7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Scooter/ Moped "3 in One" Antitheft Lock 

• Opportunity: 
• There are high volumes of scooters and mopeds as a mode of transportation all over the world that are prone to get stolen due to their size and mobility.
• The who: scooter and moped owners (potentially motorcycles)
• The what: victims of theft and stolen property
• The why: the existence of thieves and illegally making money
• Testing the who: Not just college students and Americans have the need, scooter and moped theft happen around the world. The “who” includes specifically European cities, like London, as well. However, I do think that the “who” could be concentrated in places like college towns where scooter usage is high and ranges only for a few miles of transportation. 
• Testing the what: Basically, all scooter or moped owners are at risk. There will never be a full-proof method of theft prevention. People have and will always find ways to steal things. However, methods of prevention can always be improved to decrease the number of victims to as low as possible. As far as I have found, no brand of mopes or scooter is more at risk than another.
• Testing the why: There is no good reason why thieves steal, other than to better themselves while taking away property from unsuspecting victims. There are different products that currently exist to protect against theft, but a combination of locks and tracking would more efficiently protect against it. I think this opportunity helps divert thieves and helps protect customer’s scooters and mopeds. 

• Interview #1- Female college student with scooter lock
• In this interview, I found that college town residents feel that the need for better antitheft locks is large. This particular female has a lock that she uses regularly but says she still feels as if she is a target for theft. This interviewee has known multiple people who have gotten their scooter stolen. She thinks adding more protection to her scooter would be beneficial.
• Interview #2- Male college scooter owner
• This interview was conducted with a freshman business student whose name will not be mentioned. He does not currently use a lock for his scooter but feels like it is a good idea to invest in one in the near future. I learned that he feels that his scooter is more in danger when he parks it off-campus in isolation, rather than the crowded on-campus parking. When asking about the tracker, he thought it was a good idea, but wanted to ensure how it wouldn’t be able to be removed or turned off by the thief.
• Interview #3- Retired West Palm Beach police officer 
• This interview was conducted with my grandpa whose name will not be mentioned. I wanted to test the who in this interview, by seeing if my hometown was also affected by this problem. While mopeds and scooters are not common modes of transportation in South Florida, he did recall auto thefts being a large problem that has increased in recent years. He thought it would be a good idea to make the tracking system aspect versatile for different modes of transportation, in order to expand the market. He said theft has always and will always continue to be a problem.
• Interview #4- Victim of scooter theft
• This interviewee is a young female college student. Within the past month, he scooter has been stolen and remains to be found. She believes that people steal in order to benefit themselves, and do not necessarily consider the effects that it will have on their victim. She states the problem is prevalent in all college towns and was curious about how different parts of the world have fought against theft. 
• Interview #5- Female college student
• This interviewee whose name will not be mentioned does not own a scooter themselves. They do not see a need for new product development, because they believe the current products work well enough. Their justification is that everything has the opportunity to be stolen and that thieves will always find a way to steal things. They also felt that setting up a tracking system would be costly and were unsure if that would reduce the problem. 

Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before? 

• Conducting the interviews and gathering information from the interviewees gave me new insight into this opportunity. Interview #3 solidified the who because it showed how it is not just college town or moped owners that could benefit from such a project. It gave me the idea to expand the usage of the product
• From the victim that I interviewed, I found out that she believes this product will forever be a need. There will always be thieves and therefore there will always be a need to protect against them. She also believes that recovery is the main aspect that needs to be improved when it comes to theft, which supports the tracking idea. 
• Interviewee #5 did not seem to be bothered or think there was a need for different methods on antitheft locks. This made me realize that the market may be specific to scooter or moped owners only unless the product could be expanded to other vehicles as well. 
• Overall, these interviews told me that there is still an opportunity to improve current antitheft locks and trackers. However, I would need to re-evaluate and proceed with caution, since there are other products out there.