Assignment 4: Forming An Opportunity Belief

1. For people that follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, it is sometimes difficult to decipher if a food product is acceptable to consume because the ingredient list is confusing.

2. The unmet need is the easy identification if foods are suitable to consume for people that adhere to a vegan or vegetarian diet. These dietary restrictions go further than not eating products that clearly contain meat, dairy, or eggs. Added ingredients like vitamin D3 and mono and diglycerides can come from an animal source or a plant source. It is typically not clearly listed unless it is a certified vegan product. This is not a new need, but as more people adhere to these dietary restrictions, the need is growing. To meet this need now, they are either purchasing certified vegan/ vegetarian products, are only purchasing products that they can understand their ingredient list, or they research online for the source of questionable ingredients.

3. The prototypical customer would be someone that follows a vegetarian or vegan diet and is frustrated with the vagueness of a product's ingredient list and is interested in an easier grocery shopping experience.

Prototypical customer #1 is a 31 year old man who began following a vegan diet in June 2018. He works full time as an event coordinator and goes grocery shopping about once a week usually on the weekend.

Prototypical customer #2 is a 23 year old man who began following a vegan diet in March 2016. He is a full time college student who studies nutrition and goes grocery shopping about twice a week.

Prototypical customer #3 is a 50 year old woman who began following a vegetarian diet in January 2006. She works full time as a Registered Nurse and goes grocery shopping about twice a week.

4. Iteration #1: The man expressed frustration with purchasing a product that he thought was vegan only to realize later that it was not because of an obscure ingredient. He felt the vague sources of questionable ingredients leads to a wasting money. Having not been a vegan for very long, he felt like he has to look up products frequently while shopping and that is why he tends to stick to certified vegan products or products that he knows the entire ingredient list of. For convenience, he tends to make the same dishes frequently. He wishes there was another solution to this.

Iteration #2: The man has been following a vegan lifestyle long enough to where he feels quite confident shopping for groceries, even when the products are not certified vegan because of his knowledge about questionable ingredients. While he is not as frustrated currently, he was when he first began grocery shopping with the dietary restrictions. He noticed the need immediately, but its intensity has decreased with time. To currently address the need, he relies on his past experiences and knowledge of safe ingredients. From researching online, he knows generally which food brands are safe and which ingredients to look out for by memory. He also sometimes uses an app that scans a product's bar code and runs its ingredient list to check for possible animal products quickly. He expressed irritation with the app's unreliability if the product is new or recently changed its formula.

Iteration #3: The woman did not seem as concerned with this need, but did express the surprise she felt when discovering unassuming products contained animal byproducts that she was not comfortable consuming. She does not experience the need with every grocery trip because she tends to repurchase the same items frequently, but when she looks to buy something new, she experiences the need. This need was more noticeable in the first few months of following the diet, but lessened with time as she became more knowledgeable about brands and their ingredients and as new certified vegetarian products have been released on the market. Whenever she encounters the need, she searches the product on Google to see if it is alright for her to consume and if she can't find the answer, she does not buy the product. She expressed interest in finding a better solution for this.

5. I think the most valuable information I gained from interviewing these prototypical customers is that they all share the common need of wanting a more obvious answer to their dietary questions, but that the level of interest in the need decreases with time. When people find solutions that are just good enough, they tend to keep with the familiar unless something better is presented to them. The solutions that are available in terms of mobile apps or blog posts come in handy, but they are not the most convenient in terms of ease and reliability while at the grocery store. Purchasing only vegan/ vegetarian foods seems like the easiest solution to this need, but quickly limits the types of foods a person can consume, which may be off-putting for people new to the diet. Having companies clearly label the sources of some of their questionable ingredients would clear up any confusion. Similarly to how products have to contain a warning label if they contain peanuts or soy, they could include a label for animal byproducts.

Summarize: I think the majority of my original opportunity is still there, but it may have to take a different form to offer a solution. The need may seem to decrease as time goes by, but it does not disappear. Grocery shopping can always be made a better experience, especially for these customers. If companies want to include this ever growing demographic, they need to make it known if their products are suitable for these costumers to purchase. Of course, they may oppose to the labels if they frequently change their ingredient list, are unaware of the cross-contamination likelihood from other products, or do not want to disclose the source of some of their ingredients in fear of losing other costumers. If this opportunity were to find a solution in a mobile app, it would need to be better than the ones currently on the market, mainly being more reliable and frequently updated to include new products. Deciding whether to adapt or stay firm is always a hard call. It really comes down to how much you believe in your version of the opportunity and your solution to the need. I would say adapting is always best because you are basing your adaption off of prototypical customers and their experiences are very valuable. I think there is a compromise that can be made between adapting and staying firm by focusing on satisfying the core need and tweaking the solution as you see fit.