Target Market Braindump
Notes
Open Source
- Who is putting out podcast content?
- What are periodicals that passionate open source people read?
- What websites do they go to?
- Where else do open source people get practical skills?
Strategy
The ideal customer for STEAM Camps is one who:
- Participates in or creates one
- Then keeps developing it until they do it for a living.
But these people typically do not have the economic freedom to participate, as they have other jobs and have to make a living somehow.
Then we can talk about the customer such as a Chinese high school student who wants to pad their resume with a unique experience. This profile has money, but is not interested in making a living with OSE. Still, OSE can plant a seed that may grow after they get tired of a crap job.
Then we can talk about the third profile: a STEAM Teacher. Starting STEAM programs for the summer is a good way to go, a part that is currently taking off for OSE. But this is seasonal - as it can happen only in vacations and spring breaks. Unless - we include the entire world, in which case breaks are all over the place. See STEAM_Camp_Schedule#Breaks_Throughout_the_World
Common Characteristic
For our people, the 'making a difference' part is there all the time. Otherwise, one works for Google or Facebook - companies that are not social-mission centric - and is happy with it.
The ideal customer is pissed: they find the status quo objectionable. They want to do something about it.
Mental Model
Due to the rarity of the proverbial 5-Legged Dog customer of OSE, we need to identify classes of target markets to identify a beachhead market. There is the 5-legged dog - the person whom we want to find to actaully take on this work for livelihood, right now.
- 5-Legged Dog - the True Believer - not well defined, and therefore we can't find them. These are rare, but all come from an open-centric community. Examples are Chris Log (via OSHWA Certification List), Michel Log (via Open Building Institute kickstarter), Jessica Log (via GOSH), Jeremy Log (via January 2020 STEAM Camp, Marcin Log, William Log (early visitor to Factor e Farm in 2011). Chris appears to have most direct experience in running an enterprise: their own full service 3D print shop. Jessica is a part time college lecturer. Jeremy is an early adopter. William is a full time private high school teacher. Marcin is a movement entrepreneur. All of us rate significantly above average on willingness to collaborate on bigger problems, with open source and libre culture backing our work. Michel and Chris are quite libre-centric. All of us are entrepreneurial, with William having probably least entrepreneurial experience due to being a full time teacher. We subscribe to I still publishing according to the 60 Second Rule.
Potential Customer Profile
- Joseph is a successful software engineer from silicon valley, but he has been disenchanted with the fact that the Gini Coefficient has failed to drop over the last 2 decades. That is: as prosperous as his life is, and as magical as the digital age has become, it does not sit well with him that entire continents still lack even marginal shelter, food production, healthcare, water and power. Joe sees the above issues as huge, but does not see a clear solution. He is an optimist, so he wants to find out more. He decided to begin a shift, retaining his silicon valley job. Fortunately, his job allows telecommuniting, and the level of his income allow him about 25% down time outside of work. He is looking for a way that, like for Fab City - cities can produce all that they need - and as a firm believer in open source and open to collaboration, understands that collaborative design can get us there. As a decent entrepreneur savvy in digital technology, he sees clear potential of finding a few more people like him to make a difference. He decides to start an open source microfactory in Detroit. Collaborating with the City of Detroit, and with 3 friends that share his vision, and gets one dozen more to commit to join him by putting in $50k to buy out at the bottom and join him in Detroit once he succeeds. He snaps up a run-down warehouse and a couple of adjacent city lots in Detroit for $50k total, with intent to build a microhouse community af 16. With this $800k commitment in the bank, he allocates $50k to equip his microfactory with open source tools, and has his group of 16 work on the project 25% of their time until they meet in detroit. With the $700k left, he spends $400k on a microhouse village of 16 homes, and builds that via Extreme Manufacturing in 2 weeks - with the assistance of an OSE Extreme Build where others chip in to help. With his 1 Gig fat pipe, begins to organize a development effort to produce tools - like Harbor Freight - but made in distributed microfactories. He starts with the Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp to provide cash flow, spreading collaborative development throughout Detroit. Detroit becomes a point of light for prosperity within 5 years, becoming the first Open Source Microfactory that begins to spread to other cities at a rate of 3 per year. Joe started an enteprise training program for replicating their model far and wide, and is doing it all while producing 100% open, collaborative products that succeed in the marketplace. His first products were 3D printers, filament makers, and professional grade cordless drills - which have replaced the major brands in the marketplace due to their collaborative development process - which produced lifetime design and superior performance..
- Psychography - Joe believes in making the impossible possible. He is sufficiently ethical and global-visioned to consider the well-being of humanity as key to his own well-being. He is not afraid to share, and believes that we can grow the pie. His commitment to justice overrides his fear of sharing (collaborative economic development)
- Where does he live - Wired Magazine, Yes! Magazine, Hacker News
- Integrated approach -