Forming an Opportunity Belief

1) My belief is that there is not enough public parking on Anna Maria Island.

2) The need for public parking on AMI has grown in the past few years as the population continues to increase in the Bradenton area. Anyone who visits the island to go out to the beach can experience this problem. The problem has always existed, but it can especially be seen during heavy tourist periods. In order to avoid the problem now beach goers are parking illegally in residential areas in addition to parking in local business lots.  There is a public beach parking lot but it is not anywhere near big enough to accommodate all of the people trying to go to the beach.

3) The prototypical customer is someone who lives off the island and is going to the beach.  They aren't able to get a public parking lot space which results with them parking illegally.

     After interviewing my mom, a person who frequently goes out to the beach, I was able to gain some prototypical customer insights. She believes that there needs to be more public parking all along the island for beach goers to use. She experiences this problem mostly between October and April and any major holiday.  She says the only way to deal with this problem is to get up very early and beat everyone out to the island in order to get a public parking spot.  On a scale of one to ten she said this solution ranked at a four or five.

After interviewing my mom I learned that this problem leads to other issues.  People don't want to get up early on their weekend to go to the beach.  I didn't consider the few major holidays that take place during her described months and much of a nightmare they could be.

My father presented a few different takes on the problem I identified.  He works on Longboat Key, an island south of AMI, and said the main issue for him is the traffic that accumulates and builds up as a result of people taking to long to find parking spaces.  He said he noticed this problem really taking place in the past three years.  To address it now he either gets up extremely early or just won't go on the island at all. He said on a scale of one to ten that this solution ranked as a two.

This interview, like the one with my mother, made me realize again how one issue can lead to another so easily.  As a result of limited parking the traffic backs up on the mainland and that can cause more problems.  I learned that really this is just one large chain reaction.

Lastly I interviewed my girlfriend who vacations on the island with her family.  I decided that understanding the perspective of someone who lives there, even if only for a week, would be important.  She said the parking situation becomes annoying when people park at shopping centers and take up spots that should be used for customers.

Since I live on the mainland, I wouldn't have seen this issue take place.  Once again I learned how just one problem leads to all these other issues.

After conducting these interviews I learned more about other problems than the one I originally came up with.  My problem was really just the main root of all these other issues.  My dad and I discussed many solutions to the problem, trying not to stray to far from my original idea.  I think it is okay to change your belief a little bit, but not so much that you're leaving the main problem unsolved.