Business Ideas & Opportunities

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2.3 Idea evaluation

“Clear problem definition: there are at least three considerations in a clear problem

definition; the problem must be specifically stated; it must indicate the effect it has on the desired objective or goal and it must be substantiated by evidence.” (Misselhorn, 1978) With this in mind, we have chosen the problem that Angus proposed and decide to turn it into an opportunity. We figured that there are many devices out there that extends a phone’s battery life like portable chargers and power banks, as a result we shifted our focus from extending a phone’s battery life to protecting it instead. One of the most common charging practices we have found is that people charge their phones overnight. Charging your phone overnight keeps the battery in a high-stress, high-tension state, which wears down the chemistry within, degrading your battery’s health (batteryuniversity.com, 2016). As a result, we came up with the idea; a phone cable that stops charging once your phone reaches 100% charge.

We used the DIFA model as well during our idea evaluation (Rae, D., 2007):

Demand: there is a need, problem or potential demand to be satisfied. The problem being poor battery life.

Innovation: there is an idea for the product, service or experience to be provided. Our product IBolt, a cable that cuts off charging when your phone is fully charged.

Feasibility: the idea is technologically feasible; the technology involved in our product already exists

Attractiveness: the potential reward and the level of interest to the entrepreneur. We will personally benefit from this idea as we are all iPhone users.

3.0 Prototyping and testing

3.1 Customer discovery

“Moving from an idea to a viable opportunity is an iterative process. Entrepreneurs need to conduct a series of tests - what we refer to as market tests - to identify interesting ideas and then see whether they are” (Bygrave, W. and Zacharis, 2011).Customer discovery takes initial vision and turns it into a series of business model hypotheses and systematically tests them ( Steve Blank, 2014). With both these theories in mind, we created questionnaires as well as conducted online research. We survey 60 people from different age groups, but the the main demographic was people from ages 15-25 years old as this is the age group that has the most intensive usage of their phones. From our survey results as seen below, the practice of charging phones overnight is quite common.

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In addition, according to research done by International Data Corporation (IDC), battery life ranks number 1 as one of the top 10 smartphone purchase drivers.(Arthur Charles, 2014)

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With the information of charging habits of consumers as well as how highly battery life is valued to consumers when purchasing a smartphone, we decided to verify and persevere with our idea.

3.2 Building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

“Low-fidelity prototypes are generally limited function, limited interaction prototyping efforts. They are constructed to depict concepts, design alternatives, and screen layouts… These prototypes are created to communicate, educate, and inform.” (Laura Busche, 2014). At this stage, we are only able to build a low fidelity MVP as even though the current technology for our product exists, some research and development still has to be done in order to produce a working prototype.

3.3 Customer validation

Customer validation tests whether the resulting business model is repeatable and scalable. Using the business model canvas (Alexander Osterwalder, 2008), our key activities include creating awareness through social media means of the effects of charging your phones overnight and how our product solves the issue. We use social media platforms like Facebook as well as created a website that displayed the product features. Our website also allows customers to post their feedback on as well as rate our products on Amazon and eBay once they are on the market. Distribution channels include ordering from our website or Amazon/eBay.

Our survey results showed that most people are willing to pay 10-20 pounds, which is about the average cost of an iPhone cable.

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In addition, 72% of the 60 people surveyed are willing to buy a separate cable if it protects their iPhone’s battery life.

4.0 Team performance

4.1 Distribution of Roles

“A critical issue that can impede the success of teams is a lack of clarity regarding the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of the various agencies and/or individuals who compose its membership.” (Collaborative justice, 2013). Thus we split our roles amongst ourselves; research, marketing, sales and finance namely. With clear roles and responsibilities, our team was able to perform and progress in the right direction with the development of our product.

4.2 Team evaluation (Trade Fair)

Our team performed fairly decent, everyone was able to sufficiently contribute to the project as we have defined our roles clearly. During the trade fair, we started off our pitch with a roleplay on how our initial product idea was conceived to keep it interesting. We were able to present our work clearly during the pitch and kept our stand relatively entertaining and interactive with a quiz and a free charging station for iPhone users.

5.0 Self-reflection

5.1 Contribution

I was assigned the role of researcher, thus I was responsible for the online research of the product; whether the product is technologically possible as well as a bit of the science behind lithium-ion batteries and overcharging them. I was also responsible for the collation of the survey results and making them into bar and pie charts, as well as the business model canvas.

5.2 Individual performance / strengths and weaknesses

We were required to take the Belbin test before the formation of our groups and the results of the test revealed