Assignment 4: Forming an Opportunity Belief

I believe that there is an opportunity to make something that will allow strangers to interact with each other to play a sport together at a specific venue at a specific time for any sport of their choosing.

The unmet need is that it is difficult for people to coordinate activities with their friends and with random people, specifically pertaining to pick-up sports games. People who have this need are those who cannot already form a large enough group to coordinate a game with two teams. This need has been around for a while because I know that my friends and I find it difficult to coordinate our schedules or know when random people will be playing a sport at a specific venue at a specific time. The way people are dealing with this problem is that they are just showing up at around 4-6pm at Southwest Rec Center to play the sport of their choosing because that is usually when there are a lot of people at the gym. I am about 70% sure that this problem is a true problem among my peers.

A prototypical customer would be someone who is unable to coordinate things with their friends due to conflicting schedules or other circumstances.
The questions I have asked each customer are the same:

1) Do you have any problems coordinating sports activities with your friends? If no, disregard the following questions.
2) Why do you believe that is?
3) When do you experience this problem?
4) How long have you had this problem?
5) How are you dealing with it now?
6) Are you satisfied with your current solution?

Here is what they had to say:

Customer 1:

1) Yes I do.

2) People have different schedules and enjoy different sports.

3) Pretty much every time someone asks to play sports.

4) Since my group of friends has been organizing sports in high school.

5) I try to play sports as often as I can to allow for the most opportunities to play with friends.

6) I would say I'm satisfied to some extent. The same 4 or 5 people play every time despite the group consisting of over 10 people.

Customer 2:

1) Yes.

2) Differing schedule/laziness.

3) Whenever we try to coordinate anything or try to play pick-up.

4) About 5 years.

5) Just finding a time that is good for the majority of our friends.

6) Eh. It is what it is - can't really change it.

Customer 3:

1) Yes I do have problems coordinating sports activities with my friends.
2) I believe this is because all of my friends have different class schedules or responsibilities that they have to tend to, and quite often most people are busy.
3) I experience this problem usually during the week, but it is much easier to get everyone together during the weekends.
4) This problem has been around as long as I could remember; even during summer break people are often busy with work.
5) I usually just play with a few people that I know and go to Southwest when it's busy.
6) I do not think there is necessarily a solution to this problem, at the same time we all still work around our schedules and play a decent amount.

It seems that these people have a problem and are trying to solve it but don't really see how it could be solved. It also seems that they are somewhat content with the situation that they are dealing with but would not mind if it were improved or changed in some way. It is surprising to me that they do not actively seek out something that will improve their scheduling and enjoyment of pick-up sports.

I believe there is still an opportunity here because these three customers and myself are all dissatisfied with the way pick-up sports are scheduled. Granted I don't think the demand is as high as I expected but the opportunity remains. I believe I have a more accurate understanding of the situation outside of my own head because some people couldn't care less if anything was done about it. I believe entrepreneurs should adapt to customer feedback heavily because the customers are the ones who will give you the money. If you do not adapt to their feedback, they won't buy or use your product anymore.