The problem that we are trying to solve is that bike computers today are very expensive; some ranging into the upper two thousands. Our goal is to create a cheap power output computer for the amateur biker. We aim to make a product that is at least three times cheaper than what is on the market today.
There are three main problems that we think the customer will care about with our product. The first being the cost. Professional bikers don't need to worry about the cost because they are sponsored and have these types of things basically given to them. So we are marketing our product to the amateur biker who wants to know his power output for training but can't afford to spend all that money. The second problem that customers will care about is the convenience of the product. We want to make something simple and easy to use and attach in the littlest time possible. The third problem is that the customer will want the product to be fairly accurate. They are not going to want a product that gives them skewed and inaccurate data.
The data we want to measure with our experiment is whether the amateur will buy this product and if so how much they would pay for this product. We want to try and talk to as many amateur cyclists as possible. Our goal is between 5 and 10.
We have three different product ideas that would work. The first is that the pressure sensor that records the cyclists power output would be put on the pedal so that they can use whatever shoe they want, this however means that you would have to use the specific cleat that our pedal uses. Our second idea is to have the product be an addition to the shoe. It would go between the cleat and the shoe meaning that you could use whatever shoe you wanted and whatever cleat and pedal you want. Our last idea is that it would be in the shoe. You would need to buy the special pair or shoes that has the pressure sensor in them. This means that you would couldn't use your old shoes but you could use whatever cleats and pedals you wanted.
We would measure the data by pitching all three ideas to the amateur and ask them which they like best and how much they would pay for that product. We have to be careful to try to avoid inaccurate feedback, however. The fact that I know some cyclists personally might affect what they say about the product we're pitching. They might be biased and may not want to say what they truly think therefore skewing some of our data.
I feel like our best idea is where the pressure sensor is the addition to the shoe, this leaves the options for choosing your own shoe, cleat, and pedal, open to the consumer.
Our step by step plan for asking people is to start by asking how much they would pay for a power output computer for their bicycle. We should ask them if they would even need it and how useful it would be to them. Then after we get that price ask them which of our three product ideas they like best and how much they would be willing to pay for each of those. By doing this we will be able to see which product idea they like if any and how much we might be able to sell the product for.
I was able to talk to three cyclists about the project that we wanted to start. I was able to get a great amount of data about how our product should be designed and how it should work.
The first person i talked to was a guy on the U of I cycling team, i asked him what design he liked best and he said the one that goes between the shoe and the cleat and then i asked him how much he would pay for a product like this. He said that because he's in college and doesn't necessarily need this product that he would pay around 200 dollars for it, which is the price we are hoping to sell it for. The second person i asked was Louie Fountain, a very good cyclocross rider from Moscow. I pitched him the three different designs we had looked into and he said that he didn't like any of them because he thought that they would get in the way of how cyclists did things. Like with our idea of putting it between the cleat and the shoe, he said that most cyclists have a specific tightness or height that they like to have that at so that would mess with their system too much. The idea that he pitched back to us is that we put the pressure sensor in an insole that they could put in the shoe, this was an amazing idea and what we hope to do with our project. He also said that because he isn't super into his numbers concerning power output that he wouldn't want to spend 1-3k on something like that. He said that he would however pay 200 for it. The last cyclist that i talked to was a past U of I cycling club member. He liked the insole idea and also said that he would pay 200 for it.
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