Case Study 1: The Eye Form

Punya is a recent graduate of La Trobe CSIT Internet of Things (IoT) stream and has been recruited to a graduate program run by Toyota, one of the worlds leading car manufacturers. Punya loves to program and solve practical problems and is excited by this big step in her career.

The transition to Toyota has presented a problem for her. Punya lives with a vision impairment. At her home where she has developed most of her IoT skills, Punya has set up a flexible and mobile visual display on her work desk. She has developed a program to provide a number of shortcuts to meet her needs, including an auto scan and set up function, a visual display to rotate as she works, and related data insights that appears on the screen, sourced from a Bluetooth connection to her computer. Over the years her set up has evolved to maximise flexibility while still addressing her needs. The move to Toyota has meant she has had to build another version for her Toyota workspace.

The team at Toyota have been impressed with both her Toyota-based work and this practical solution for her workspace.

Punya is aware of the potential her solution has for the vision impaired community. She realises the system has the potential to be adapted for all people, not just those with a vision impairment.

Punya begins to think about turning her solution into a product that could be sold. She decides to explore the potential of creating a start-up.

Just as she considers this process, management at Toyota approach her to buy the intellectual property (I.P.) behind her idea. They see the potential for the product to be used by all kinds of car mechanics around the world. However, if she sold her I.P., she would be unable to develop her own start-up. She is undecided on what she should do next.

1) Who might be the customer segments for Punyas business idea? Which of these might be the earlyvangelists?

Which of the following actions would help Punya through the customer discovery process?

a.

Go out and speak with potential customers

b.

Use the feedback from customers to refine the problem and solution fit

c.

Develop a prototype that focuses the solution for her target customer segment/s

d.

All of the above