Forming an opportunity belief

As a member of the drumline at UF, I am constantly being surrounded by loud noises. Theses noises can come from drums, or even the band/crowd behind you at football games. Usually it would seem that this could easily be solved by wearing earplugs, however an important part of drumming consists of "listening in" to the person next to you so that the line can play clean/together as a whole. I know myself and others have experienced this same dilemma, if you choose to protect your ears it might sacrifice your playing. The people who experience this are obviously other members of college drumlines, so that is who I targeted for my interviews. I believe this need has only begun recently as the culture of college marching bands has changed a lot. There used to be very few members in a marching band, which wouldn't produce nearly as much sound, but within the past couple of years there has been around 350 members in the UF band and a little over 30 on the drumline. In order to meet this need of protecting hearing some have been wearing earplugs, however as stated before this method has its flaws. The opportunity to address this issue could be met by an earplug design specifically for drummers that doesn't change or muffle the sound at all, it would only reduce it.

Interview 1)

   

Notes:

-Didn't want to wear earplugs because it took away from the experience, and playing.
-Been playing for 10 years hearing loss started in college ( high freq. timer alarm).
-He believes that his hearing will decline in the future.
-Knew the risk but still went in to it.

Interview 2)

-Really bad hearing in right ear (high pitched ringing), wore earplugs some of the time.
-Could actually feel pain in ears during games when not wearing plugs (a couple times severe damage).
-Played for around 10 years.
-Also believes that hearing will be reduced in the future.

Interview 3)

-Story about magic game could hear static and pain.
-Test in physics couldn't hear higher freq. as much as other kids 14000 vs 18000-20000 hertz.
-Started a lot earlier for him, and directly affects his life (difficult to hear people when serving).
-He would actually wear earplugs during games and still had a lot of problems.

Summary: It seems that all the people I interviewed have experienced some degree of hearing loss due to drumming. All three said they have been playing for around 9-10 years and that the majority of the problems started in college. So while the need is still there for hearing loss prevention it seems that people actually do wear earplugs and still have problems. Because of this I think my solution should be altered so that these specialized ear plugs focus on greatly reducing the loud piercing sounds such as rim shots and cymbals more than that of the normal drums sound.

I think entrepreneurs should constantly be adapting to customer feedback in order to create the best possible product. A lot of times things change, and people want/need different products to accommodate these changes.