The one big blessing with being the first to go for a class project presentation is that you get to sit back and watch everyone else do it right, or more specifically, do the opposite of what you did. What can I say? A lot went wrong and quickly spiraled out of my control, and without any frame of reference via another classmate’s experience, it was difficult for me to put into context many of the methods we learned throughout the semester. Despite that, I wanted to give an “after-action” report of sorts to show people what was going through my head, as well as figure out what went wrong.
First off, I believe things started well enough. I made sure to ask questions about Professor Sweet’s game shop, figure out what games sold the best, who came in looking for games, and other general probing questions to try and glean any information to find out if my product was right for his store. Things started to go wrong when I decided to ask a ‘scale of 1-and-10 question.’ Although I knew that I needed to ask why he didn’t pick a lower number, I was thinking that I wanted to try and figure out what he WASN’T happy with, so I decided to ask why he didn’t pick a higher number instead to see if I could talk about a way that my product could meet the needs that his other products lacked. It didn’t work that way.
Things continued with the downwards spiral when Professor Sweet began to ask about price, benefits, and what I could do for him. Being in that situation, I had absolutely no frame of reference for how I could use some of the methods we learned in class, so I just aimed for trying to get my theoretical product into his store. In the end, I let him take 10 units of my product to try selling to prove that it could sell well, as well as a demonstration for him every month.
In hindsight, I should have asked him what he sold his other products for. That would have avoided the “that’s too much” answer I received when he asked for price. I should have been a bit more resistant to “sweetening the pot,” focusing instead on trying to meet a pain he was having by offering him a solution, not straight up giving away a solution.
All in all, the entire conversation was fun and educational. It was good to put and see everything we learned into practice. And while it sucks having to be the class guinea pig, I’m happy getting to just sit back and not worry about a thing anymore.
P.S.: The featured image is an accurate representation of how Professor Sweet handled my conversation. Take a guess which one is me.
Josh Elverson 
Ethan David 
ChloeGuntrum
I just want to say I agree with you and really related to the article.
I really enjoyed the presentation that you had especially because it was right before mine and I could take what I learned from yours and use it to my advantage. I know it was difficult for you but I think you still did a great job with what you were given. Especially since you were first. I have seen others do about the same as you did and they have seen days of these before they went. Great job!