What Does Thou Haveth on the Morrow?

Assignment 25A: What's Next

Existing Market

Step 1: Talk about what you think is what's next in terms of products and services for your venture.

As far as expanding and what’s next, I think the best route for what’s next is to work on new experiences for the customer.  How can I get them what they want in the most authentic way possible?  What experiences do they want to have next?  Learning these things will help me gain more insight in what they want.  They want their own experiences in the software, so how can I customize each experience so that it feels like their own when using my product.

Step 2: Interview three customers who are already part of the market you have identified, and ask them what they believe is next for a venture like yours. Describe to them your business, and simply ask "What should we be doing that we aren't planning to do?" Next, ask them about your ideas of what customers might want next. 

What I received from my current market is for there to be more exciting histories and wars that are interactable.  What if the South won the Civil War?  They want questions like that answered.  I also asked about my ideas on making it more customizable and they said that would be amazing to put their own experiences in and see how things would play out if they acted differently.

Step 3: Based on your own expectations and the feedback you received from customers, set a path for the future. In two to three paragraphs, describe what makes the most sense for your venture in terms of growing in your existing market.

Growing in anything is a learning experience.  This is especially true for entrepreneurs, and for entrepreneurs with something completely new and different.  Because this is like a video game met a movie/television and had a baby more than anything, I will have to learn how best to create experiences that customers can indulge in and stay and play in for a while.

Additionally, the future holds a lot of trial and error, which I am ready for.  I think this will be a learning curve, so if I fail, I will be okay with it but I will come back even harder and work relentlessly until this is a product that will make at least some people happy.

New Market

Step 1: Identify a radically different market from what you're currently planning to target. If you're currently targeting B2B, think about going after a B2C market. If you're currently targeting an affluent part of society, think about targeting a very poor part of society.

The radically different market I want to target is politics and maybe even a target audience of those who have mental disabilities. 

Step 2: Once you have identified a radically different market, describe how you think your venture concept might be able to create value for people in that market. You may have to get creative with this -- that's OK -- and perfectly welcome!

The politics one will show them how they can go down in history or how they can better themselves and their politics to help rather than to hurt.  This will make both sides of the political party have more sympathy and empathy.  Additionally, the disabled community will get life lessons using this virtual reality technology.

Step 3: Interview two people from this new market. Again, describe to each interviewee what your concept is. Then, ask them how they think your business might be help to meet customers like them. What kinds of adaptations to the product/service mix do they think you should make to be successful in this new market? 

My friend Dennis was one of the people I interviewed, as he wants to be involved in politics when he graduates law school.  He said that this would be a really cool idea and help politicians get closer to the people they are suppose to be representing.  He said just going to law schools and political buildings would be the best way to meet them in person, but social media like Twitter is really effective too.

Step 4:  Reflect, in two to three paragraphs, on what you learned about this new market. What surprised you the most? Were any of your expectations/assumptions correct? Does this new market, on second thought, appear to be as attractive as your existing market? And so on. 

What I learned in boating school is…  WHAT I LEARNED IN BOATING SCHOOL IS….!!!!

But really.  What I learned about this new market is that  it would help everyone, not just those in the market.  This is due to helping people in power become more aware of their actions, creating better laws and such.  Nothing really surprised me as a lot of my assumptions were correct.  I don’t like this market as much as my entertainment one,  but it is still lucrative I believe.