25A

What I Think Is Next:

I think the next service for my venture should be led by TSA. The Transportation Security Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that has authority over the security of the traveling public in the United States, was created in response to the 9/11 attack in New York City. While it was created for the safety of people, there should be a sperate entity of workers who give time in reporting checkpoint times. Checkpoint times are too unpredictable in the day in age. TSA serves as a govermental entity and should use its resources to fund the creation of time clocks throughout airports. These time clocks should state the estimated time of how long checkpoints will take.   

Existing Market Interviews:

1 – Kim, a 22-year-old student at UF is a frequent traveler. She wins traveling opportunities through scholarships and programs like being a Truth Initiative Ambassador. She believes, up next should be the implementation of buzzers that airline checkpoints should give travelers when they enter the airport that indicates the approximate time of TSA checkpoints. She believes customers would want this as a heads up rather than have an app because some people do not have smartphones. Although we do live in a digital world, it's important to cater to offline publics.  

2 – I interviewed Andy a 23-year-old. As my cousin, he travels often because he owns a trending podcast called: That One Interesting Podcast. He understands the environment of digital platforms and apps as a frequent user and believes I should be starting the app now. He stated that it takes months to fully design and plan out what functions I want the app to do before paying designers to do it. He mentioned it is important to do pre-work.

3 – I interviewed Laylani, a 26-year-old working-class woman who works for IBM, a corporate technology company in New York and worldwide. She mentioned We should be pushing the importance of downloads. She thinks my idea is clear but not as specific. It's important to cater to Millenials like her through mass text and email as well, not just social media. She personally does not use Instagram often. She said customers who are millennials will want e-mails instead.

Reflection:

After listening to what these three individuals had to say, I can grow by listening. They each had a different approach to improving my idea and catering to what I have not already thought about. My first interviewee emphasized the importance of having a buzzer for people who do not have the means to download an app. While it is a great idea, I believe in the world we live in, people should have smartphones. My second interviewee mentioned how important it is to do additional work prior to launching the app and hiring employees. Lastly, my third interviewee made it clear how important it is to use different methods of communication. I could not agree with her more. E-mail is truly a popular means of communication.

New Market: 

I think a new market that I have not previously thought of are Baby Boomers. While many baby boomers are not very digitally versed, they maintain a high presence in the world today. This new market thinks much differently from millennials and gen-zers today because they grew up during a different era. I believe it is important to learn from baby boomers and know how I can reach them more.

New Market Interviews:

1 –Kim Hunter who serves as my mentor, is 60 years old and owns his own public relations agency. As an award winner and father, he emphasized the importance of creating a kid's friendly app and an app for people of his age. He believes that is the aspect that is missing, making sure the app caters to all ages.

2 – Joseph Jones is a public relations professor at the University of Florida and is 69 years old. He mentioned how digital the world is today and how his grandkids have had to teach him how to use apps. It took him a while to learn how to work the app store so he suggested having a tutorial within my app once people download it. He said a video would be perfect and it should show one person downloading the app after booking their flight and using the app on their way to the airport.

Reflection:

Both of my interviewees mentioned amazing ideas. I personally have to do research on baby boomers, but when speaking to them, I get to understand their perspectives a bit more. I learned from both interviewees that it is important to have simple instructions. Since they did not grow in a huge digital age, they like more hand-on resources. They way I can make my app hands-on is by adding a kids feature on my app and by adding instructional videos.