7A Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1) The opportunity I would like to pursue is the inconvenience for property managers and tenant to agree on repairs and contact a vendor and keep in contact through vendor all throughout the process.

2) The hypothesis for this opportunity is:

• Getting household repairs for tenants and property managers can be a hassle when dealing                between each other and a third party vendor all through different platforms. This is because the tenant would want the property to be at the best condition possible, the property manager has to balance the happiness of the tenant and their profits and the vendors usually are not the most reliable businessmen when it comes to quotes and appointments.

3) Testing the who:  Although the 'who' may be specifically tenants and property managers it can also apply to homeowners. However not all property managers and tenants and homeowners have the same problems with handy repair companies. 

Testing the what: Not all properties have this need, some properties have in-house handymen and repairs or lengthy contracts with specific companies. Also, new buildings would hardy need repairs for the first years while some homeowners choose to perform their own repairs. 

Testing the why: Since the why in this opportunity comes from the degree of difficulty in contacting these kind of services the why could get tested heavily. Not every property manager or tenant has problems contacting and setting appointments with home repair companies. Some potential customers will have different why's, some may blame property managers for not fixing, other may blame the handymen for not completing a job correctly and some may even not be able to set appointments with the service.

4) For this part, I had interviews with homeowners, property managers, tenants and even home repair service handymen. All but the servicemen agreed that setting up contact and completing appointments for repair has its complications from busy schedules and a three way communication problems. Both the tenants and property managers agree that it is usually a struggle to agree on a repair on the property where both sides are happy, since they can have opposing goals. They also agree that one agreement can only bring more disruption once the repair company comes in the picture with their higher than expected quotes and busy schedules.  They both also agree that communication between the three parties could be better streamlined in a single platform where all parties are involved and attentive to the process. 

5) What I've learned: From the interviews, I have learned that this issue is not seen as equally from both sides. Tenants and managers agree in the difficulty while repair services believe the system in place is well sufficient for its purpose. I have also learned how the big is the variability of repairs need in one household which goes to prove the difficulty for tenants and managers to be in touch with multiple companies that offer different services instead of one platform that can organize and streamline the company to the service requested.