Assignment 19A: Idea Napkin No. 2

IDEA NAPKIN

Me: My name is Lauren Beato. After about taking this course for over half of the semester and reflecting on my assignment feedback, I realize that I am an organized (more organized than I thought I was) and detailed oriented person. Many people have commented this on my posts and I am glad that my business concept is able to be understood and perceived well. I think this business would help a lot of people in the long run and decrease the worry that comes from dealing with food allergies and sensitivities. This business idea would also, as I mentioned in the last idea napkin, would allow me to help people in general, which is something I really like to do.

Offering to Customers: What I am offering to customers is remaining the same: a product and service that allows customers to react to food allergies and sensitivities in a more efficient manner. The product side is a basic food allergy test itself which would test for the most common food allergens. The service aspect would be that doctors would be the ones to recommend and set up the food panel appointments. Past feedback from pervious assignments led me to change the food allergy test from a more complex version to a simpler one. This would allow the customer to develop an understanding of what food allergies/sensitivities are without overwhelming them with 95+ results.

Offering to: From the previous Napkin Idea assignment, I think that doctors should start bringing up this test to parents with very young children, just to get the idea implanted in their minds. As one commenter said, you do not want to be unaware of your food allergies/sensitivities, especially for most of your life. So, the target age group for the test would be younger children (age 6 and up) and young adults (up to age 28 or so). However, doctors could start bringing up the idea of the food allergy test when their patients are as young as 3 or 4, just to have the parent aware that food allergies and sensitivities could occur in the child’s life.

Why do they care: Parents, children, and young adults care because food allergies and sensitivities can really impact one’s life. Parents will want to make sure their children are living their healthiest life. An unknown food allergy that suddenly springs up can cause a parent to panic because they do not want anything to happen to their children. Children and young adults care because they are at the stage of life where they are learning things and having fun. Dealing with a food allergy/sensitivity’s symptoms can put a damper and cause one to become very sick. They need a way to efficiently learn about and react to food allergies and sensitivities.

Core Competencies: My idea combines the best of both worlds, it is a simple test that would give customers easy results and doctors would be available to help along the way. This is better than trying to go through the process by yourself at home or struggling through different doctors and hospital visits. The feedback I received made me realize that my organization skills and ability to develop deep content can help my business grow. I have many ideas and by elaborating on them, describing the processes in depth, and having a constant feedback loop I can figure out where things can be improved and I can make my product something customers will want to use.

The Elements: I think that all of these elements will fit together. I think that the addition of doctors talking about food allergies and sensitivities to parents of younger children (not necessarily having them take the food test) will be beneficial in getting food allergy awareness to parents. Getting this information to people is the most important part of my idea because as I have stated numerous times, no one likes to suffer because they have no idea what is wrong with them. Hopefully, doctors will feel the same way and will want to use my product, which was my concern from the last Napkin Idea.

FEEDBACK MEMO

From my feedback, I discovered two points. The first is the importance of being organized and thorough in your ideas. This can help your idea grow and can also make it easier for people to understand and provide feedback one. People will be able to see your train of thought and give the appropriate information and not have to worry about misunderstanding the concept. After seeing the feedback, I try to be more thorough in my blog posts so people can understand where I am coming from. The second point, was spreading food allergy/sensitivity information out early. It is nice to be aware of different issues that can possibly impact your life so you know how to properly react. Trying to figure something out for many days, weeks, months, or years can be very taxing mentally and physically. Using this feedback, I thought that it might be nice to get the food allergy information out earlier than I had original planned (having doctors beginning explaining food allergies and tests for them at a younger age). This would allow parents to have more time to process and read up on food allergies.