19A – Idea Napkin No. 2

1. I am a Computer Science student at the University of Florida, I grew up in Melbourne which has the highest concentration of engineers in the country outside of Silicon Valley. My father was an engineer turned attorney turned venture capitalist. Due to this I have been around tech startups my entire life and have always imagined myself working for one.

2. Historic sites in Europe are in a state of ruin after hundreds or thousands of years of existence. It is often difficult to imagine how the site originally looked all those years ago. Augmented Reality meets this problem by allowing people to actually see how the site looked.

3. I am focusing on augmenting travel rather than just simulating it. This means that I am mostly focusing on upper middle to upper class customers since they have enough money to travel to these sites. I see the main use of my product at historic sites so it would mostly be used by those with some interest in history. An entire customer profile could be found in the previous blog post.

4. Customers will believe this experience is valuable to them because its cool and interesting. No one else is currently offering this experience so we would be the customers only option.

5. As I said in the previous post my core competencies are my technical and programming knowledge. An issue many engineers face is communication problems. I believe I have much better communication skills than the average engineer that puts me at a huge advantage.

I believe all the elements of my idea napkin fit together. The biggest problem I face is the technology behind the Augmented Reality. It would take a lengthy and probably expensive development process to develop it.

The feedback exercises in this class are kind of ridiculous I believe. The feedback you receive and give generally is not very useful I believe and does not help in doing the 2nd version of the project. That being said The first point I took away was I had to be clearer that I want to do Augmented Reality not Virtual Reality. This is a distinction that many people do not understand. The second point  I got was people agreed that making it look realistic enough would be very difficult.

18A – Create a Customer Avatar

My customer is an American or Western European tourist. Probably between the ages of 20-60. If they are on the upper end of this range, they don't feel old. If you asked them they'd say their a "cool old person". Since they can afford to be traveling I believe they are at least middle class. For Americans probably upper middle class since going to Europe is expensive. They are technically friendly, meaning they don't get intimidated by technology, the younger someones age the better for this often.

They enjoy reading and enjoy reading history and historical fiction. They may or may not have children. If they do have children they are not young but rather teenagers or adults. Since they are interested in history enough to pay for an enhanced view of these sites they must have an interest in history. Its a very intellectual experience your paying for so I believe that the person would probably be well educated. They are probably socially liberal, do to a willingness to try new things.

I believe I am very similar to my customer avatar and for good reason. I thought about using VR and AR to enhance travel while I was standing in the colosseum. I was standing there thinking of how cool it would be to see it in its former glory. In that moment I absolutely would have purchased a VR or AR headset so I could get a better feeling of the place.

I feel that this might not actually be my most ideal customer in reality. Maybe the asian tourist market would be more friendly to the idea. However this is impossible to know without proper market research.

17A – Elevator Pitch No. 2

I had two comments of feedback on my first elevator pitch. Both were positive and did not offer any specific suggestions of things to change. I think expecting us to get and receive feedback from our classmates is kind of ridiculous. We are all at the same point so we will probably all be making the same mistakes meaning no one will point out those mistakes in there feedback. Also people generally will be very nice in their feedback, even if it is not the truth, to avoid hurting others feelings.

The closest thing to criticism i received was one person voicing concern about how people would feel about it since its not "the real thing". My idea would be used to supplement the experience of going to see the real thing not replace it. There will be technology that is completely virtual tourism, going to sites without ever leaving your living room through VR. However while it is not "the real thing" it is meant to be an alternative for those who cannot afford travel, not as a replacement for those who can.

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

1)

• I was not aware of Elon Musk's childhood in South Africa and how it affected him to this day.
• The thing I admire most about Elon Musk is his tenacity and innovative spirit. He has succeeded many times and immediately poured that money back into his next venture. He is not afraid to try and fail to make his ideas become reality.
• This thing I admire least about him is his obsession to work. He has no work life balance and is known to be extremely compassionate towards others. This led to his wife leaving him.
• He has faced adversity many times. Growing up in South Africa he was bullied and then he emigrated to the United States, no easy task. He was ousted from Paypal and could have simply retired but he instead turned around and started another company.

2) He achieves the unbelievable and does what many think is impossible. I believe this is because of the dedication to work he demands from all his employees. Above I said it is something I do not admire about him, and i dont. But I believe it is a trait that was necessary his success.

3) Elon Musk himself confuses me. He is a very eccentric man and I often wonder if he often has motivations we do not understand. I dont mean that in a sinister way but it would not surprise me if there were things that he did not tell the general public.

4) I would ask him about his future plans for Tesla and Space Ex. Both are massive companies known across the world but they are not profitable yet. How does he plan to keep them afloat in the long run if they do not become profitable. I would ask him about what other ideas he has that he simply has not shared with the world yet.

5) Elon Musk is well known for his work ethic. He often takes it to extremes sacrificing in other areas like his personal life. He is also known to demand the same from his employees. While I do believe in working hard I also believe in a work life balance. I think Elon Musk takes hard work to an unhealthy extreme.

15A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

1) Interview 1 -  The first person i interviewed was my mother. She is currently visiting eastern Europe. She reported that price compared to quality mattered the most. Since this is already an expensive vacation I think many people may be willing to spend a little extra for a potentially once in a life time experience.

They are most likely to us a credit card if the service was offered from a physical location near the historical site. If the service was offered where there was not a physical location and it could exist only using hardware the customer already has such as a phone it would change the distribution method. It would then be strictly software so customers would buy it through an online store.

The quality of the experience is what determines whether the purchase was worth it for her.

2) Interview 2 - The second person I interviewed was my old employer. He just went on his honeymoon. He said that if the experience was really amazing he would be willing to rent special hardware to experience it. If the experience was pretty good he would be willing to use it only if it could be run on a phone or tablet.

He would be most likely to download the service online to a mobile device. Probably thought the apple app store or the google play store.

The easier we make it to use this software with minimal hardware the more people will be willing to use it. This would also eliminate a lot of cost in having actual physical locations.

3) Interview 3 - The third [person I interviewed was the wife of my former employer, mentioned above. For the most part she agreed with her husband. She said her husband would probably buy it since he is more technically savvy. This made me realize that there are non-tech people who may be intimidated by the service but would be interested in what it has to offer. One point she did raise was that it might be a deterrent if the AR headset looks bad. People will not want to walk around wearing it if it is ugly and strange looking.

14A – Halfway Reflection

1) Success is all about getting into good habits. Though starting these good habits may be hard at first the result is extremely rewarding. I believe a big part of being able to stay tenacious is to not procrastinate. You will be under a lot less stress in the long run.

2) I never felt like giving up on this course but I have felt like not doing assignments before, especially when i was busy studying for other exams. You just cant even accept not doing work as an option. If you work hard you will succeed.

3) Tips

• One good habit for this class is to read the assignments well in advance. Many assignments require a fair amount of preparatory work.
• The next is watch the online lectures, they will give you a good perspective to write from for the blog posts.
• Finally, pay attention to businesses around you. They can provide a lot of good inspiration.

10A – Elevator Pitch No. 1

12A – Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

1. The segment I am picking is American tourists visiting historical European sites.

2. I don't know anyone currently visiting Europe but I do know people who have visited in the past. These people are also likely to visit again so they are a good example of our target market.

3. Interview 1 - The first person I interviewed was my father. Two summers ago we traveled to Europe together where we came up with the idea for an augmented reality experience. He is most aware of the need while planning for a vacation or once he is actually at the site itself. The more historic and ruined the site the more aware of the need he became.

Interview 2 - The second person I interviewed was my roommates mom who just cam back from visiting Europe. She had never thought of this before but said that if she was aware of this need while there she would have been willing to search for a solution. If there had been a physical place renting units or she had seen people walking around with units this probably would have made her realize the need and she would have rented one as well.

Interview 3 - The third person I interviewed was my grandmother who is planning a trip to Italy. She was completely unaware of this need and I had to give her a fairly through explanation of what augmented reality was. Once she understood she thought it was super cool and wanted to try it. However she said the only way she would do it is if it was all set up for her and all she had to do was put it on. I think many older people who are not as comfortable with technology would feel this way.

4. They google their need first. They look at tourism blogs and reviews of places. They also look at a sites website if it has one, and for tour agencies. They generally search for virtual and augmented reality or use the names of popular VR devices like google cardboard. Sites must be in English to cater to American tourists. Then after google they turn to friends or family that have visited that or other similar sites. 

5. Most people are not aware of the need. People are willing to download an app but augmented reality, AR, requires some viewing device.If people are actually on location already they are willing to look around for something they can rent. People often realize this need while on site but do not think of it before getting there.

6. This segment is often not aware of this need simply because it is something they have never thought of before. However upon hearing or realizing about the need most people become interested in finding a solution. Some are willing to search for a solution harder than others but most are at least willing to do a quick google search. Unfortunately AR requires a viewing device, even if it is phone based AR. This would mean there would probably have to be some sort of device rental service on site.

11A – Idea Napkin No. 1

1. My name is Lee and I'm a sophomore computer science student. I think my biggest talent is my programming ability. Iv grown up around tech start-ups my entire life, with my dad working as a venture capitalist. I have also worked for tech start-ups in the past and am currently working for one now. If there is one thing I know about start-ups is there is only one way to go in and thats all the way. Especially with tech start-ups it seems the only way to be successful is to allow it to consume your life and work long hours. However the pay off in the end can be huge. Personally I am willing to make that trade off.

2. I am offering a way for people visiting various locations to enhance that experience through Augmented Reality. This could mean many things such as changing the way a place looks to more resemble its past, to adding npc characters to really bring a place to life.

3. I am focusing on augmenting travel rather than just simulating it. This means that I am mostly focusing on upper middle to upper class customers probably. I see the main use of my product at historic sites so it would mostly be used by those with some interest in history.

4. Millennials focus on experiences rather than material objects more than any other generation in the past. An experience is what my product is offering. I believe that most people would believe it is worth a little extra money to enhance their experiences when traveling.

5. Several things set me apart, the first is my programming ability and general technical knowledge. The second is my experience having worked for and around startups in the past I have an inside look at what it takes.

The biggest weakness of my business is making the Augmented Reality look real enough for the customers. This will take a lot of technical talent and probably require a lot of very complicated math. It will also require an artist which I am not. I would need to find and recruit someone, preferably with some experience in 3d modeling.