Figuring Out Buyer Behavior (12A)

For my segment, I chose tech professionals, and more specifically computer programmers. Two of my interviews were with computer research scientists (one associate, one head of research), and my third interview was with a freelance software developer.

Interview Process Information:

After my interviews, I learned the need for my product is very sustainable for this segment. They all demonstrated a need in wanting to have wireless USB laptop charging. In particular, the head of research had a very intriguing need to have a product like this as she is always traveling on planes. Considering all the projects she undertakes, she wants to use her time as effectively as possible and sometimes using her laptop on the plane for a long time isn’t feasible, so she must stop. And considering planes are now offering Wi-fi she said it would make sense to have a product that can charge without the need of wires. All three also had a very interesting topic about being in a “zone” when coding, and that sometimes they must stop to go get their charger before their laptop turns off. They talked about cases where they didn’t plug in their laptop before starting to code, get into a “zone” and then have to stop to take out their charger which messes up their flow.  Also, as they sometimes program in any spot, they said it would be nice to just have the USB on them to plug in and not worry about carrying the wires, and then having to find an outlet. At work this isn’t so much a problem for them, but outside of their offices it is.

Their solutions were simple: 

They would just go get their laptop charger. They did say that sometimes they would wait until the very last second to go get their charger, as again they were in a zone; they didn’t want to get out of while they were writing their code. None of them really used Google searches as they really haven’t seen a product that offers that wireless charging need. They just annoyingly deal with the issue.

Describing this Segment

There seems to be a lot of potential with computer programmers. They all use laptops as they want to be able to program anywhere, yet they all have the inconvenience of having to plug in their laptop when they really don’t want to do it. They either must plug in their charger at the beginning of their “session” or risk having to do it later on.  There really aren’t many solutions they could look up with this need, as it really is just a matter of recharging a laptop.