4A - Forming an Opportunity Belief

     The unmet need I have an opportunity belief about is unreliable buses in Gainesville. This
includes buses passing people waiting by the bus stop, buses showing up late or early to the bus stop, and when the RTS app shows a bus as arriving in 15 minutes (so you walk to the bus stop to wait for it) only to show up at the bus stop and realize that bus is no longer running because the driver's shift is over, and the next bus really isn't coming for another forty minutes.

     The people who have this unmet need are people who ride the RTS buses, who are primarily
college students.

     The need is relatively new since the RTS apps have only been around for at most a few years.
Buses have always been unreliable, and the app has helped more to predict when the next bus will
come, but the app is so unreliable that it barely helps. The app doesn't account for when buses stop
running or have shift changes, so they always predict that the bus will arrive, for example, in 30
minutes, even if the bus is scheduled to stop running in 10 minutes.

      I'm not sure what people as individuals can do to help this unmet need right now, but I'm sure
whoever developed the app must do updates and fix bugs at least. Maybe they're already working on
this problem with the app.

     I am 100% sure this problem (opportunity) exists, because I experience it almost every single day.
I rely on the bus for transportation because I don't have a car, and it is infuriating to waste my time
waiting for a bus that isn't actually coming. I always check the RTS app before I leave the house to
make sure the bus is predicted to be 10 minutes away, and all too often I'll make the trek to my bus
stop only to check the app again and read "No Prediction" or "Out of Service" and the next bus for
the same route isn't coming for another hour. This has happened to me countless times and it's such a waste of my time and energy.

     My prototypical customer would be college students who use the RTS bus system regularly, so I
spoke to some UF students who, like me, rely on the buses to get around Gainesville.


INTERVIEWS

Q1: How often would you say you use the RTS bus system to get around Gainesville?

Customer H: Right now almost every day.
Customer M: All the time!
Customer B: Everyday, 2-3 times a day.

Q2: Do you use the RTS app to predict when the bus is supposed to come? And if yes are there any
 issues with it?

H: Yes, I'd say the tracker is reliable but the time estimation is not, as it takes into account how long it will take the bus to reach the stop and doesn't account for the breaks that the buses take to get back on  schedule.
M: It's usually fine, but if my wifi or LTE connection gets weak it can get a bit unreliable.
B: Yes and yes! Sometimes it'll glitch and say it's far away but in reality it's super close, like a block
or two closest.

Q3: Have you ever been late before because of the unreliability of the app?

H: He** yeah I have! Actually I missed the bus today and had to walk to Cabana Beach to catch the
21.
M: I haven't had the experience yet, most of the time when I use the bus it's the 38 route during the
busier periods so they're all running [frequently].
B: Yes, I think but not too much. Like maybe once.

Q4: Is there anything you could do now to make sure you aren't late even if the app messes up?

H: I do try to get there early! Sometimes I just think I can make it last minute (I can't).
B: I try to leave earlier [so I can catch the bus on time]!


REFLECTION

Two of my prototypical customers experienced the same problems I did with the RTS app, but one of
them did not. He had only taken the bus during the busiest time of the day, when the most buses are
up and running and bus drivers aren't having shift changes or taking breaks. This made me realize
that maybe the problem (opportunity) isn't as big as I previously thought, since it may not happen to
everyone who uses the buses.

I think the opportunity is still there, just not to the degree that I thought before, since one of my
prototypical customers uses the bus but hasn't experienced glitches in the app and unreliability that
causes lateness like the other customers had.

I believe that my new opportunity is more accurate than when I first started, because now I know that
the problems I experience with the RTS app aren't universal, and may even depend on how good the
4G or LTE connection is if I happen to be outside, or if the wifi connection is weak if I'm inside.

Entrepreneurs should adapt their opportunity beliefs to meet needs expressed by prototypical
customers. If they stay too firm to their original idea, their product might not meet the exact needs a
customer would have, or the entrepreneur might miss an opportunity to create an even better product.