1. Over my time here at the University of Florida I have come to realize and become frustrated with one particular issue: the parking, or lack thereof both on campus and in surrounding areas of the campus. UF sells decals to any student or faculty looking to purchase but this doesn't guarantee a spot as the amount of people with decals far exceeds the available spots.
2. Not only are students vying for parking but faculty members are as well. While the effort on campus is there in the form of parking decals and designated lots, the capacity of cars looking to park far exceeds the amount of parking actually available, making it almost impossible to find available parking in a correlating decal area. I think this need has always existed on some scale but in recent years the need has quickly multiplied and become hard to ignore. I am very confident (about 95 percent) that most would describe UF's parking situation as an opportunity to improve on within the university.
3. The prototypical customer would widely be students, even though faculty members are impacted they have more decal-specific driven lots with less competition than students.
Student 1 Interview:
-This student lives off-campus and states that the need of limited parking options is really apparent. This need came into play for her mostly in her two years prior as she lived too far from campus to walk to class. She stated that part of her decision to move closer to campus was to be closer to campus and minimize the struggle to find parking by being able to walk to class. While the student's rent increased being closer to campus, it eased the stress of having to go scour for a parking spot, like she had previously done for the last two years. This was an effective solution to her problem as now she can get to class in about 15 minutes whereas at times in her previous situation she would spend upwards of 30 minutes driving around looking for any spot, not even necessarily close to her class, and at the chance she didn't find anything she would have to just risk getting a ticket in order to just make it to her class.
Student 2 Interview:
Student 2 is also a student living off-campus currently but lived on campus for their first year at UF. The need for more parking often impacted him when living in the dorms as he would park his car and not move it unless absolutely necessary in fear that when he would come back there would be no spot to park his car in again. This seemed to be collective for dorm residents as most do the same and go long periods of time without moving their car. This limited him from driving to places like Publix, going to restaurants, etc. Now this student found a solution in living off-campus in a near apartment complex so they walk to school with ease, but this contributed greatly to his decision on signing with an apartment complex within walking distance to the college.
Student 3 Interview:
Student 3 is a freshman living off-campus in an apartment who decided to live off-campus to avoid having to park her car in on-campus parking while living in the dorms. She was impacted this last fall semester and currently in the spring as she does not live within walking distance to UF and still has to drive her car to campus, being unaware at the time of selecting her apartment that parking was so limited on campus. Her current solution is to try and park on campus but more often than not, in order to avoid missing or being late to class, she parks in the Reitz Union, paying hourly fees for however long she is on campus, risking and receiving tickets for expired meters in the last semester. She also attempts to take the bus when she can in effort to avoid the chaos of parking. Her future solution is to sign a new lease in an apartment building that has designated parking spots and a closer walk to campus.
Reflection & Summary:
From my interviews, I can conclude that most students at UF are impacted in at least some form at some point in their time at UF. Whether it be students living in dorms on-campus or off-campus students who opt to drive their car to school as opposed to taking the bus. These students which I interviewed may encounter the problem differently, they are still impacted by the same issue at the core: not enough parking. Overall, it was obvious from my interviewees that more parking would adequately suit the UF student population, evening out the ratio between the amount of parking and number of students looking for that parking as certainly having more would not present a negative impact.
In all, I think my opportunity is still prevalent and relevant to the University of Florida population, even after conducting and analyzing my interviews. With both on and off-campus students being impacted, it is a pretty big indicator that the opportunity and problem identified is spot-on. I think the more people I talk to the more would agree that limited parking is an issue, as even if they are not impacted directly odds are they know someone who is or has been at some point. Customer feedback is essential to entrepreneurs in my opinion, as one would want their developed product or solution to be as effective as possible in order to be not only successful but valuable as that is the whole point. Without customer feedback I feel as though entrepreneurs have little guidance, though I don't think it is necessary to "adapt" every opportunity based on each person's opinion as in most cases you cannot please everyone.
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