Testing the hypothesis 7A

Chad Girnun

Testing the Hypothesis

1. The opportunity I have identified is that a lot of college students living in dorms are too lazy or too busy to go and clean their dorm rooms. As a result, there are a lot of other students in dorms that have the free time and would like to make a profit by cleaning the rooms of these people that live down the hall or in the same dorm from them.

2. The who: Dorm rooms in college campuses

The what: Some students have dorm rooms that are unable to clean because of time constraints or energy. This creates dirty dorm rooms and kids that have a demand to clean them.

The Why: These students may be willing to pay other students that live close to them in their dorm room to quickly clean their rooms. Because it would be pairing a student in the same dorm with another, it takes out transportation issues and costs that many Freshman in college living in dorms aren’t able to handle.

3. Testing the who: Through my interviews and insistent talks with my friends, I have realized that other people aside from me also have this issue. A lot of students that are going through their first semester of college are having trouble adjusting to time constraints as well as the ability to keep after their own living space, something they might’ve had help with their parents doing.

Testing the what: Some kids might only have rooms that are messy because of clothes everywhere and don’t want other people touching their personal belongings. Others may have a dirty or dusty room and may want that cleaned. Others may want people to help make their bed, or clean kitchen utensils that they use in the common area dorm kitchen. The range for what one person might want clean may differ. It could be something that a student isn’t used to cleaning, or something that they don’t have time for. I think that the variation of what people want depends on the type of person, what they used to clean before college, and what they are comfortable with having someone clean.

Testing the Why: The biggest why question is why would someone pay another student living in the same dorm to clean their room. Another added on problem to this question is if they agreed to pay what would that price be and for how long would they need someone to clean their room. A two hour clean would be absurd for such a small dorm room but a thirty minute clean would be completely acceptable. A variation has to be found of what is acceptable to ask and what time.

Interview 1: Max Goldstein

I saw Max Goldstein walking through Turlington on crutches. The reason that this is vital to the interview is because Max now has limited ability to clean after himself. He fractured his knee and won’t be able to be as mobile as he would like, especially to clean up a dorm room. After introducing the idea of having someone else be paid to clean his room, Max enjoyed the idea. The money to him was well worth being spent because it took away the stress of cleaning his own room because he was unable to do so. This expanded my understanding of who would need their room to be cleaned. People injured or sick, which happens often for freshman, could become a target audience for this particular service. This is a short summary because the most notable part about this interview is the fact that Max expanded my idea of what a customer for this service could be.

Interview 2: Molly Chepenik

After interviewing Molly, it expanded my what. Molly is a sophomore living in an off-campus house. Previously I only thought this service would apply to people with an issue cleaning their dorm rooms and it would be solved by others living in their dorms because it eliminated the issues of transportation. However, I became aware through Molly that this issue also faces a lot of upperclassmen living in apartments as well. The only issue here is that this service was supposed to eliminate the transportation aspect of the cleaning service. This made me reconsider whether adding transportation would be beneficial or whether it would deter people that would clean other dorms from traveling to apartments because a lot of freshman on campus here don’t have a mode of transportation.

Interview 3: Dylan Weingarden

Dylan is a college student that attends the University of Michigan. I wanted to use Dylan to see whether this issue applies to other colleges or just the University of Florida student body. Dylan, just like Max, expanded my who. More than expanding my who, Dylan made it obvious that this idea has a wider appeal than the University of Florida campus. Obviously to start this service it would be easier to create on a University of Florida plan because I am familiar with the campus, however, it is positive to know that the niche of who would use this service could be a lot larger than I originally anticipated. For me it was vital that I interviewed someone from a different school because it allowed me to better understand how well my idea applies outside of the Gainesville bubble.

Interview 4: Sarah Falkin

Interviewing Sarah became difficult for me. At first Sarah told me that she was really interested in the service. However, as the interview went on, Sarah no longer seemed interested in the idea of someone else cleaning her room. Although it was hard talking to someone outside of my target audience, Sarah did offer some ideas. One really positive idea that I feel should be available to make students more comfortable is a 15-minute meet and great with whoever their room cleaner is in order to help whoever is cleaning your room to feel less like a stranger and more like a friend. This idea helps at to the how of my idea. Even though this wasn’t a question specifically asked, I feel that the how it gets done is extremely important to the idea.

Interview 5: Michael Bruck

After interviewing Michael Bruck, I realized I met the ideal customer. Michael met my expectation of who would use this service in every manner. Michael wasn’t exceptionally dirty, meaning that no one would have a real problem in cleaning his room. Additionally, Michael was extremely busy with his schedule and having a harder time adjusting to his new college schedule. Lastly, and most importantly, Michael felt that this would be a good use of his money. This helped to reassure me that who I thought would be interested in my product and why they would be and what the product did, were accurate.

5. Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 

The huge opportunity that I gained from interviewing these five people is that this idea can expand to other universities. In my interview with Dylan I touched on this, I think it was eye opening to know how applicable my concept was to other universities.