These past two weeks in class were full of interactive activities and lots of lessons about learning how to work as a team and be together as a team. We also learned a lot about being a business and getting funding and making impacts.
Some of the non-obvious assumptions that we’re making about our target customers that need to be validated are…
- All children love sweet potatoes and will be willing to eat them
- The mothers will have enough money to let their children get the food vendors snacks at least 5 days a week
- Every child has access to these street vendors
- The mothers will not use the cakes or nutritional treats as a reward system; they won’t only be allowed to have these treats when the children have behaved well that day
- The street vendors work every single day
- The children won’t get tired and bored of eating the cakes daily
- The kids will eat the entire cake
- The kids won’t complain about them not being a specific flavor
- The kids won’t be allergic to any of the ingredients
- The kids will eat them consistently and enough of them to get the necessary nutrients.
Our team will also have different hypothesis that we will be testing while in the field and frankly, a lot of them have to deal with the assumptions we’re making because we need to test our assumptions out and if we find that we are making the wrong assumptions, then we need to completely change and shift the direction that our project is going. Plus there are also probably assumptions that we’re making that we’re not even aware that we’re making.
Our hypotheses…
- If we can sell the cakes for $0.25 a cake then it will be cheap enough for the children to gain enough access to them
- If we sell the cakes by street vendors then they will be able to reach more children than if we did it by stores
- If we can make different varieties of cakes, then the kids will eat more of them because they will like it
- If we can make the cakes stiffer and harder rather than soft and juicy, then it will be more like what their culture is used to (as discovered by a story Khanjan told us)
- If the cakes are made and sold everyday, then they will be fresher and sell faster and won’t go to waste
- If we bring more than one product to Sierra Leone with us then at least one of them will be appealing enough to create a successful and sustainable business model from them
- If we can create more jobs with this business we won’t be hurting their local economy
- If we partner up with World Hope Organization then we will have a better chance at succeeding the first time
- If our venture is a success then we can expand it to other developing countries
- If we can market these cakes or products with a collectable or a better incentive, then the kids will want to buy them and actually use the products and get the nutrients they so need
Also during the seminar we got to dive deeper into our own understanding of ourselves. I got to learn about my strengths and weaknesses and what I can bring to the team. It definitely made me more self-aware. For example, I believe that I bring a great amount of passion to the team and a drive to continue staying on task to create a product that is the most effective and beneficial for the kids. Because I have so much experience with working with children and such a love for seeing them thrive and be happy and healthy, I want to make sure that our project does everything for their benefit and nothing to hurt them. I am always constantly looking out for the children. I am also very curious and hardworking and always makes sure that my work is reflective of my passion and gets completed well and on time. My perception of my strength has changed because I realized that I bring more to the table than I thought. It takes everyone in the group to succeed and I believe we have a very dedicated and amazing group. My weakness however has changed because I have always been someone who takes initiative in things in life but what I have noticed is that if I don’t have to play a “leader” role and the one in that role does an excellent job at being a leader, then I am very quick to become a follower. I no longer take the same amount of initiative I just let them do the delegation and play the role of a leader. These last few classes have been very eye-opening and enlightening and I have really enjoyed them.