7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

1) Opportunity to provide an educational resource for coaches to learn effective coaching skills through online materials and eventually services like hosting coaching seminars and personalized coaching for coaches. 

2) The Who: Coaches

The What: Educational resource for coaches

The Why: Personal skill development resources are lacking in the athletic coaching realm. 

3) Testing the who: Originally my aim was explicitly for coaches of athletes. My experience as an athlete having different coaches and many experiences has driven me to want to provide a resource of education for coaches who are looking for more out of their careers and want to become the best coach they can. I would be providing educational material to help these coaches learn constructive coaching mechanisms. An idea that was introduced to me during an interview was that my educational resources don’t have to be restricted to coaches of athletes, but my resource could be helpful to those also who are in the life coaching/mentoring professions, or anyone who considers themselves any kind of coach. While I think that is a great idea, I’m not sure I want to go that broad since I don’t know much about other coaching professions outside of the athletic world, and while I still plan on gearing my content toward coaches who coach athletes, my resources will be available to anyone who wants access to them. 

Testing the what: The only boundaries I and the people I interviewed see within this need, are the boundaries that people put on themselves. The materials I will provide can be helpful to any coach, not matter their level. Some college and professional level coaches may not become customers just because they may not feel the need to improve, but there will be some who still do. 

Testing the why: Different people’s “why” for wanting a product/service like this vary slightly. The underlying reason for wanting this resource is for professional and personal development. Through my interviews I find out that some coaches want to become better coaches so they can help produce more socially intelligent people through athletics because they already have a really good grasp on how to effectively teach athletic skills. Others want a resource like this so they can effectively coach athletes to become more competitive because they know how to coach skills but they have a hard time with the psychological aspect of athletics. And other coaches want a combination of both. My original idea was to impact for the reason of helping athletes become the best versions of themselves, not not a high level athlete, but whatever the reason people would want to utilize my resource, it can be extremely beneficial. 

What I don’t know about this opportunity before is that it could appeal to a much wider variety of people, not just coaches of athletes, but coaches of other fields as well.