7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Reduction of Nicotine Addiction

• Opportunity: Everyday more and more teens are getting hooked onto nicotine from nicotine based devices, such as a JUUL.
• Who: Teens in college and the next generation of teens who are exposed to other who smoke nicotine
• What: Victims of the addiction to nicotine
• Why: People see other people using nicotine in society and either try it out of curiosity or to fit in
• Testing the Who: Not only do teens have this problem, but older people in society have been afflicted with nicotine addiction. The main "who" of the problem are the people who are exposed to nicotine at an earlier age and can't seem to stop even though they may want to. This may lead to a long lasting nicotine addiction that is very difficult to break and can follow you into adulthood.
• Testing the What: Nicotine has been around in many different forms, such as cigarettes, but now many companies are developing nicotine devices that would get rid of some of the nasty chemicals found in cigarettes for a "safer smoking experience", but this has in turn created a rampant nicotine addiction in a young audience in society.
• Testing the Why: People often get into JUULs now because they know of someone that is using one and often times they do it to fit in social settings. There's no benefit to consuming nicotine and users won't feel anything except a "buzz."
• Interview 1:
• The first person I interviewed was over the phone and she was a nurse whose husband died from lung cancer. Her husband was an avid cigarette smoker and was hooked on nicotine. Granted, any type of smoking isn't good for your lungs, in this case it just happened to be tobacco related. The person I was interviewing was very against nicotine usage and she feels that the whole nicotine addiction is crazy and she is sad that this kind of problem is still prevalent in society. When I asked about past types of devices that have aimed to help people stop smoking such as a nicotine patch, she said that they can help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms victims may experience, but agrees with me that there can be improvements in this area.
• Interview 2:
• In this interview I talked to a neighbor who I know regularly JUULs. I talked to him about my view point and asked him questions regarding the opportunity I believe is present. He agreed that this nicotine addiction thing is definitely a widespread thing, especially on college campuses, but when I asked about if he thought nicotine addiction could be solved by a some device that could be placed on the skin discretely and help fight the addiction without actually containing any nicotine in the device he said no. He believed that while this is a widespread thing, he doesn't see JUULs as a problem because he believed that this was at least safer than smoking cigarettes that are filled with nicotine and other harmful chemicals. His main point was that things could be "worse" than they are now.
• Interview 3:
• This interview I tried to find someone on the other side of the spectrum, and ended up finding a guy who doesn't JUUL or smoke. I talked to him for a while and found out he just didn't want to be addicted to something and on top of that he told me nothing good comes from it. I asked about if thought there was an addiction problem among teens, and he told me that if he went to a lecture and asked everyone there for a JUUL at least one person would say they have one. I asked about my potential product and he mentioned that something like that would be many years away, but he could see the need for it if things continue the way they are right now.
• Interview 4:
• I asked to interview an old teacher from my high school that I am relatively close to via phone call and I just talked over the list of questions and topics I wished to discuss. The response I got back from her is kind of what I expected to see from a teacher. She has first hand experience with a bunch of teens addicted to nicotine. She gave me an example of students she found JUULing in the bathroom. The students could have waited until they got home, but they just had to do it right then and there. When I ran my idea by her, she thought that might be too extreme for young teens, but could see a market for it for older people.
• Interview 5:
• In the last interview I talked to a friend who likes to go out and party. I asked her how often she uses a JUUL, and she says that when she sees one in a social setting she will most likely ask the person using it if she could use it for a second too. She claims that this kind of behavior only happens in social settings and that she doesn't own any nicotine device for her own personal consumption. A big question I asked her was why she decides to JUUL in social settings, but not by herself. She basically said that it's a social norm kind of thing because many people usually have one and because it's around it's hard to avoid it. I ran my idea by her and she said that it would be a good product, but a patch or something like that wouldn't look good out in public.
• Discoveries
• After the interviews I learned that not everyone sees a market for this product. In interview 2 I talked to someone who regularly uses nicotine and he didn't seem to have any problems being on it. I genuinely thought that people who were addicted would all want to get off of it, but that's not the case.
• I also realized that peoples' answers depended on whether or not they were involved with nicotine or knew someone that was involved. Peoples' opinions on my opportunity varied, but it was either you believed this was a problem or you didn't.
• I found out that my product idea may have to be reworked a little because many people wouldn't want to wear an ugly patch. It could possibly be reconstructed into a bracelet, but the technology for this would still have to be invented.