7A: Testing the Hypothesis Part 1

1.) The opportunity I want to pursue is the idea for creating a more efficient way of parking around crowded areas. 

2.) To narrow it down, I want to target short-term and long-term parking for people who need this parking around college campuses. 

Who - Students, faculty, family, friends, and visitors that are around the campus for a given period of time.

What - There is always a hassle to find parking. Either on game day, to keep your car somewhere for the semester, or for families and friends who want to come visit for a day or a weekend. 

Why - Parking around campus is limited and towing companies make a fortune because of it. People everyday can not find parking around campus because of the mass amount of people in one area. 

3.) Testing the who: Other people do have this need. People around the world face the difficulty of finding parking. People that visit ballgames, crowded beaches, airports and downtowns. Everyone shares the need. 

Testing the what: The boundary is finding available parking. It may be hard to find people to open up their parking spaces, but with enough customer research it could be possible. 

Testing the why: Parking is limited but people have been finding solutions. In this case people would have to pay for parking and in some scenarios, people would not like the idea or find it necessary to pay for parking. 

4.) The five people I interviewed were both my parents, one student i asked from walking around campus, and two students I knew personally. My parents have never visited campus but they do know the struggle of parking in general. AS far as the who, they focused on the people visiting ballgames. They said they went to a yankee ballgame last week and were able to find parking, but paid $45 to do so. They liked the opportunity to establish something to make parking easier for people in crowded areas. With the students, one liked the idea of long term parking, the fact of storing her car somewhere while she has her scooter was a variation of the what she emphasized. The two students I knew provided variations of the why. They said the bus is extremely convenient for them and why would they look for parking when the bus is super efficient and effective. 

5.) The opportunity is still out there for someone to exploit. Given the conditions which were expanded in this assignment there are actually many areas where this opportunity can be exploited. In a lot of areas transportation systems are efficient which make parking not an issue, which is a devastating variation. Although with the people I interviewed, the focus of people at college and at ballgames still lies an opportunity. The customers of this opportunity, that I interviewed, agreed with the who, what and why. I learned that people have been finding alternatives and since the opportunity seems pretty easy for someone to come up with and nobody has, maybe it isn't one to exploit, but then again the other interviewees liked the idea.