Assignment 9A

Who: In these interviews, I found that there are a lot of people that have this problem, but don’t see it as something that they necessarily need to fix or solve. This was the case for three out of the five interviewees. One of them said they don’t experience the problem frequently enough for them to want to buy a product to solve it and the other two said they don’t care about the flavor of the coffee getting a little watered down and would just put ice in the drink. They did say that they could see people buying it but wouldn’t themselves. This made me realize that the real prototypical customer would have to be someone that cares a lot about the specific flavors you experience right after the coffee is brewed. Also, these people might fall into the category of having a tolerance to the temperature.

What: The interviewees all pretty much came to the conclusion that this is a need completely based on personal preferences about a very specific thing. This made me question more about my idea. I thought about how this cup only cools down the drink. If there was actual heating and cooling technology inside the cup, could it make drinks hot as well and work like a toaster oven for drinks. Could it be used to reheat soups? I found that I have been restrictive on this idea and the only way it would actually work is if if was a full, mobile, heating and cooling system that was confined in the cup.

Why: The cause of the original need is the same: burning your mouth. But now, I have realized that people outside this boundary might use this technology in different ways for different reasons.

	Inside	Outside
Who	People who experience burned mouths and want a solution	People who wouldn’t buy a, likely expensive, cup to solve that issue
What	Cup to reduce temperature to stop burning their mouth	Not a cup, maybe mobile heating and cooling system
Why	Pain every day, burnt tastebuds	Could be useful for travel, home, work, etc.