4A – Forming An Opportunity Belief

1. A problem that I have found that posses a chance for an opportunity would be when you lose your spoon inside your bowl of soup. The opportunity is to create a type of spoon that has a hook shape at the end of it. Meaning when you put down the spoon, you can hook it to the outside of the bowl, so it doesn’t fall down into the soup.

2. The unmet need for this problem is the constant struggle of letting go of your spoon for a second, and the next thing you know is that your spoon is lost at the bottom of your soup or another food item (ramen). This means you are forced to take your hand, sticking it inside your soup to find the spoon. The people that have this need are consumers of soup or even college students who occasionally eat ramen for dinner. This need has always existed, but it is just a common problem that people wouldn’t think to take this as an opportunity for a product. To my knowledge, there is no solution, at the moment, to meet this need now. People just have to deal with the fact their spoon has fallen into their soup/ramen and pull it out with their hands. I am sure this opportunity exists because I have talked to many people that have confirmed that this is a “bug” in their lives.

3. The prototypical customer would be any consumer of soup or a food item like this. The target audience ranges from all ages. In terms of Ramen, the typical and/or most common prototypical customer would-be college students.
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Prototypical customer 1: The common soup consumer
Person: Female; 25 years old; nursing student.
- What is the exact nature of the need? This consumer feels that the nature of the demand on a scale of one to ten would be six. This is because, being a Florida resident, she tends not to consume a lot of soup.
- When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? She becomes aware of this need at the moment when her spoon is lost in the bowl.
- How long have they had the need? Her whole life, whenever she eats soap.
- When did they first become aware of their need? Why? She became aware of this need in her early teens; when her wisdom teeth were taken out.
- How are they currently addressing their need? She is not, there is no current solution.
- How satisfied are they with this solution? Although she is not a very occasional soup eater when she is, she would be very satisfied with this solution.
Reflection: From this opportunity, I learned that not all consumers really understand or know this need until it actually happens. The most surprising thing I learned was The fact that she becomes aware of this problem when she was in her teen, specifically when she got her wisdom teeth taken out. Collapsing with orthodontist offices may be a medium.

Prototypical customer 2: The common soup consumer
Person: Female; 20 years old; college student at UF.
- What is the exact nature of the need? This consumer is a common soup eater. She ever expressed that she loves soup and could eat soup daily. The nature of the for her on a scale of one to ten is eight. Meaning she could love to have this product but “isn’t at the top of the list of things she needs.”
- When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? She experiences this need very often but only becomes aware of it when her spoon is dropped into her bowl.
- How long have they had the need? Her whole life; has always eaten soup.
- When did they first become aware of their need? Why? The consumer stated somewhere around when she was in middle school, she became aware of this need.
- How are they currently addressing their need? She is not, there is no current solution.
- How satisfied are they with this solution? She is very satisfied with this solution.
Reflection: From this opportunity, I learned that this product would be a big help to big consumers of soup. The most surprising thing I learned was that this consumer was very excited about this product and was very into my pitch.

Prototypical customer 3: The Ramen Noodles college student consumer
Person: Male; 19 years old; college student at UF.
- What is the exact nature of the need? Consumer states he is a very common ramen noodle eater, due to lack of funds and how easy it is to make. He says that on a scale of one to ten, the need for this nature is a nine.
- When do they become aware of the need -- that is, do they experience their need all the time or only sometimes? He becomes aware of this need at the moment when he loses his fork/spoon in the soup.
- How long have they had the need? Since he has come to college.
- When did they first become aware of their need? Why? During the first semester of his college experience.
- How are they currently addressing their need? He is not, there is no current solution.
- How satisfied are they with this solution? He states he would be very satisfied with this solution.
Reflection: From this opportunity, I learned college students who eat ramen would be a big market for this product. The most surprising thing I learned was how many college students actually consume ramen daily.

Summarize: A significant portion of my original opportunity is still there. Although, I would make this product into a set. A fork and spoon both with a hook on the end. This is because after speaking with consumer 3, I realized that many consumers use forks for ramen noodles. I do believe my opportunity is more accurate than when I started. I think it is very important for entrepreneurs to adapt to there products (or opportunities) based on the feedback of customers. It is supply and demand. You supply what consumer wants and fulfill their needs.