Assignment 7A

Temperature Controlled Cup/Mug

Opportunity: All over the world, coffee and tea drinkers are unable to avoid burning their mouths because these drinks are too hot right when they are finished brewing.

Testing the who: Coffee and tea are part of many people’s daily routine all over the world. This is not constrained to just one group of people considering 83% of adults in the US drink coffee. That statistic is larger when you take tea into account.

Testing the what: I think that regarding drinks, coffee and tea are really the biggest concern because the only other hot drink that is even close to being as popular would be hot chocolate. I think there is a chance that this temperature regulation technology could be expanded to include plates and bowls as well.

Testing the why: I don’t think that everyone realizes that they need this solution. But that is only because they haven’t had a solution for burning their mouth in the past and have become somewhat used to it. Some people have different tolerances and actually don’t experience this problem though, so not everyone would need a solution.

Interview 1:

I interviewed one of my coworkers about this opportunity. I randomly asked him if he would do the interview, so I didn’t know what to expect. As it turned out, he actually doesn’t drink hot drinks at all but does see that the problem exists. When I asked him if he would buy something to fix this problem, he said he would if it cooled down food not drinks. This was interesting because I thought of this in the testing the what section.

Interview 2:

This interview was with a middle aged man that drinks coffee every single morning and has been for years. After talking to him, it became apparent that he falls into the category of having a higher tolerance to hot temperatures in his mouth and doesn’t burn his mouth. This was the first person I have talked to that falls in this category, so it was good that I interviewed him. He did mention that he thinks that the idea could still work and that people who do burn their mouths frequently would probably buy something to solve that issue.

Interview 3:

This interviewee is a male in his early twenties that drinks a lot of coffee. Towards the beginning of the interview he was somewhat confused as to what the point of it was. I found out that this confusion stemmed from the fact that he hadn’t recognized burning his mouth as a problem. For him it was just part of life. Our discussion then went on about how marketing for such a solution would be critical since many people might not realize the problem even exists. He felt that many people do have the same problem but don’t realize it so they need someone to push them in the right direction before wanting to make the change.

Interview 4:

This interview was with a female in her early twenties that drinks coffee a solid amount. She explained that she does burn her mouth when she drinks hot coffee but her solution that she already has employed is drinking iced coffee. This quickly made me realize that I do not have the only solution but iced coffee is an alternative all together so it doesn’t solve the problem for people who enjoy hot coffee.

Interview 5:

This interview was with my grandma who has been drinking coffee forever. She solves the issue of burning her mouth by blowing on her coffee and waiting for it to cool off. She talked about how her mouth has gotten more sensitive as she has gotten older and would definitely use a different mug that could help cool down the coffee before she takes her first sip. She also mentioned that she didn’t always perceive this issue as a problem but recently she has noticed it more and more.

What I know now:

Some things that I learned during this process were that all kinds of people have different needs. One of the interviews led to the confirmation that some people might want plates that can cool food down quickly. This was only a thought in my head beforehand but now I realize it could actually go somewhere. Also, I realized that I need to explore age as a factor in more detail because of the interview with my grandma. Overall, I think that there is even more of an opportunity than I originally thought, but a lot of advertising and marketing would need to be done for people to realize their need.