaining a high level of quality.
The first person I interviewed was a friend from high school that I still keep up with. She said that I have this ability to remove myself from a situation and see things from other people's perspectives.
My father was more along the line that I am a hard worker, and whenever there is a task that needs to get done I have this ability to put all of my focus into it and create the best possible outcome.
My mother said she sees me as a multi-tool type of person. If she needs a job done, someone to talk to, someone to go to for advice, or someone to have fun with, she thinks I can fit into all of those categories.
My younger brother mentioned that I am a patient tutor, I am willing to sit and understand where people are having difficultly and then try and find a way to help them understand their problems.
A friend that I made in my first year of university described me as a ducktape type of person. I am useful in any situation, adaptable and willing to do the work needed of me.
I noticed that people think of me as a hard-working, patient person, which is what I have always tried to be. There are many facets to growing your business and being well rounded seems to help relieve some of that stress, but also makes you a better partner for your customers.

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior

Talking with three more students on campus I was able to identify trends in their buying behavior. All three of them said that they typically searched for apps that would have a free version, and use that until they made their decision on whether or not to purchase the full version. For all, it was important the free product worked and was a finished product on its own so they could make an informed decision, otherwise they would just uninstall the app and look for something else. As far as purchasing the product goes it would be online through an app store or website, but two of the students mentioned that they read the signs in checkout lines from time to time and seeing an interesting item would spark them to look it up. While having this physical space to be able to advertise effectively they all mentioned that they would go through the app store and look into the more professional looking apps with lots of ratings before looking into the smaller more simple apps. For all three, knowing they made the right decision on an app is having something reliable that doesn't require too much space and has an easy to use interface.
From all of this, I know that I would need to focus on having a professional-looking website and store page, with physical advertising in relevant areas.