Forming an Opportunity Belief

1. People out of high school often have a hard time making new friends.

2.  As an adult, it is very hard to make friends at school or in the workplace. It’s even harder when you’re shy or introverted, like me. However, these are the people who want friendship the most because it’s made harder by age to make close friends. Other people hold the key. This need I feel has been prevalent since the beginning of jobs and big groups of strange people. Everyone has different way to meet the need, whether it’s give up and be a lone wolf, make online friends, join a club, or stick with friends they have already made. I’m sure this opportunity exists, 100%.

DISCLAIMER: These three people all have said that they identify as either introverted or shy.

Interview #1

3.  This prototypical customer is a woman of 23 years old, recently graduated from college and is now working in Panama.

4.

-How old are you and what is the nature of your student and working status (how long have they been of this status, where they work or go to school)

               I’m 23 years old, currently full time employed for 7 months at school in Panama.

-How many friends have you made in these new areas and how long did it take for the friendships to flourish?

               I have a few, 2 or 3. It took 3 or 4 months.

              

 -How difficult is/was it to make new/diverse friends in these settings?

               It was really difficult for different reasons. Mainly because I was everyone else’s superior except for my boss who hired me. In general though, I'm good at making friends.

               

 -Do you experience the need for new/diverse friends all the time or only sometimes?

               People are always looking for a romantic relationship or a friendship. Friends aren’t forced upon you like in school and there's no clubs. Whenever there's an event you want to go to or something that happened in your life you want someone to known about, but then there's nobody here that I could tell, they're all back in America.

             

 -When did you first experience this need? Why?

               Immediately because I moved to a new country. There's also the difficulty of the language barrier. When I first got here, I wanted to see Panama but didn’t know anybody to go with to show me around.

               

 -How are you currently filling this void?

              The two or three friends at work.

              

 -How satisfied are you with this solution?

               I’d like friends at my stage of life. Others are moms or married, settled in life. I’m not dating, no kids, and they just don’t get my need for travel, even any single, working people because they crave stability, but I don't. 

              

 -If you had an app or a specific place to meet friends, do you think you would use it and how frequently?

               Yes, app that would find clubs in the area for people with similar interests and start their own clubs on there. It shouldn't be just meeting people and talk because it will turn into a dating/hook-up app like Tinder.  I personally don’t have to meet people in physical places because I travel a lot. Meeting people just on the street or in a random place is sketchy. Interaction shouldn't happen on the app,it should just facilitate it. 

Interview #2

3. The prototypical customer is a 47 year old man who is married with children. 

4.

-How old are you and what is the nature of your student and working status (how long have they been of this status, where they work or go to school)

               I’m 47, I work at Global-5 communications (pr firm) for 2 ½ years.

 -How many friends have you made in these new areas and how long did it take for the friendships to flourish?

               I’ve made one friend who I've worked closely with. It took 2 months.

-How difficult is/was it to make new/diverse friends in these settings?

               It wasn’t difficult since we sat closely together and worked on the same projects.

              

 -Do you experience the need for new/diverse friends all the time or only sometimes?

              Only when I'm at work. I really would like to know my co-workers better.

             

 -How are you currently filling this void?
               I have the one friend, and acquaintances with the others, but it's not socially satisfying. However, work  but is not my whole life. I still have my family, I on occasion have a meal with my pastor, and church community groups (essentially weekly Bible studies). In some ways the void is not filled.

              

 -How satisfied are you with this solution?

               I'm not very satisfied, I would like to know them better, but it's difficult to know how to make friends.

             

  -If you had an app or a specific place to meet friends, do you think you would use it and how frequently?

               I probably would not use either. I would just look for friends in current circles rather than using an app. 

Interview #3

3. The prototypical customer is a 21 year old woman who is a full-time student.

4.

-How old are you and what is the nature of your student and working status (how long have they been of this status, where they work or go to school)

               Age: 21. I am currently a full time student. Been a full-time student since starting college in the Fall of 2014. I don't know if this counts as working, but from this past summer up until last month I helped with a research project (which was paid). I'm not working on the project this semester due to time, but I plan to continue this summer.

 -How many friends have you made in these new areas and how long did it take for the friendships to flourish?

               In college I'd say I have about 10 or so who I'm close with and hang out with outside of clubs and probably 20-something or so friends/acquaintances who I don't have much trouble talking to. About 95% of these people came from clubs (theatre and CRU). Most theatre friendships happened when I entered freshman year and for CRU it was sophomore. But I also made a few more friends for each as the years went by. For work, there's 8 or so on the team, but it fluctuates. My relationships with them are more mutual respect and colleague relationships. So there's not much of a "friendship" yet. But I do enjoy their company.

 -How difficult is/was it to make new/diverse friends in these settings?

               Not too difficult? I'm not too great at starting conversations, but I can hold one up pretty well when talking about mutual interests. In both cases of when I was new, I guess I'd normally stand in the corner or something and eventually someone would come over and talk to me. In another case, I had my very first friend group because my roommate at the time (who is still one of my close friends today) had a group from a trip and I kinda tagged along. I feel like I wouldn't really have much friends if I didn't join a club

 -Do you experience the need for new/diverse friends all the time or only sometimes?

              I think I'm good with the ones now. However, my answer would probably change since I'll be at my school another year to get my master's degree. Some of my friends will still be here, but it'll be a little more lonely though.

 -When did you first experience this need? Why?

         Definitely sophomore year. It was a little weird for me. Most of my friends were in the playhouse, but I didn't go as much as I did the year. My introversion was hitting really hard and my energy got drained fast. And because of that, I started feeling really alone and kinda depressed. I tried to remedy it my junior year by going to more club events and being more attentive to how and when my body would react     

 -How are you currently filling this void?

              All of my friends from theatre and CRU (a Christian organization) are filling the void.

 -How satisfied are you with this solution?

              I'm satisfied with the friends I have for now.

 -If you had an app or a specific place to meet friends, do you think you would use it and how frequently?

  (If the place was on campus) Definitely on-campus. I'd be more likely to visit this place by myself. For off-campus, I'd go with a friend and that requires extra planning. Troy, the town where my school is, can have some really sketchy looking places. Even though my apartment is a 5-7 minute walk from campus, I never walk home alone at night.

5) My three interviewees did not have as much trouble as I thought they would in making friends in life. I think age has a huge role to play in this, because the older you get, the fewer opportunities there are to form relationships. Interview #2 definitely struggled with this more than the other two and he was the oldest participant. One of the most surprising things that I learned was that if there was something in place to make new friends, the majority preferred a physical place over an app.

6) The opportunity is not as prevalent as I originally thought. All of the people I interviewed were already entrenched in social circles, despite the fact that they're shy and/or introverted. But, I do believe there is still a chance to find a solution to this problem that would benefit many people. My new opportunity A few people suggested ideas to improve my solution, like combining the app and the place where you meet online and talk in person. I think to an extent entrepreneurs should adapt to customer feedback, especially if they're new to the scene. On matters like how to run the business, the entrepreneur should stay firm and do what they think is best, but if it's feedback on the product, they should listen more often than not. It really depends on the situation. For me, these people's feedback really helped me to figure out a better way to manifest a solution to this opportunity and while my opportunity is still the same, I have better ways to solve it.