7A - Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1. Opportunity

• The opportunity I chose to pursue for this venture comes from my bug list. The issue at hand is lazy roommates who expect simple household chores, such as washing the dishes, taking out the trash, or sweeping the floors, to be done for them so long as they don't contribute long enough for someone else to do it. Since I am inherently more sanitary than a couple of my roommates, I am constantly picking up their wrappers, cleaning up after their messes, and so on. Since this is likely a common issue, I feel that there is an opportunity hidden behind it.

2. The Who, What, & Why

• The who of my opportunity are people who have roommates, whether they are friends or not. This means that college towns and big cities will be a huge part of the target market of my opportunity.
• The what of my opportunity is that sometimes roommates can be lazy in a number of ways when it comes to household chores, such as by piling dishes in the sink, ignoring an overflowing trash can, leaving wrappers behind, etc.
• The why of my opportunity is that those who ignore chores or even don't care to clean up after themselves are simply lazy. They likely either expect someone else will do it or don't mind living in filth.

3. Hypothesis

• Testing the Who: I know for a fact that there are plenty others with the same need to get rid of this issue. As I mentioned earlier, college towns are heavily populated by students, and only a small percentage live in studio apartments. Furthermore, big cities are also dense with friends, colleagues, families, and even acquaintances living with each other in order to split rent costs. That being said, most of my aforementioned "who" shares this exact need.
• Testing the What: Since I want to ask questions testing the boundaries of my opportunity in my interviews, I will dig deeper into which chores people do not mind, which ones people hate, and which ones people totally ignore. I will also ask questions pertaining to the solution I have in mind without actually revealing it. These questions will revolve around how my prototypical customers feel about sharing chores amongst their roommates.
• Testing the Why: I hypothesize that the why of my opportunity is fairly accurate for the majority of people with roommates. However, some people may be biased and say that their roommates are out to get them or possibly that they enjoy cleaning up.

4. Interviews
Interview #1: Robert, UF Senior

• Do you consider yourself a cleanly person?
• "I'm not a clean-freak like some people, but I make sure to clean up after my messes."
• What are some daily household chores that you don't mind doing?
• "I don't mind doing my laundry, because I usually listen to music to make it go by quicker. I also don't mind chores that go by quick like taking out the trash."
• Which chores do you hate finding yourself doing?
• "I hate cleaning because it takes a while, and half the time I clean the living room I realize 99% of what I'm cleaning up came from someone else."
• Are there any chores that you utterly ignore, praying that your roommates will eventually do them?
• "I don't necessarily ignore it as much as I forget, but I am very bad at refilling our Brita. I know because my roommate who bought it never forgets to let me know when I left it empty."
• Do you have some type of organized system amongst your roommates for doing chores? If not, would you consider it?
• "No, we don't, but I'd definitely consider it! The reason being that my roommates are the party-type, so our living room gets messy on the weekends."

Interview #2: Tim, UF Junior

• Do you consider yourself a cleanly person?
• "No."
• What are some daily household chores that you don't mind doing?
• "I don't mind taking out the trash, because it takes 2 seconds. Usually one of my roommates get to it before me, though."
• Which chores do you hate finding yourself doing?
• "I hate almost all chores, but mostly cleaning the dishes because we don't have a dishwasher, so sometimes I have to touch gross stuff that's been sitting there."
• Are there any chores that you utterly ignore, praying that your roommates will eventually do them?
• "Can I say doing the dishes again? Plates pile up in our sink, because my roommates and I are all messy people."
• Do you have some type of organized system amongst your roommates for doing chores? If not, would you consider it?
• "We don't, no, but I would definitely consider it, because our house is constantly cluttered."

Interview #3: Randell, UF Senior

• Do you consider yourself a cleanly person?
• "I want to say yes, but I'd probably be lying."
• What are some daily household chores that you don't mind doing?
• "I don't mind vacuuming my room or the living room. because it feels refreshing afterwards."
• Which chores do you hate finding yourself doing?
• "I hate doing my laundry and cleaning the kitchen and stove counter, because they are both long processes."
• Are there any chores that you utterly ignore, praying that your roommates will eventually do them?
• "I don't think I've taken the trash out all semester so far. Don't tell my roommates that. Usually when I see it's filled, I ignore it because my roommates are pretty good about doing that."
• Do you have some type of organized system amongst your roommates for doing chores? If not, would you consider it?
• "No, and I'm not the overly-clean type, so I probably wouldn't consider it."

Interview #4: Cassandra, UF Senior

• Do you consider yourself a cleanly person?
• "Yes, I definitely do."
• What are some daily household chores that you don't mind doing?
• "I don't mind doing the dishes, feeding my dog, laundry, or anything like that."
• Which chores do you hate finding yourself doing?
• "The one chore I hate is taking out the trash. We live in an apartment building, so we have to carry it down the hall to the trash chute."
• Are there any chores that you utterly ignore, praying that your roommates will eventually do them?
• "No, I'm a very sensible person, so taking care of myself and my belongings is a priority."
• Do you have some type of organized system amongst your roommates for doing chores? If not, would you consider it?
• "Yes, we actually do. We have a whiteboard in the kitchen for household chores, and we cycle our names through it weekly. It works really well."

Interview #5: Gabriel, UF Senior

• Do you consider yourself a cleanly person?
• "Yea, probably more than the average person."
• What are some daily household chores that you don't mind doing?
• "I don't mind running the dishwasher or cleaning, because it feels gratifying to have everything in the house be fresh."
• Which chores do you hate finding yourself doing?
• "I think I hate doing my laundry the most, but that's just because I don't like folding clothes and putting shirts on hangers."
• Are there any chores that you utterly ignore, praying that your roommates will eventually do them?
• "No, at least I don't think there are. It's rare for our house to be messy, and I've never heard a complaint about myself."
• Do you have some type of organized system amongst your roommates for doing chores? If not, would you consider it?
• "We don't have a system, but we're all pretty cleanly people overall. We just kind of randomly do what needs to be done, and it works for the most part. Because of that, I probably wouldn't consider a system for doing chores."

5. Summary

• I think my analysis of these interviews will definitely help me come up with an ideal solution to this problem. From these interviews, I clearly learned that there is a wide spectrum of people when it comes to overall sanitation. Some are cleanly with messy roommates, some are messy with cleanly roommates, and some households are just messy. Furthermore, some people hate chores that others don't mind doing, and vice-versa. Most of the people I interviewed answered that they would consider an organized system for doing chores, which is what I plan to create as a solution to this issue.