7A Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

People get drenched in rain walking from place to place on campus.

Opportunity- Product or service that keeps people dry as they move around campus. I have decided to pursue my idea of a Rent-a-bella product. 

• The Who: Students walking around on campus that walk from class to class in the rain.
• The What: Finding a way to prevent getting soaked walking to class.
• The Why: There is no efficient product/service that is convenient for walking and easy to pack/dry/dispose of after use. bringing your own umbrella every day is inefficient, tedious.

Testing the Three Elements of my Hypothesis-

• Testing the Who: Other people who might benefit from a Rent-a-Brella service include faculty and administrative employees at the University of Florida, as well as service and maintenance employees without access to a golf cart or service truck. Students that live on campus could have access to Rent-a-Brella locations at every student dormitory on campus. 
• Testing the What: Rent-a-Brella locations would need to be under safe cover where small amounts of water can drain. There would need to be a system of customer accountability in place where umbrellas are either locked, marked/located, or exchanged for some sort of collateral. 
• Testing the Why: Many students often carry personal umbrellas with them on campus but when it rains for only one or two hours of the day this becomes inefficient. Students/faculty members also don't like carrying wet umbrellas on their person into classrooms or around campus. Students cannot use a Rent-a-Brella on scooters or longboards, which limits our consumer base. 

Interviews-

• Interview #1- UF online student.
• In my interview with robby, I learned that he is not on campus often for the traditional afternoon Florida rains, which means he would not be a daily user of Rent-a-Brella. However, he did say that he often studies late at the library, and sometimes he has to get coffee or food in the rain. I believe the Rent-a-Brella would be perfect for a situation like this where someone is leaving and returning to the same location in a short period of time when raining. 
• Interview #2- BioChem undergraduate student.
• In my interview with Matt, I learned very quickly that he spends the majority of every weekday on campus, often times staying on campus for up to 12 or 14 hours at a time. Matt has classes on campus every day, studies at libraries all over campus in the afternoon and performs research at the Biochemistry lab in the evenings. Matt said he feels he would be a top consumer for the Rent-a-Brella service because he walks to multiple locations on campus almost, if not, every day. This is encouraging because Matt's backpack is already full of textbooks and notebooks every day, discouraging the idea of bringing an umbrella in his backpack or scooter every day. Matt and I both felt like the Rent-a-Brella concept would be a great benefit to him.
• Interview #3- IT Department employee at the University of Florida Law School/The Hub
• In my interview with Mr. Brown I was able to stray away from the opinions and ideas of the student population, testing my opportunity with an adult, full-time employee at UF. Furthermore, Allen works between two different locations on campus, making him the perfect interviewee. Allen said he often walks to get lunch from the law school to the midtown restaurants on University Avenue, a perfect situation for a Rent-a-Brella if raining. He also said he walks or takes the bus for meetings or lunch at the Hub, another perfect situation for a Rent-a-Brella, if raining.  
• Interview #4- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Professor, UF
• In my interview with my professor, I tried to take advantage of my first time formally interviewing a UF faculty member by trying to get an understanding of what her daily routine was/is like. As an undergraduate student with no TA experience, I did not really know how professors get to campus, nor how often they walk on campus. To my delight, I found that my professor has to walk back and forth between the classrooms in which she teaches and her office where she manages her email, grades papers, and holds meetings with students. I also found that much like the IT dept. employee, she gets food and some of the places at midtown and on campus. I think she is a great potential customer for the Rent-a-Brella.
• Interview #5- Beaty Towers/Jennings Hall Maintenance Worker
• My interview with the maintenance worker I know at Beaty also provided me a formal chance to get a unique perspective into a completely unknown daily routine of an individual on campus. In this interview I found out that most workers, including the man I spoke to, drive or bus onto campus early in the morning, then walk to the specific facility or place they work. This could be a potential time for workers to need Rent-a-Brellas but it depends on the specific worker and where they are going. Once working, this man said most workers have a cart with roof or truck they can use to get from site to site on campus. 

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

• I can be positive that someone will use the Rent-a-Brella on campus.
• Faculty members and administration/department workers seem to walk around almost as much or more than students. 
• Rent-a-Brellas would be convenient at major bus stops and eating locations on campus. 
• Rent-a-Brellas could service people 24 hours of the day, with students studying on campus at all times of the day.