Assignment 4A – Forming An Opportunity Belief
I have a strong belief that there can be a change in our monetary systems. Simply , why must we convert our money into all different types of currency when we travel. Why are the people and businesses slaves to banks and institutional monetary systems. Businesses also pay a price in the systems created by banks and credit cards companies.
What is the unmet need
A simple way to spend money overseas (and online) and not having to be charged exorbitant fees for doing so
Who has the need
Tourists, immigrants, exchange students ,business travelers and their companies.
Where did the need come from
The problem of needing to change money when travelling has always existed and we just accepted it as a fact. We still face the problem of having small amount of foreign money or loose change after a holiday/vacation trip.
What are people doing to meet this need now
They currently use bank credit cards or debit cards, some of which has made spending a little easier , but still require one to convert money. Otherwise, consumers will still have to pay banks fees for paying in foreign currency or have to go to money changers to change their money but also pay a small difference via the buy-sell exchange rates. Very few people are attempting to use cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency payment systems for retail and transactions due to low adoption.
How sure I am this opportunity exists? 100%
Prototypical Customer 1
Profile - Exchange student
What?
Want to be able to use debit card overseas for purchases and withdrawing money , but the country they are going to does not have their bank and ATMs
When?
When the person was preparing to travel to the country , the person realised they had to either convert the money beforehand and carry a lot of money onto the plane or setup a bank account overseas before wiring in the money.
How long?
When preparing for the exchange programme for several weeks.
When did they first become aware of the need?
Recently had the problem ,but recalled the trouble of having to change money when travelling
Why?
Needed to have the local currency to make purchases while living there so there was no other choice but to get the foreign currency some way or another.
How are they currently addressing their need?
Registered with another bank which had branches in the exchange country.
How satisfied are they with this solution?
No. Had problems setting up the bank account in the home country and was very fed up with the system as they wanted documents while the person was already travelling overseas. Said there is definitely a better way to spending money in multiple countries and to use their debit card overseas without having to pay a fee every time they make a transaction.
Prototypical Customer 2
Profile - Frequent Traveler
What?
Wants a easy way to spend money overseas and not having to keep track of all the different currencies
When?
Everytime they travel
How long?
Since the person started travelling
When did they first become aware of the need?
After a few trips to different countries , having to keep the remaining foreign currency became a hassle. Even a popular local budget airline charges additional fees for online payments and requires people to go through a more complicated way of payment to lower the fees
Why?
Hard to keep track of all the conversion rates and different notes for each country which can only be spent in that one country
How are they currently addressing their need?
Just organizing the money properly.
How satisfied are they with this solution?
No. Said there should already have been a solution for this but banks are charging so high fees for such a simple conversion of (digital) digits in your bank account.
Prototypical Customer 3
Profile - Frequent shopper (including online)
What?
Wants to be able to pay for goods overseas without having to worry if there are charges for conversion of currency when billed.
When travelling overseas to shop, would be better if they could use their local bank card to pay instead.
When?
When looking at some websites which do not have currency conversion or do not explicitly say if they allow payment in a different currency.
When overseas shopping , have to face the issue all the time.
How long?
Over several years
When did they first become aware of the need?
When they first started try getting goods from foreign countries/websites
When they started travelling more often to shop overseas
Why?
It became irritating after while especially since they had to keep track of all the different currencies
How are they currently addressing their need?
Nothing much. Tries to use as many vouchers and cards with rebates to get as much back as possible.
Keeps all the foreign money in a drawer.
How satisfied are they with this solution?
Indifferent about the hassle as they cant do much about it. Would find it better if everything is consolidated.
Summary
How much of your original opportunity is still there?
I think there is much opportunity to explore this issue and issues revolving around it.
I would want to focus on the merchant/business side of it as the merchants are the one who need to accept the solution for consumers to use it.
Do you believe that your new opportunity is more accurate than when you started?
Yes. I believe there are two sides to the opportunity : the merchants and the consumer. I believe making it available for consumers to easily adopt my idea would enable wider adoption from consumers and hence creating a network effect / rippling effect that makes the solution mainstream.
How much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback? (In other words, is there a trade-off between adapting and staying firm?)
We should always listen to customers but in the end, customers may not have the vision that you have and will only think of the "now" and not the future. Disrupting the status quo requires vision that many people and businesses would rarely think about. This is why we should apply a iterative approach to solutions , so we can still keep to our true values but adapt bit by bit with the market.
What is the unmet need
A simple way to spend money overseas (and online) and not having to be charged exorbitant fees for doing so
Who has the need
Tourists, immigrants, exchange students ,business travelers and their companies.
Where did the need come from
The problem of needing to change money when travelling has always existed and we just accepted it as a fact. We still face the problem of having small amount of foreign money or loose change after a holiday/vacation trip.
What are people doing to meet this need now
They currently use bank credit cards or debit cards, some of which has made spending a little easier , but still require one to convert money. Otherwise, consumers will still have to pay banks fees for paying in foreign currency or have to go to money changers to change their money but also pay a small difference via the buy-sell exchange rates. Very few people are attempting to use cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency payment systems for retail and transactions due to low adoption.
How sure I am this opportunity exists? 100%
Prototypical Customers
Profile - Exchange student
What?
Want to be able to use debit card overseas for purchases and withdrawing money , but the country they are going to does not have their bank and ATMs
When?
When the person was preparing to travel to the country , the person realised they had to either convert the money beforehand and carry a lot of money onto the plane or setup a bank account overseas before wiring in the money.
How long?
When preparing for the exchange programme for several weeks.
When did they first become aware of the need?
Recently had the problem ,but recalled the trouble of having to change money when travelling
Why?
Needed to have the local currency to make purchases while living there so there was no other choice but to get the foreign currency some way or another.
How are they currently addressing their need?
Registered with another bank which had branches in the exchange country.
How satisfied are they with this solution?
No. Had problems setting up the bank account in the home country and was very fed up with the system as they wanted documents while the person was already travelling overseas. Said there is definitely a better way to spending money in multiple countries and to use their debit card overseas without having to pay a fee every time they make a transaction.
Prototypical Customer 2
Profile - Frequent Traveler
What?
Wants a easy way to spend money overseas and not having to keep track of all the different currencies
When?
Everytime they travel
How long?
Since the person started travelling
When did they first become aware of the need?
After a few trips to different countries , having to keep the remaining foreign currency became a hassle. Even a popular local budget airline charges additional fees for online payments and requires people to go through a more complicated way of payment to lower the fees
Why?
Hard to keep track of all the conversion rates and different notes for each country which can only be spent in that one country
How are they currently addressing their need?
Just organizing the money properly.
How satisfied are they with this solution?
No. Said there should already have been a solution for this but banks are charging so high fees for such a simple conversion of (digital) digits in your bank account.
Prototypical Customer 3
Profile - Frequent shopper (including online)
What?
Wants to be able to pay for goods overseas without having to worry if there are charges for conversion of currency when billed.
When travelling overseas to shop, would be better if they could use their local bank card to pay instead.
When?
When looking at some websites which do not have currency conversion or do not explicitly say if they allow payment in a different currency.
When overseas shopping , have to face the issue all the time.
How long?
Over several years
When did they first become aware of the need?
When they first started try getting goods from foreign countries/websites
When they started travelling more often to shop overseas
Why?
It became irritating after while especially since they had to keep track of all the different currencies
How are they currently addressing their need?
Nothing much. Tries to use as many vouchers and cards with rebates to get as much back as possible.
Keeps all the foreign money in a drawer.
How satisfied are they with this solution?
Indifferent about the hassle as they cant do much about it. Would find it better if everything is consolidated.
Summary
How much of your original opportunity is still there?
I think there is much opportunity to explore this issue and issues revolving around it.
I would want to focus on the merchant/business side of it as the merchants are the one who need to accept the solution for consumers to use it.
Do you believe that your new opportunity is more accurate than when you started?
Yes. I believe there are two sides to the opportunity : the merchants and the consumer. I believe making it available for consumers to easily adopt my idea would enable wider adoption from consumers and hence creating a network effect / rippling effect that makes the solution mainstream.
How much do you think entrepreneurs should 'adapt' their opportunities based on customer feedback? (In other words, is there a trade-off between adapting and staying firm?)
We should always listen to customers but in the end, customers may not have the vision that you have and will only think of the "now" and not the future. Disrupting the status quo requires vision that many people and businesses would rarely think about. This is why we should apply a iterative approach to solutions , so we can still keep to our true values but adapt bit by bit with the market.
Hi Cory,
ReplyDeleteI think your opportunity belief is definitely true. I would find myself to be a prototypical customer myself, and would definitely find traveling easier if there was a solution to this problem. I think your choice of prototypical customers was very effective in showing the variety of people who are affected by this issue and would benefit from a solution. I am very interested to see if you continue building off of this belief, and if so, what it leads to.