Part 1 - Pain Spotting

• Briefly describe one pain point (e.g., inconvenience, discomfort, sources of pain, gap, problem, etc.) that you regularly face (or that you are aware of based onyour experiences)in your personal and/or professional life.
• Using a few sentences for each, answer the following questions:
  • How extensive or serious is the pain?
  • How often do you experience the pain?
  • How many other people, do you think, experience this pain? Canyou name a category of peoplethat encompasses them (e.g., students, senior citizens, tennis players, etc.)? This step may point you toward a customer segment.
  • To what extent do you believethere is abusiness opportunity associated with the pain? In other words, is there possibly a product or service that could be developed to address this pain?
  • John Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire, once said: "Opportunities are like buses; they all take you somewhere, just not necessarily where you want to go!" How do you know if a business opportunity is worth pursuing?

Part 2 - Future Trend Detection

• Look online for a list of future trends (global, technical, social, environmental, business, etc.). Select one that you are interested in and spend some time researching it online.
• Write one or more paragraphs explaining how the future trend you selected may lead to new business opportunities for you, your company, or another company.
• Using one or more paragraphs, explain how you would track and/or monitor the future trend to ensure vigilance and maintain awareness of the trend and its potential to provide business opportunities