A popular method for many campus students is biking. To make life more convenient for many students, UF offers a rent-a-bike program for around $40 a semester; however, many students do not need a bike for the whole semester, so decide not to participate. My opportunity revolutionizes this system. Many popular cities have started providing residents with a bike program for convenient travel, called Citibike. Citibike is a program that harbors biking dock stations all across the city. At these stations, people can rent a bike at the click of a button, un-dock it and are free to use it as they please as long as they return it to any other biking dock. Adopting a program like Citibike on the UF campus would decrease cluster rack and allow students a quick alternative to walking especially when late to class. Here are the different types of questions I asked students:
1. Where do you live?
2. Do you own a bike or a scooter? If so, how often do you use it?
3. Have you ever wished you had quick and convenient access to a bike or scooter, especially when you were running late?
4. Would having a program like this make it easier and less stressful for when students are running late?
5. Do you think UF should implement a program like this?
Here is how students responded:
After interviewing potential customers, I think this would be a great program to implement on campus. When talking to customers who owned a bike, I realized many of them disliked having to keep up with the maintenance of a bike or that they hardly ever used their bike. For interviewees who didn't own a bike, they thought it would be extremely convenient to adopt a program like this. In addition, I learned that Student Government would easily be able to incorporate a program like this. Going up to random people, is not as hard as you might think.
Breaking the initial barrier to talking to someone new, may be hard for some, but after the first time, it was much easier. Another thing I learned, is that many people feel camera shy, and are feel more uncomfortable being interviewed than being the interviewer. Overall, I thought it was a very fun way to get to know what people thought of my idea.
Justin,
ReplyDeleteYour videos were pretty great! I feel like some of them sounded scripted, but if you had prefaced them with the questions that would be why it sounded that way. I think it would be a great idea as well! They actually have a system like that all over Europe. I would rent a bike in Madrid, ride it downtown, and turn it in to a different rental station for nearly 2 dollars. Taking a cab would have costed me close to 10 dollars, so this system does save money and time. Gainesville needs this for sure!
Check out my blog to see what I talked to my customers about!http://travismcafee.blogspot.com/2016/01/customer-interviews-no-1.html#comment-form
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ReplyDeleteHello Justin, your videos were interesting, as well as your idea. I actually take a Travel & Tourism class this semester and I literally read from the textbook about something similar in France. I believe it will be a great idea to introduce on the UF campus and I’m sure it will generate a lot of profits. Take a look at my post when you get a chance:
ReplyDeletehttp://jamalbrown4.blogspot.com/2016/01/customer-interviews-no-1.html