Forming an Opportunity Belief

My opportunity that I believe would impact the lives of students and faculty at UF is some sort of tracker at all parking lots that reads how many parking spots that are available for scooters and cars. The unmet need is that many students struggle to find parking spots whether it is at the library or in parking garages. The people who would need this are students and teachers who may be in a rush and know where would be easiest for them to park. This opportunity has been met at some other schools and I know it is utilized often. At UCF, for example, there are signs at the garages and students could track them online. This is useful, and would be extremely helpful at UF.

Throughout my interviews, I have learned that many prototypical customers would find this helpful, and would like to see these trackers at our school. What surprised me the most is that people with cars reacted better to the idea than the prototypical customers who had scooters. For example, customer #1, Brett Kaiser, has both a car and a scooter and claims that while scooter parking is occasionally an issue, he can usually find a spot somewhere. While he is in his car, he can almost never find a spot, and said that this opportunity would benefit him much more in this case. Another customer that I questioned, Matt Freedman, only has a scooter, and thought that this would obviously help, it wasn’t a huge necessity.

Throughout my questioning and analysis, I have come to the conclusion that even though these trackers would be a big help to many, they would not be necessary. I think students would appreciate them greatly, and it would make the school greater than it already is. I still think most of my opportunity is still available. Entrepreneurs should definitely adapt to consumer feedback to an extent. If the feedback is totally changing the idea or opportunity, the entrepreneur should ignore that advice.