30 Final Reflection

What sticks out to me as my most formative experience is most probably reading Carol Dweck’s book about having a growth mindset as well as creating my venture concept. The book really solidified my decision to start thinking differently about situations and start building a mentality that worked on what I would change to succeed in the future rather than fixating on failure. The venture concept really had me surprising myself with how passionate I actually was about the project and it made me realize that I really wanted to pursue it in real life rather than just for the class assignments. This made me very proud as I realized how capable I was of coming up with a plan for this venture that took me beyond the next few years.

I can see myself as an entrepreneur where I didn’t really see myself as one before. I really didn’t see myself as capable of being an entrepreneur; I thought it required a lot more than what I realize now to just be creativity, drive, and tenacity.

The one recommendation that I would give future students would be to keep an open mind and really analyze your strengths and what you have to offer the world. Utilize those strengths to put you in a position to win; I promise you that you have something unique that will propel you to the top. Even qualities that seem insignificant can be turned into a super strong skill. And enjoy yourself. This class gives you the opportunity to really test the limits with your imagination to see what you can come up with. Find what seems impossible and use what you know to make it plausible. Best of luck!

29 Venture Concept No 2

 The service I am presenting is an app that combines an information search as well as customer service/on-call support to help individuals reach a diagnosis as well as a decision regarding whether future steps might have to be taken and what steps those are based on the information found through the app. The purpose to save people, especially millennials like me, time, energy, and money. This will increase the efficiency of such a situation as well as improve relations between provider and patient as the patient will not have more information and be able to understand the who, what, when, how, and why of their diagnosis and treatment. The forces in the environment that created this opportunity is the constant demand for services relating to healthcare whether it be related to insurance or other aspects of the relationship between patients and medical providers. Healthcare is a hot topic of conversation and has been for awhile, leading me to think that it will continue to be around for enough time for this venture and subsequent ventures to take off and really garner enough success to make this global.

   I believe that customers would switch to this new product because its purpose is to help them save money and become more aware of what is going into their treatment. It might be hard at first to get them to switch because of credibility factor that I would be fighting, but I think it would just have to be advertised the right way. What would make this issue all but disappear would be to get someone with weight to back my service and throw their credibility behind the venture in order for me to win customers’ trust.  I would reach out to one of my contacts in the medical field to sell it to them first and get them on board. Customer support is a big concept with my service, as that is what I had in mind when I thought of the medical professionals that would be on call to help out individuals who needed a second opinion. I would, of course, make this app affordable with a small monthly fee that people can choose to apply in order be able to access the customer service side of the app, rather than just the information search. A business would most definitely help push the venture; I always think a team is better than just one person trying to push an idea. The business would have a team of computer engineers who would be able to do the actual coding for the app to work, while there would also be a team oriented around thinking of fresh new ways to apply the app as well as new products. Finally there would be a segment of the business just focused on advertising and getting the app known to the target group, as well as getting more and more companies and high-ranking individuals to back the app so it gains more popularity that way as well. The different aspects of the company would come together to achieve the end-goal of making medical aid easier to access for people on a global scale.

   I believe that my venture’s secret sauce or main advantage would be the demand for services that enhance the medical experience in the United States today. The situation, whether it is insurance or whether its just the lack of flow of information between providers and clients, has been a hot concept for a while. I believe that this demand coupled with the skills that I have regarding communication and people will be the thing that sets me and my app apart from the rest. This is something that will make it hard for competitors to copy my success.

In terms of what I see next for the venture, I believe that what I would try to make happen is allowing this service to be something that can be accessed in low-income neighborhoods and impoverished areas. What I have in mind is either setting up tablets or some sort of interface that would allow a wider target set to reach the same services that were meant originally for just millennials. This service would still be coupled with human interaction since actual medical care is what is truly lacking in these areas; this would ensure that the process was not entirely digitized.

   At the end of the day, my goal was really to make medical care more affordable, more efficient, and more accessible for as many people as possible – especially people who would have trouble with it in the first place. I would want this service to have reached a global scale in about 5 years, with the app reaching more people and fulfilling more and more roles in the medical arena, with the goal of making the whole process more streamlined and easier to handle for individuals who need it.

I kept most of my venture concept the same because I did not receive much feedback that echoed the sentiment that I should change it. In fact, the ideas I proposed in this venture concept about the ways I would expand the app to include the older generation was very well-received. I am still trying to find ways to include a wider target market, however.

The health field is something I am very passionate about, especially because its purpose at its core is to help other people. I know that there is a huge market for this field in regards to services that can aid in treating people and giving them proper, medical care; the possibilities are close to endless and I really want to explore all my options, knowing that this first venture would help set the stage and my credibility for future endeavors.  

                                    

27 Reading Reflection No 3

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams

This book was multifaceted in the way that it had many themes and many takeaways; however the main theme seemed to be telling readers how important it is to prioritize what is important in order to achieve success for yourself. An example of a tip that Adams gives you is to optimize your personal energy in such a way that you set yourself up to be of a mindset to succeed, whether that means taking breaks or choosing the right environment to work to best boost productivity.

It connected with what I’ve learned in this class in the way that Adams lets you know of both his successes and his failures and how a positive mindset is not optional. He teaches about how going after something and really putting your mind to pursuing that goal is the only way you’ll increase your chance of actually getting there. All in all, he stressed the importance of having the right mentality, the mentality for success.

If I had to design an exercise for this class, it would be to describe a time of failure but from a funny or humorous point of view as well as what one would do to pick themselves up from the fall. This would definitely help people learn to embrace failure and use it to propel themselves forward the way Adams proposes, rather than letting it hold them back. I know I need help in this area as well and I’m sure I’m not the only one with that issue.

What really surprised me about this book was how Adams seemed to draw the relationship between passion and success. I was under the impression that it was passion that caused success, however Adams says that its actually the other way around with success leading to renewed passion. I can see how that would be true seeing as how success has always rejuvenated and strengthened my own passion in many aspects of my life. It was surprising but refreshing to look at success from that perspective.

28 Your Exit Strategy

I do not plan on selling my business anytime soon because my only goal is not to make money. I have a genuine passion for both the medical field as well as helping people so I hope to expand the business until it reaches peak capacity and until it comes time for me to retire. I would hope to keep the business within the family however I’d respect my family’s wishes to pursue whatever they have interest in; therefore I would be open to entrusting any qualified individual regardless of their relationship to me. However I’ll be flexible with this aspect of this business; my only condition is that whoever is involved with the company is capable and trustworthy and fully qualified. I feel as though whoever possessed the same passion as me for the venture and the company itself can be trusted with its success and further expansion.

I think I would apply the same mentality to my growth intentions. I’m flexible with the path that I would take to get there because I realize that sometimes you are required to change routes in order to get to your end destination. I am open to new ideas and new people and welcome outside perspectives on how we can best achieve our goal; they do not necessarily have to come from in-house. 

26 Celebrating Failure

Oh man, it hurts to talk about it but a time where I failed this semester was with my Managerial Accounting class. You are warned before taking the class about how difficult the course load will be and how people end up retaking it for the 2^nd or 3^rd time. However I was off to a good start. I did well in the quizzes every week and even did okay on the first exam. I knew I was going to pass the class. This was until it came time for the 2^nd exam. I had reviewed for a week and felt pretty darn prepared for the exam on Wednesday. I came home from work that Wednesday with ample time to review before the 8:00 exam. I had just emailed the tutor from Study Edge for a couple extra tokens to watch a review video for the exam when I got a response that I thought was a joke. He emailed me back with the tokens but asked whether the email itself had sent late because the exam had already finished. I laughed it off but went to check anyway…he was right. I had missed the exam. The way the class was set up, there was no way I could come back from that and still pass the class. I could have blamed it on Irma or the professor for not sending out enough of an announcement that would have been hard to miss, but in the end while it was a tough pill to swallow I had to accept that it was my own fault for not checking thoroughly enough. I have learned not take anything for granted and not to be overconfident just because I am managing to do well until that point. Sometimes I overlook details because I’m so sure of myself and this eventually leads to a loss that forces me to humble myself. However, I’ve missed out on enough and made this mistake enough times to decide that something needs to change.

Failure is extremely hard to stomach for me in the moment. Its easy for me to lose track of time just wallowing in regret and self-pity when something doesn’t go as planned. This usually ends in me trying to cover it up or sweep it under the rug so that people close to me don’t find out; I’m more afraid of them judging me to be incompetent than anything so I try to keep them from finding out. This class has definitely taught me about  embracing failure and using it to make future attempts more successful. While its still hard for me to accept a failure, its easier to look at the big picture and look beyond the temporary pit to see what I can do next. 

25 What's Next? Total World Domination....

What would be next in terms of products and services for my venture would be making the app more accessible to low income areas in the United States as well as globally, eventually with enough growth of the service. This would be coupled with human interactions as the provider itself would be the focus of any services targeted at low-income areas and poor neighborhoods; at the end of the day, they need medical services and care more than anything. A service that would be targeted at increasing accessibility for these individuals who are struggling to find affordable healthcare would be the goal of my company as well as my future ventures. This was something that was echoed by the three people I interviewed who were already part of my target market; I believe that social work and giving back is something that takes a lot of priority with people my age as more and more millennials are involved in some type of social cause or community service. They also suggested taking it to other countries as well; while I want this business and service to reach global standards, I do not know how feasible this is and how well it will sell. I believe a lot more research would have to be conducted about the market in these countries as I do not think that a digitized platform is what is really needed over actual medical care and increased accessibility to providers. I would however, want to expand to these communities to increase my reach for those who really would benefit the most from such a venture.

The radically different market I chose to talk to is the grown-up, older, parent generation of the millennials that I had originally planned to target. I think the venture concept would be able to create value for these individuals more in terms of streamlining the medical care process; this is the part of the app concerned with conglomerating all medical information, preexisting conditions, important vital, etc and compiling it in a way that gives people a digital signature that would identify them in the ER or the hospital. This way, time would be saved as you check yourself in, and the app might even be set up so that the receptionist could just scan a code on the app on your account to sign you in. All these visits would then be documented as well so that all your medical information will be available to you at the touch of your fingertips. This other generation is almost constantly on the move, whether its taking care of their family or going to work, and whatever time this app saves them would be a plus and a benefit that I believe would help generate popularity. My assumptions seemed to be partially accurate. The individuals I talked to were definitely interested in streamlining the process and saving time, however the concern I heard a lot was the cost and time taken to switch to a new way of doing things. Most people in this generation are not necessarily as tech-savvy as my generation of millennials which would present an issue. However, I believe that with enough advertising and increased ubiquity of the app, they will be forced or pressed to learn, especially if medical providers start switching to the new way of doing things themselves. This market did not originally seem as attractive as the market set on targeting younger individuals.

Venture Concept

   The service I am presenting is an app that combines an information search as well as customer service/on-call support to help individuals reach a diagnosis as well as a decision regarding whether future steps might have to be taken and what steps those are based on the information found through the app. The purpose to save people, especially millennials like me, time, energy, and money. This will increase the efficiency of such a situation as well as improve relations between provider and patient as the patient will not have more information and be able to understand the who, what, when, how, and why of their diagnosis and treatment. The forces in the environment that created this opportunity is the constant demand for services relating to healthcare whether it be related to insurance or other aspects of the relationship between patients and medical providers. Healthcare is a hot topic of conversation and has been for awhile, leading me to think that it will continue to be around for enough time for this venture and subsequent ventures to take off and really garner enough success to make this global.

   I believe that customers would switch to this new product because its purpose is to help them save money and become more aware of what is going into their treatment. It might be hard at first to get them to switch because of credibility factor that I would be fighting, but I think it would just have to be advertised the right way. What would make this issue all but disappear would be to get someone with weight to back my service and throw their credibility behind the venture in order for me to win customers’ trust.  I would reach out to one of my contacts in the medical field to sell it to them first and get them on board. Customer support is a big concept with my service, as that is what I had in mind when I thought of the medical professionals that would be on call to help out individuals who needed a second opinion. I would, of course, make this app affordable with a small monthly fee that people can choose to apply in order be able to access the customer service side of the app, rather than just the information search. A business would most definitely help push the venture; I always think a team is better than just one person trying to push an idea. The business would have a team of computer engineers who would be able to do the actual coding for the app to work, while there would also be a team oriented around thinking of fresh new ways to apply the app as well as new products. Finally there would be a segment of the business just focused on advertising and getting the app known to the target group, as well as getting more and more companies and high-ranking individuals to back the app so it gains more popularity that way as well. The different aspects of the company would come together to achieve the end-goal of making medical aid easier to access for people on a global scale.

   I believe that my venture’s secret sauce or main advantage would be the demand for services that enhance the medical experience in the United States today. The situation, whether it is insurance or whether its just the lack of flow of information between providers and clients, has been a hot concept for a while. I believe that this demand coupled with the skills that I have regarding communication and people will be the thing that sets me and my app apart from the rest. This is something that will make it hard for competitors to copy my success.

In terms of what I see next for the venture, I believe that what I would try to make happen is allowing this service to be something that can be accessed in low-income neighborhoods and impoverished areas. What I have in mind is either setting up tablets or some sort of interface that would allow a wider target set to reach the same services that were meant originally for just millennials. This service would still be coupled with human interaction since actual medical care is what is truly lacking in these areas; this would ensure that the process was not entirely digitized.

   At the end of the day, my goal was really to make medical care more affordable, more efficient, and more accessible for as many people as possible – especially people who would have trouble with it in the first place. I would want this service to have reached a global scale in about 5 years, with the app reaching more people and fulfilling more and more roles in the medical arena, with the goal of making the whole process more streamlined and easier to handle for individuals who need it. The health field is something I am very passionate about, especially because its purpose at its core is to help other people. I know that there is a huge market for this field in regards to services that can aid in treating people and giving them proper, medical care; the possibilities are close to endless and I really want to explore all my options, knowing that this first venture would help set the stage and my credibility for future endeavors.  

23 Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

1.     Andrew Bustamante: He is a pretty valuable resource, seeing as he is my in when it comes to health related services. Talking to him definitely helped me understand the demand better, and I appreciate the fact that he is willing to follow up with me about the app idea.

2.     Dr. Meera Menon: Another example of social capital, the doctor has given me insight from the other side of the curtain as well, proving to be a valuable resource when it comes to defining what we can and cannot do with the application.

3.     Mrs. Sudha: A great connection, though she has not been able to give my idea enough attention for me to be able to list her as a valuable resource.

4.     People Skills: One of my greatest assets, the way I am able to interact with, understand, and respond to individuals, even if I have just met them, is something that will be put to good use with the app. Though these are soft skills, it seems as though they aren’t as common with people as they should be, making me stand out.

5.     Communication skills: Another form of human capital and soft skills, my communication skills, paired with my people skills will set me apart from the rest. I am able to build off other people’s thoughts, personalities, and ideas and I believe this would help my put together a great team for the purpose of making this service possible.

6.     Parents Willing to Invest: A form of financial capital, the fact that my parents would be willing to fund my app, while amazing, would be better received if it was someone who is not related to me personally. This resource also is not that rare, I feel as though there are a lot of people, students in this class included whose parents would be willing to invest.

7.     Connection to computer engineers: I know enough fellow students at UF, as well as others including my mother, who would be able to put technical effort into making this service a reality. While its great as an idea, I would need people to help implement those ideas and this is where this social capital would come in handy.

8.     Knowledge and passion for health administration: This is what started me on this adventure, and gave me the idea in the first place. Though it started and propelled me, there are plenty of other who share my major so its not that rare or inimitable. However, I’m sure it will only serve to push me further on this journey.

9.     Dedication/Perseverance: I know that once I set my mind to something, I make sure to get it done to the best of my ability, often going as far as involving other people to get multiple perspectives. I know that this is increasingly important in this field, as there is such a large percentage of ideas that get thrown away just because people don’t want to commit to it.

10. Connection to Health Professionals: I have the privilege of being connected to multiple professionals because of how many family friends we have that are in health related services. I feel as though I would be able to talk to anyone I needed to get to, in the different paths of health services whether it be administration or physicians.

I think my top resource would be my “soft skills” My competency when it comes to interacting and communicating with people as I prove myself to be competent will be the number one driving force behind the success of such a service, should I pursue it. Even if I had everything else but did not have this set of abilities, I feel as though I would be nowhere. I know that this is the ability that will  bring everything else together and set things in motion. 

20 Growing Your Social Capital

1.     Individual 1: Andrew Bustamante, Works with Aetna, an American Health care company which sells health insurance plans and services such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans.

2.     Mr. Bustamante serves as the domain expert in this assignment, who knows the ins and outs of what I’m trying to achieve and knows the business really well, having spent a lot of time working with Aetna. 

3.     I met the person through my father, as part of a Public Speaking Event under Toastmasters International. I learned that Mr. Bustamante was an retired CIA Agent who then pursued a career in health care management, which is exactly the field that I want to pursue. I was able to get his email and contacted him to talk about my idea.

4.     After talking to him about the idea, he said that someone else had talked to him about the same concept of making the medical process more efficient, or that there might have been an app already made that does the same thing. He sees the potential in making the waiting room more streamlined as well, and said he would send me more information about the do’s and don’ts in terms of what the hospital is allowed to use and what they aren’t.

5.     This exchange would open the doors for an internship in which I would be able to learn more about the demand in healthcare and the services that customers are willing to pay for.

1.      Individual 2: Dr. Meera Menon, House head surgeon at Brandon Regional Hospital

2.      Dr. Menon is a supplier in the industry, being the more direct form of supplier of medical services.

3.      She is a family friend and I had her personal number.

4.      The favor she did for me was connect me to a woman in management on her team at the Brandon Regional Hospital, that would be able to give me more information. I however, was not able to contact this person yet, having received her information last minute.

5.      This would help me enhance my ability because of the perspective she gave me from the medical suppliers’ s point of view. This helps me understand the other side of things rather than just looking at the customer.

1.      Individual #3: Mrs. Sudha, Works with IT and healthcare services from a medical company that caters to people from their homes.

2.      She fulfills the role of being an expert in this field, being as involved in technology and medical services the way she is.

3.      Another family friend, contacted through email.

4.      I emailed her asking about the possibilities  of such a service and the feasibility when it came to actually producing such an app for patients. She did not get back to me yet, however. I’m hoping to get a perspective of how feasible this is for patients and whether it would actually benefit people in the long run.

5.      I believe this would be on of the most valuable perspectives because she would be able to tell me how accurate my view of the demand is, and how well I am reading customer’s desires for such a product. 

21 Reading Reflection 2

The book that I chose to read for this assignment was Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck.

1.      The general theme of the book was changing your perspective and adopting a growth mindset. Choosing to embrace the challenges and difficulties in a way that helps you enhance your skillset and grow rather than depend on straight out luck or whatever “natural” talent you may have.

2.      This definitely connects with the theme of ENT 3003 in terms of how important possessing the quality of tenacity is. She talks about how the journey is the real reward, and how things not working out the way you planned doesn’t necessarily mean that you lost out.

3.      If I had to design an exercise for this class, I would probably formulate a hypothetical situational question for students and ask them first how they would react before reading the book, and how they would react after reading the book, while implementing the changed perspective that they read about forming. I would ask them to describe the results of both sets of actions and how the growth mindset changed the outcome of the situation. Another possible assignment would be to ask students to reflect on how a professor, parent, judge, or coach helped shape a perspective that spoke of the growth mindset that Dweck focused on, and how the student’s current perspective has been formed by interactions with this chosen individual.

4.      Nothing really surprised me about the philosophy that Carol Dweck promoted but I did appreciate the way she applied her concept of a growth mindset to relationships. It’s always a good reminder when you realize you and others shouldn’t be expected to get along perfectly without any problems, issues, or hiccups whatsoever. She says that “Problems can be a vehicle for developing greater understand and intimacy”. I’ve come to see and experience this with my own relationships over the years, and this is advice that I would give other people as well. 

19 Idea Napkin No. 2

1.     I am a business administration major with a focus in public health. I have been on both sides of the curtain, meaning I can look at issues from both the perspective of the patient as well as the physician. From my experiences I’ve come to realize how much efficiency is an issue in the hospital from admitting patients to keeping them in the loop to eventually when the time comes for payment. This service would definitely be something I would try to implement in my chosen career as I strongly believe it would streamline the process for both patient and doctor; with a special emphasis on making the patient feel better about the whole ordeal.

2.     I am offering a service in the form of an application downloadable to your phone or system that would allow individuals to research their symptoms and get real time help with identifying their medical issues and then advice with what to do from there. This would help individuals decide whether it can be taken care of quickly, whether it should just be brought up during the next doctor’s visit, or whether this is something better left to Urgent Care. The app, in the case that the patient does need to go get more help, would be able to send any vital medical information directly to the medical carrier so that the process would be streamlined, and less time will be spent in the waiting room.

3.     The average customer for my chosen segment would be a millennial, someone who doesn’t have that much money to spend and already has loans and debts to pay from college. This would ensure that they would be frugal with their spending and would benefit from the app as they would be able to get more information free of cost before they are forced to shell out money to the hospital for the many bills that would soon accumulate.

4.     Customers would definitely invest in this app because it would save them time and money in the long run, especially since living frugally can come with its share of health concerns.

5.     My app, though it provides a research service that can also be accomplished through simple web-surfing, makes sure all pertinent information is in place and also provides a more user-friendly approach with more reliable diagnoses than simply Google. These diagnoses also have the opportunity to be vetted by real-time professionals so you can get a more experienced opinion and get any questions answered by qualified individuals.

The feedback helped me discover that sometimes going to the Emergency Room is unavoidable, especially because some people simply do not want to take any risk with their health. This made discover an alternate use for the app, which would be incorporating an assistance service for the waiting room which would save people time regardless because of the information that the hospital would already have on hand. 

18 Create a Customer Avatar

The prototypical customer in my segment could be described as a millennial or someone who is either in or fresh out of college. They would not have that much money to fall back on and are on the lookout for a solid job that will help solve this problem of finances. They would live a low-maintenance lifestyle and would not spend that much money on things that are unnecessary. The typical customer would own the following: most probably a Honda civic or a Toyota Camry. They would be living in an apartment, with other roommates and would pay an average of 500-800 per month on their living situation. They might be in a long-term relationship at this point but could also just be living the single life at this point ( not looking for anything serious). An average customer would probably work at a minimum wage job or an unpaid internship in their field of study and would average an age of 19-23.

I have a lot in common with the customer avatar, being in college myself. I have a job at Dunkin Donuts which provides me with spending money but definitely is not going to be anything more than temporary. Everything else applies to me as well; I drive a white Toyota Camry and tend to live on a tight college budget. I do not think this is a coincidence actually. I believe that I came up with this service because being part of the customer segment, I’m better at relating and knowing what they want. I believe that being more attuned to this segment also gives me that advantage because I would be able to better tell where the demand would be and for what services. 

16 Whats Your Secret

In my opinion, the 5 things that make me unique are the way I meet new people, my confidence, my problem solving skills, my ability to empathize with people, and my public speaking skills.

·        Meeting New People: I’m very good at making people feel comfortable with me, even if we have just met. I hate when things are awkward and often try my best to surpass this stage of any interaction with someone new, because chances are they’d hate it as much as I do. I take pride in making people feel comfortable with me and free enough that they can be themselves with me pretty soon.

·        My Confidence: I take on situations with confidence, even if I don’t always know what I’m doing. I often take charge in team situations naturally, and I enjoy being a leader in both school and work.

·        My Problem Solving Skills: Whenever confronted with an issue, I usually think outside of the box. Though that seems cliché, I often find myself looking at non-original ways to solve problems in daily life. On a team of individuals working towards a common goal, I feel as though this would definitely set me apart from the rest.

·        My Ability to Empathize: I find that people often come to me to talk about their problems, because of how easy I find it to empathize with others. I’m a very emotional person myself, and often make decisions based on how I feel. This goes as far as how attuned I am with people around me; I am easily influenced by others’ moods and feelings. Though this can be dangerous, I’ve found that it helps relate to others in conversations and relationships.

·        Public Speaking Skills: Last but not least, my public speaking skills are one of my biggest assets. My ability to communicate an idea expressively has always been one of my strongest skills, as I’ve grown up giving speeches. I feel as though the purpose of my speeches are almost always to inspire because I love to bounce off the audience’s emotions and feedback. Most people really fear speaking in public, and dread giving presentations in class or for work. But I love it, and I think this passion is what sets me apart and gives me an extra boost compared to others.

The people I interviewed echoed more or less, the same sentiments as I did when discussing my major skills and attributes. 4 out of 5 people I interviewed were people that I met within the last 2 years, which says a lot about skills 1 and 4. I didn’t see a lot of differences between the way my friends analyzed me and my own analysis. I think that one thing that could be found common among all the attributes that I assigned myself was the passion I had for each skill. I feel as though the fact that I enjoyed having those skills, and using those skills sharpened those abilities. This just goes to prove what people often say about doing things that you enjoy because the outcome will just be that much better. 

15 Figuring Out Buyer Behavior

The factors that come into play when deciding amongst alternatives for the people I interviewed was price, time and finally what can only be described as fear. People are looking to minimize the time and money they spend on diagnoses and treatment, and sometimes fear can either stop them from or cause them to go directly to the Emergency Room.

My segment, being more tech-savvy, appreciates the online version of this service. The theory right now is to cut costs completely, but in the case of some elements of the app requiring a small fee, it would be easier to link it to services such as PayPal for ease of use. However, everything would go through the app on their phone, which is the whole point. It’s like bringing the waiting room to your living room.

What would help them determine that the purchase was a good idea would be whether it ended up saving them the money that they would have spent going to the actual emergency room. Of course, as my interviewees explained, users of the app would feel more “right” when using the app for cases such as a cold as they might be more wary of going a non-traditional route with more serious medical issues.

 Based on this segment and the interviews conducted, I feel as though people within the segment are adventurous enough to try a non-traditional way of diagnosing medical issues, especially if it saves them time and money in the long run.

14 Halfway Reflection

1) Tenaciousness is a competency. The behaviors that really kept me on track with this course was planning ahead for assignments and keeping reminders for the different assignments and when they were due. It’s easy to forget things when you don’t write them down, and even while the due dates for this class are pretty routine, it’s easy to get caught up and forget. Time management is also key; you don’t want to spend too much time on a low-level task because you could be using the time and energy on something that actually requires more attention from you. Time is a limited commodity, use it wisely.

2) Tenaciousness is also about attitude. There were a couple moments, not only in regards to this specific class, where I felt like giving up. This usually entailed me looking at an assignment at the last minute and trying to see whether I really needed to do it to get a good grade or whether I could let it slide. What made me stop thinking like that was remembering that its easy to let a lot of little things slide, and eventually they add up. By that time, its too late to go back and fix things. I try to tell myself that its not an emergency and that I should save that margin of missed points for a time that I really can’t manage to come through. I definitely have developed a tenacious attitude during the past two months, and shallow as it may seem, seeing my points add up in the gradebook is what keeps me going.

3) Three tips.  Three tips that I would offer the next semester’s student to foster tenacity would be to 1. Plan ahead of time for what you know you have to do. 2.Make sure you practice time management in a way that makes you most efficient 3. Reward yourself after you complete a task as a way to reinforce your efforts and pushing forward.

13 Autobiography

Elon Musk

I had no clue that he was brought up in South Africa! That was really interesting to learn about. I admired how many companies Elon Musk had brought to success; I knew he owned Tesla but I did not know that PayPal was his own as well. He seems to have a bit of an air about him; however, this is probably common with his crowd of people. The competencies that I noticed was tenacity, experience, ability to read the public’s demand.  I would definitely ask him whether he ever thought he would be where he is today with all the success he has garnered. Another question would be whether he would have believed the world would be as advanced as it is today, back then. I’m sure his definition of hard work was one that spoke of remaining confident in what you have to offer the world even if you have to tweak it a bit. I agree with this; failure, daunting as it may seem, is one of the first steps any entrepreneur will have to deal with. 

12 Figuring Out Buyer Behavior

Based on the 3 relevant interviews I conducted, I gathered information that backed up my original opinion (that made me realize a need for this application) and reinforced the ideas that I had for the app.

After talking to the three, I realized that there is a very similar thought process when it comes to the emergence of any medical issue, especially in millennials. People usually google their symptoms and either freak out or just chalk it up to something mundane. Usually whatever choice they make is the wrong one. People end up going to the ER for things like a common cold while things like pneumonia are overlooked. They said that having a chat service attached to the app would be what would really draw them in, because talking with a real person, especially one with qualified experience, is the reassurance they would want in that type of situation. I also interviewed 2 individuals that did not have the need, simply because they either had the means to pay for any visits to the ER that turned out to be extraneous or because they had a mother or father than was in the medical profession and thus, could be on hand in case of any issues.  

11 Idea Napkin

1.     I am a Business Administration student seeking a career focused on Public Health. I’ve had experience both shadowing at a multi-specialty hospital in India but also on the other side of the curtain, when I was admitted to the ER for an abscess. Because of these experiences, I have gathered that there are a few issues concerning efficiency in the health field. I hope to, with this service as well as my career, eventually eradicate these problems so that getting treated or receiving medical attention is easier and more cost-efficient for everyone involved.

2.     The service that I am offering customers is an app that customers can download on their phones that will help them with diagnosis of their perceived medical issue while being able to get real time help from professionals on call, in order to decide whether it can be taken care of quickly, whether it should just be brought up during the next doctor’s visit, or whether this is something that Urgent Care should take care of. The app, in the case that Urgent Care is needed, will be able to send any medical information pertinent directly to the ER ahead of time, so that they already have your information by the time you get there, thus streamlining the process and avoiding the long, stereotypical waiting time.

3.     I’m offering this app to millennials especially, as they are usually the individuals who are looking to minimize expenditure, as they don’t really have a solid income flow yet.

4.     This will save them money long-term and also time, in the case that they do have to go to Urgent Care.

5.     My app, though it provides a research service that can also be accomplished through simple web-surfing, makes sure all pertinent information is in place and also provides a more user-friendly approach with more reliable diagnoses than simply Google. These diagnoses also have the opportunity to be vetted by real-time professionals so you can get a more experienced opinion and get any questions answered by qualified individuals.

I believe these elements do fit together in a way that would justify such an application being designed and built; however I am looking for more ways to distinguish this app from other existing services in a manner that will make it more appealing, and hence more profitable in the long run and over a wider target base.

9 Testing the Hypothesis 2

What I realized through this exercise is that the target audience might not be as wide as I had thought. Some people might just not care about being educated, since they have the means to get treatment, regardless. Another explanation that was voiced during my interviews was that people would not want to take the risk of waiting on the app rather than going to a trusted source, like the ER. 

INSIDE THE BOUNDARY	OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARY
Who Is in: Students, Average Individuals	Who is Out: People who have relations to medical professionals, Those who can afford the hospital bills
Educating people	Actually Treating the Ailment
Doctors think information is too complicated for patients to understand Hospitals want to make money	People don’t have the time to worry and would rather have professionals deal with it, they don’t want to take risks.

8 Solving the Problem

The issue at hand, is an overarching lack of education in people regarding medical information including diagnosis, symptoms, and treatments. This often causes patients to panic and run for the ER for things that can easily be treated at home; this then causes them to rack up huge bills that are unnecessary. Hospitals often won’t tell people that, and will take their money; they are, after all, a business as well as a public service. This in turn, created an opportunity for the service I created.

My service that will solve the issue of the lack of medical knowledge in patients and save money for them in the long run is the application detailed in the previous post. This app will combine an information service that will detail symptoms, diagnosis, etc very much like the Web MD service on the internet. This app will then take it one step further by incorporating a chat service in which licensed professionals will be able to provide real time help in answering any questions patients might have. A secondary application of this app could also include getting vitals, medical information, etc uploaded in a timely manner so that this step can be skipped in the case of a necessary visit to the Emergency Room.

7 Testing the Hypothesis

Opportunity: Patients lack the medical knowledge to decide what to do in situations that require medical care.

The Who: Patients, Families of Patients, Doctors

The What: An app that connects people with information on every type of ailment that will tell them how to deal with certain symptoms; also can connect them with on-call professionals (either in school or graduated) that can answer any questions in a chat format.

The Why: Sometimes people overreact and end up going to the hospital for things that can easily be treated at home, and end up spending way too much money on visits to urgent care, etc.

Testing the Who: Patients, the average individual in the United States do not have the information necessary to make educated decisions.

Testing the What: The boundaries would have to consider the cost of the chat services, as professionals will need to be compensated. But services like WebMD can sponsor this app so that all the information on a specific illness can be in one area.

Testing the Why: This will easily save hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially because a common complaint for patients is that they are not being told enough. Professionals on chat will be able to translate information so that it makes sense to the average individual who is not educated on the topic.

The interviews taught me that the app might shift to be a little more redundant if I completely focus on just the information provided by services like Web MD. The chat service provided by professionals will probably be the factor that makes this app stand out because it makes the ER and Urgent Care a little more accessible to patients as they get their more important questions answered from the comfort of their home. I also received a suggestion that patients should be able to upload pictures of their ailments for professionals to judge so that they feel more at ease when getting the information.