7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Students Laptops Die to Quickly

• Opportunity:
• Students oftentimes find themselves in class and need to use their laptop but have found that their laptop is already dead. I believe there is a need for a portable laptop charger geared towards college students, serving the role as a laptop charger that charges a student’s laptop more quickly than a regular portable laptop charger, saving time incase class starts, and they do not have a charger. 
• The who: College students 
• The what: A portable laptop charger that charges less than a standard charger, is cheaper than a regular portable charger, and works much quicker than an average charger.
• The why: Students who are late to class and forgot their charger need be able to quickly turn on their laptops for class, but are often unable to due to the cords, finding an outlet, and waiting for their laptop to turn on.
• Testing the Who: I believe that there is a need for people outside of my circle since I see other students struggle with this issue at least once a week in class. 
• Testing the what: Although this charger may seem to be more expensive than a regular portable laptop charger, this charge is geared towards serving one function, a quick pick-me-up for a laptop. Its small size means that it can only hold a small charge, which means that with a strong enough system, it can charger the laptop much quicker than the average charger. 
• Testing the why: Students consistently forget to charge their laptop, I would know since I am one of those students. With this charger, this issue is eliminated. With the charger being small enough to fit in a pencil pouch on a backpack or a purse, students can simply grab their laptop and run to class, knowing that in less than a minute their laptop will go from completely dead to on. 
• Interview #1 
• This interview was done with my friend Grant. Grant is a mechanical engineer student and has a major need for his laptop in class. Grant was excited about the idea, but also skeptical of its design. After I explained to Grant that the charger would be relatively small and hold only half of a laptop charge, he seemed all for the idea. Grant expressed interest in the product and would love for the idea to come to fruition. 
• Interview #2 
• In this interview with my friend Jon, I came away somewhat skeptical. After asking Jon if he would be interested in my charger, he claimed he would not be, since he does not need a charger. Jon is a very structured man, and always has his laptop charged. This poses an issue for me, as I am becoming aware that some people simply charge their laptop more than others. 
• Interview #3
• Interviewing my friend Hannah was very successful.  Hannah brought up a great point, that there are multiple kinds of chargers. While this seems like an issue, she posed the idea of creating a shortened cord, with 3 of the most popular chargers on the opposite end of the USB side of the cord. I then asked her if she thought it would be a good idea to sell each of the cords separately, and she said that would boost revenue as more cords would be purchased than the 3-cord idea.
•  Interview #4
• Interviewing my friend Jessica brought forth another great idea, customization. She exclaimed clear interest in the idea, but also said that she would be willing to pay more for the option to customize her charger. At first, she mentioned colors, but then she started talking about designs, logos, art, and I felt like she was more interested in the charger itself than I was! This brought forth an opportunity to have a personalized charger with say initials, or even the gator logo printed on front of the charger. 
• Interview #5
• My interview with my friend Brad was a bit more down to earth. Brad is a bit of a realist, and seemed very interested in the idea, but also seemed like there would be issues with marketing to a specific group who notoriously does not have money. Brad explained that while the idea was great, it seemed a bit far-fetched to expect a single campus to get on board with a charger that only works for half a charge. Brad was very encouraging but was more interested in tempering expectations.
• Summarization
• In the first step of this assignment, I identified a need, a portable laptop charger designed specifically for college students. In the second part of this assignment, I clearly stated the who, what, and why of my idea, and found that there was serious opportunity for my product. In the third part of this assignment, I created my hypothesis and explored the potential shortcomings of my product. In the fourth and final part of this assignment, I interviewed five people I knew who fit the demographic for my product, college students. While 3 out of the 5 interviews were very fruitful, and offered encouragement, one offered realistic expectations, and the final shut down the idea entirely. While it was important to set my bar for my expectations, I feel it was also equally important to understand that some people simply will not be interested in my product, and that is okay. The fruitful 3 interviews helped to solidify my idea, and even offer insight towards my products potential. In total, I feel that through these interviews I learned that there IS a market for my product, but the market is not as large as I had hoped for. I also learned that my product could use some improvements, and the feedback was more than helpful.