SUDDEN FEELING OF AN IDEA

I was just lounging around after a hard day of lifting weights when it occurred to me that I felt there was something missing here in Gainesville. As though there were a hole that a certain someone could fill up, in other words an opportunity.

Returning to the first idea I created in my listed problem post, there is a large problem in the suburban communities of dead animal carcasses. This is a problem that affects everyone who lives in the area, as the more compassionate elderly and children find it hard to live with themselves and their willful ignorance of these animals and the concerned adults fear the potential diseases that could spread. To be honest this is kind of a problem that has always existed in this area and most areas I've been in, and right now I don't know what anyone is doing to help out with these problems except for the construction workers who come on to the roads where the animals lay. I pass by the same dead cat daily on my bus ride home from UF, just to give an idea of the problem. I'm fairly confident (about 75%) there is potential for an idea here, but I'll need to ask some prototypical customers to see the true potential for this idea.

Customer 1 says that she thinks the idea for an app of some sorts to locate animal carcasses on a communal-based software is a good idea, as she has noticed that there were often dead animals by the road since she attained sentience. Likely because people tend to hit animals with their cars. She says that the problem should be fix mainly because they are smelly and a detriment to our community health. Also some explode due to build up of gas. I learned from talking to her that I am not the only one who feels these carcasses are detrimental to the community and that a solution would have to be based on communication between all people who notice these things.

Customer 2 said that the idea is interesting but also pointed out that there are similar existing groups on Facebook who dedicate themselves to finding lost pets, sometimes found dead on the road. That said, he still thinks that this idea could take the foundation of this community-based system and expand it beyond Facebook groups and potentially make some ad revenue. I was surprised to hear that there are such groups already existing, and the thought of locating pets didn't occur to me either. If I were to add an addition to this project related entirely to whether or not the animal was wild or not I'm sure there'd be more interest.

Customer 3 thinks that the idea needs more work due to it's relatively skeletal structure in terms of a functioning app. As an idea, yes, he's encountered the problem more than enough in his nineteen years of life, but overall the problem needs a more grounded solution than simply developing a community-based app. Currently, his solution is designed on direct communal action such as signs for where animals should be wary or even building fences for where deer or dogs may cross. His reaction most certainly was something that I had considered; if this app actually becoming the new standard for how we deal with roadkill I'd be very surprised. That said, he did mention something I did not find myself expecting and that was how does this service directly solve the problem? You need to be more direct than simply calling up dead animals services; you need to go out and take direct action by informing the community of the problem and maybe even like containers for the carcasses. Might not work out but I like the idea so far.

Wow, that was actually pretty interesting. Not everyone liked the idea but everyone did have something to add to it that is pretty goddamn beneficial if I do say so myself. In terms of my first guess being true, it turns off I was farther than I had imagined. I had hoped to knock this one out of the pack in one fell swoop, but it looks like I need more ideas on how to improve this. With regards to how much an entrepreneur should bend to the audience, well that is extremely contextual. I know from my experience in the games industry that more often than not businesses are criticized by fans for either never changing or changing too much. Both of which are directly at the fault of people making inaccurate measurements on how much their fans actually want the changes they're suggesting. So overall, right now I should listen to every customer. At a point, though, I must have a grasp on what I'm doing here.