InnovationCreation

The end of the year is here and I am, like many of you, looking at the cross over to 2009 and 2010. To help you refresh and upgrade, here are my interesting resource picks to help refresh (re-boot?) (upgrade?).

• Marketing Over Coffee. Christopher S. Penn and John Wall provide insight and usable tools for marketing in the connected digital world. Check out the The Twitter Power Guide eBook and an audio Q&A session from a Seth Godin presentation on his book Tribes.
• Chris Brogan. Chris has insight on the community and social media "space". Hire Chris!. Actually, he said you could hire him or read his blog and get the same info for free!
• Read E-Myth. Michael Gerber wrote about being in your business more than 20 years. Great practical reading and coaching for your business.
• Edward Tufte on design. Edward Tufte, well known professor on design, has a series of books and courses that provide insight on design. He also has a very resourceful forum on his web site; check out the recent conversations on election results/data.
• Trends, everyone wants to be on the front of trends. While by no means the best or first, TrendWatching.com has material that can help provide inspiration and tickle your deep thoughts on the coming future. Good tip: Know why you are tracking trends. "Trend spotting can be fun. Makes you feel in the now and in the know. But that alone is not necessarily going to make you or your company more money. The way we see it, in a nutshell, is that tracking consumer trends is one way (and there are many ways!) to gain inspiration, helping you dream up profitable new goods, services and experiences for (and with) your customers. So trend watching should ultimately lead to profitable innovation."
• Check out Springwise for new business ideas. Springwise scans the globe for the most promising business ventures, ideas and concepts that are ready for regional or international adaptation, expansion, partnering, investments or cooperation. They ferociously track more than 400 global offline and online business resources, as well as taking to the streets of world cities, digital cameras at hand.
• Folio...Find out what the world of the print media (magazine and newspaper) is doing. Yes, you will see info on layoffs and sell-offs in the print industry. But you will also see what those companies are trying to do. It was via Folio that I discovered the blog post by Jessica DaSilva, at the time an intern at the The Tampa Tribune. She wrote a post about the Tampa Tribune's shift in strategy and the message to the staff “People need to stop looking at TBO.com as an add on to The Tampa Tribune,” editor in chief Janet Coats said. “The truth is that The Tampa Tribune is an add on to TBO.”

Have a Happy New Year!

Labels: business, culture, deep thought, design, environment, experience, new media, social media, startup, trends

I just stopped by Goodwill to donate some books and decided to go in to see this store. It is labeled the "Goodwill Outlet Store" and I was thinking "Outlet store, Goodwill, uh???".

Was I amazed! Inside the store is a large open format space, large ceilings, and lots of floor space. Huge! And the merchandise? It is only organized in to large rolling bins by rough kind (shows, books, large items, clothes) and that is it. Normal Goodwill stores sort and order and hang items so you can shop like any other retail store. However, this outlet store, all the sorting and ordering is really done by the shoppers.

Turns out the outlet stores are the end of the line for all the items and stuff that does not get sold or moved at the normal stores. About every two hours a new batch of things arrives at the outlet store and placed in the low, long rolling bins. And you just hunt and search for things.

You can identify the "pros" right off. They are wearing gloves and moving pretty quickly. This is a treasure chest waiting for the right person to find the treasures. I asked one gentleman about this. He was wearing rubber yard gloves and was moving pretty fast through the bins. He was looking for a power supply to a laptop he bought several days ago. He says he spends a few lunch hours a week at the outlet store combing and sorting, mainly looking for great finds on electronics. He said the gloves are needed because there are items in the bins that do break and are sharp.

How is this stuff priced? By the pound! You truck your goods up to the register and they have a scale to weigh your haul.

What is really a whack in the head moment is the brilliance in how Goodwill is tapping the wisdom of the crowd to sort out the goods; You as an interested buyer will do the searching and sorting. Anything of value is sold and anything left over after several cycles is eventually hauled out as the really truly junk of the junk.

Labels: crowd source, design, environment, great, innovation, tap the crowd

My wife had to order a small part for a breast pump, which only cost $3. The web site had a minimum order of $10, so she found a Burt's Bees Almond Milk Beeswax Hand Creme. This creme sounded really compelling: "Help for hard-working hands" and " Sweet almond oil, aloe and vitamin E help keep them soft and smooth". But did they really try this stuff? Ugggg.

Imagine rubbing your hands with sticky glue that smells like cherry-almond cardboard box. Once you have this on your hands everything you touch wants to stick to you. Going to sleep with this "creme" (yes, finger quoting when I say this) on your hands makes your bed sheets become marionettes as you roll or turn; they stick to you all night long. And did I mention the smell? If there ever was an Energizer Bunny logo for smell this product would have it. Yes, it lingers on and on and on and on and on and on.

Sure, this product would protect your skin ... if you had severely pain inducing cracks. This product might be useful in a survival kit to help repair leaks in tents or be the sticky part of fly paper.

The label says "Not tested on animals" ... Did any humans test this in real life? The best thing about this product? Its packaging! This is where the marketing makes the product look great, unfortunately.

Bottom line: if you like sticky hands and have really terrible skin cracks then get this product. Otherwise, use something like Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream.

Labels: bees wax, creme, design, invention, lotion, product

Every once in a while I have these thoughts that are entertaining and interesting.

One of those times occurred this last weekend, when my son was playing with TamTamJam on his OLPC. I got to thinking "why does the ice cream truck play the same same same annoying music as they drive around?" Why couldn't the music be composed by the neighborhood or be pulled from the creative commons world? Let it be entertaining and impressionable! Vote for the music as the truck stops to sell ice cream. This is a great target for an assumption challenge.

The other thought was from an email I was sending to Chris Brogan. I started the note " I hope you are recovering from recent travels." and got think about the word 'recover'. Do you ever 'recover'... How about 'recharge', kind of like an iRobot Roomba, where we seek out our home to plug back into the energy of home, family, comfort food, and the stuff you love to do.

Labels: creativity, design, invention

About three weeks ago Starbucks rolled out their "Get more of what you love with a Starbucks Card" campaign. Simple enough: register your Starbucks card and get free syrup and milk for your coffee. Since I tend to get soy mochas this meant saving 40 cents every cup. Easy sell for me.

So I immediately registered my card. That was easy.

But these last several weeks has been a poor experience for me. At every Starbucks since (about 8 to 10 times since registering), I have had to remind the barista about the program. Three times I did it after they rang it up, not realizing that the register card program does not go all the way to Starbucks point of sale system and "know" to not charge me for the soy milk... Each barista was very helpful and refunded the 40 cents, but the process took about 5 min because of the "refund to card" process.

After three times I started to advise the barista that I had a registered card before the sale. This confused several baristas as they did not know about the program. After I showed them the promotional material sitting on my side of the cash register, they had to figure out how to ring up the order then account for the soy milk being "free". This took several minutes and in some cases a manager/team lead had to assist. At least twice the barista gave up on the process, refunded the whole drink, and gave it to me on the house.

This is not an "Ah Ha" innovation but more of an incremental innovation. The design of the card campaign is not that revolutionary. Certainly it will capture more customer loyalty and data about people from the registration. And it offers real value over time to the customer at little cost.

However, this straight forward incremental innovation fails in the experience. I dread having to tell the barista about something they should already know. I feel irked that the technology of the card should already "know" my card is registered and make the transaction invisible. And for the baristas the experience is one of frustration as they try to live up to their mission ("Apply the highest standards of excellence to the purchasing, roasting and fresh delivery of our coffee.")

Innovation score

• concept: great
• design: good
• execution: so so
• experience: irk-some
  

Labels: coffee, design, experience, innovation, starbucks

After my post on spaces to think, do design, and innovate, Mark Henson, chief imagination officer for sparkspace, sent me a note with info on other design/innovation/thinking spaces in the USA and a few outside the USA that I had not mentioned.

What makes a great space? The space certainly has to be inviting, big enough for your team, not be too distracting yet inspiring for you to want to be there. Some adjectives from personal observation: open, light, fun, inviting, playful, colorful, surprising, wants to be utilized, supportive.

• open: This means open space, freedom to move, not confined by a barrier (desks, walls, etc).
  
• light/colorful: Colors do play an important part in the way you feel and act within an environment. Having light from the outside helps people feel better.
  
• playful/fun: When people get together to design and think requires an element of fun. The space has to help support and even generate the opportunity for fun.
  
• wants to be utilized/inviting: The space must beg you to step in and participate.
  
• surprising: Spaces that surprise can help generate ideas or off shoots to ideas that might not have occurred in other settings. Surprise can come from what the space has (food, toys, gadgets, oxygen bars) or the way the space operates (super staff, space lay out, space reconfiguration).
  
• supportive: All spaces must have the basics that when they don't exist become annoying or inconveniences. Pen, paper, bathrooms, food, drink, ability to park, lunch / dinner spots away from the space, etc.
  

Labels: deep thought, design, innovation, space, thinking

My wife gave me the Tyvek Wallet from Dynomighty Design Inc. for Christmas. I have received more comments and compliments about this wallet than any other wallet I ever had. Its one major distinctive feature is that it looks like an an envelope. When I first opened up the wallet I thought it would not be big enough. Surprisingly, this wallet has sucked in all the cards and such (about 20 cards plus paper stuff, one book of stamps, several receipts, and some cash bills) and it fits just fine in my front pocket! It also is very durable (Duh! Tyvek!). I will be in Brooklyn late April, I will see if I can stop by their office to take a look / chat with them.

Labels: cool, design, innovation, product

Where do I get away to do all this innovation? What about space helps make creativity, idea generation, and innovation work?

In the last 10 years there have been changes in how office workers are organized to help enhance creativity and innovation. What do these spaces look like? Where are they?

Here is a list of several spaces companies can travel for off site collaboration:

• Spark Space, Columbus, Ohio
• Suite-D, Indianapolis, Indiana
• Infinium, Kansas City, Missouri
• Eureka Ranch, Cincinnati, Ohio
  
• Catalyst Ranch, Chicago, Illinois
• The Thinkubator at the Solution People, Chicago, Illinois
• Jump Associates, San Mateo, California and New York, New York

Each space offers its own unique blend of space, service, culture, and character. A common theme for all is open spaces, plenty of Post-it notes, candy, toys, and lots of wall space (for all those Post-it notes!). Oh, don't forget the ever popular white board/white wall!

What really distinguishes them is the support staff and facilitation. A great physical space can be ruined by poor facilitation. All the sites will work with a client to setup the site to fit the needs of the group and work to create a plan to help gain value from the experience.

On the topic of spaces, Alexander Kjerulf wrote a blog post on October 2006 about
10 seeeeeriously cool workplaces, which highlights what some companies are doing to engage employees. The pictures of the slide at Red Bull HQ in London looks fun.

If you are going to build a space, please read the article "Stimulating Innovation with Collaboration Rooms" By G. Lynne Snead and Joyce Wycoff. They do a great job to define why a space is important and what characteristics of the space to keep in mind.

Personally speaking, I have been to several of the spaces listed above for various events. Here are some of my thoughts on them.

The Thinkubator at the Solution People space in Chicago is a fun space. The mix of toys is impressive and the giant "Abacus" sculpture from Arthur Andersen's former collection is a great conversation piece. Handling 40 people in the space could happen but it would be cramped. There is not much in the neighborhood so outside excursions would be limited. The Solution People staff are super in helping you with your needs.

The Spark Space in Columbus, Ohio is in a great location of the city to allow for outdoor exploration and to get away during those week long innovation immersions. The Spark Space staff are really excellent (! super !) and will go to great lengths to get what you need for your group. It is large enough for 50 people and can be configured into several rooms so sub groups can break out.

The Infinium site in Kansas City is a very elegant space with several smaller rooms for groups to meet. The mix of toys is more aligned with facilitation techniques than just fun but this emphasis helps you bring to mind why you are there. This space is in an art district of Kansas City, which offers many escapes to interesting ethnic restaurants and art galleries.

Suite-D in Indianapolis is a smaller site tied to Insight2's office and innovation consulting. It would fit comfortably about 25 to 35 people. There are several smaller rooms available to help breakout, plus the main space has an observation window (one way kind) that can be used for various focus group sessions.

Labels: design, innovation, office, space