1) Beginning Point:
An untapped opportunity that I believe exists is the issue of
leaving your house, assuming that a drive-thru is not packed with cars and thus
would not take more than a maximum of 10 minutes to go through, and being met with
a 30-minute long wait instead.
2) Describe your belief:
In this belief, there is the unmet need of the knowledge of
the state of the drive-thru at the time that you are planning to visit it. The entire
purpose of the drive-thru is to be a faster service, after all.
3) Identify the prototypical customer / 4) Iteration / 5) Reflect / 6):
Interview #1:
Teenage male
This interviewee explained that he started experiencing this
issue when he first got a car. Once he was able to go on his own to drive-thru
restaurants, he noticed it, as he had the freedom to fulfill his wants with a
car of his own. He always realizes this issue once he arrive at the drive-thru.
He has no solution, other than waiting in line to be served. Additionally, he
is not satisfied with this. Through this interview, I learned about the idea
that once someone is able to fulfill their own needs, such as driving
themselves to a restaurant’s drive-thru, they will notice this issue much more
than if they are being driven there by someone else.
Interview #2:
Middle-aged woman
This interviewee always realizes
this unmet need once she gets to the drive thru and sees the line (just like
the first interviewee). She also has thought of a solution, which is to call
ahead to the restaurant to find out whether or not its drive-thru line is long.
However, she is not satisfied with this, as the line of a drive-thru can change
very quickly, mostly in the matter of minutes. Here, I learned that someone can
always find a solution to this, but that doesn’t mean they are satisfied by it.
There is no set universal solution to this issue.
Interview #3
Teenage male
To further cement this common
theme, this interviewee only realizes this issue once they arrive at the
drive-thru as well. He, just like the first interviewee, has no solution to
this issue, and when asked if satisfied with the state of the issue, he firmly
replied with a resounding “no.” This
only happens to him sometimes, however, as he does not go to drive-thru restaurants
on his own very often. For me, he just added to the truths of the previous
interviews.
7) Summarize:
To summarize, I believe that these interviews not only
revealed more about the nature of this unmet need, but that they also heightened
the need for a solution. It seems to be a universal issue, one that has been experienced
in similar ways by all three of the prototypical customers. This opportunity is
alive and well, and has been proven to me fully through speaking with them. If
anything, I have narrowed down exactly what each customer was missing: an
accurate knowledge of what they should expect when they go to a drive-thru, at
any time in the day. Furthermore, I now know for certain that there is no universal
and widely-marketed solution. This educational effect of the interviews is why
I think that entrepreneurs should adapt to customer feedback. If not, they won’t
be able to cater to the real issues that people are experiencing and instead will
only work with merely what they think is happening to people.
I appreciated your focus on drive-thru times and your insightful interviews were enlightening. Mostly, however, I was impressed at how well you were able to analyze the information and opinions of your interviewees to narrow a broad “need” into “needs” that were circumstantial. As an example, your analysis of your first prototypical customer caught me off guard, the notion that this need was only recognized when your interviewee became old enough to drive is evidence that psychology, perception, and the possible limitations of age groups, are substantial contributing factors in recognizing a “need.” Though it is difficult to find flaws in your prototypical customer selection, I do have an interesting suggestion to pitch. Imagine, how interesting the perspective would be if you interviewed someone who works(ed) in a fast-food kitchen, or a drive-thru window, who also buys food through drive-thru and notices the same annoyance of long wait times. Would they be empathic? Would they be insightful? These are just things to consider.
ReplyDeleteHi Sophia,
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, this was a great subject to touch on. Your first interviewee made a great point - you tend to not notice something until you are experiencing it yourself, and in this case, because he now is driving himself to the drive-thru, he was able to notice things he didn't before when someone else was driving him.
I agree that your interviews further heightened the need for a solution in regard to this issue, and I had the same result in my assignment. It's amazing how interviewing a few people can give you a different or heightened outlook on an issue. Great job on the assignment!
This is a problem I have dealt with pretty often in the past. Usually for sit down places I will look at the chart google maps has that shows how busy a restaurant is expected to be at a certain time, and usually that will be a good predictor of the wait times. However, most of the time when I'm getting fast food that is not a consideration which can lead to getting stuck in a line.
ReplyDeleteHey Sophia,
ReplyDeleteI think this opportunity is really good, and your research and completion of this assignment is really thorough. I have definitely experienced this problem before, and like your other prototypical customers, I currently have no real solution. While I think it's important to consider that we only interviewed 3 people, I agree that this problem is universal. Customer feedback is so essential, and I can tell that you value it as an entrepreneur. Great job!