We’ve written about the importance of hiring creative people and fostering a culture that promotes risk-taking. But these should not be read to imply that all transformative ideas spring fully formed from the heads of smart, properly managed designer and engineers. Innovation requires a relentless pursuit of new information, and that pursuit can lead to unexpected places.
Seeing the world from the other side of product development — the customer's points of view — is the responsibility of our Insights department. Broadly speaking, Insights refers to researching and identifying opportunities in the earliest phases of development; testing prototypes to ensure that both form and function will satisfy the intended market; and in some cases, fine-tuning the marketing campaign. Our project teams always includes an Insights department lead, and that person stays with the project as it moves through the Vertical Innovation™ process.
“Sometimes we have a specific problem we’re solving,” says Heidi Carrion, a senior member of our Insights team. “Sometimes we’re just trying to match the client to opportunities.”
Finding new markets
Reynolds, the aluminum wrap manufacturer, wanted to expand its product line and turned to Nottingham Spirk for input.
Extensive interviews with people who cook a lot — conducted in homes and at our Innovation Center — revealed great frustrations with the kitchen and bakeware cleanup process.
The NS team shared a variety of ideas with users and one of the concepts that rose to the top involved the combination of foil wrap with parchment paper in the same sheet. The Reynolds team was able to produce many small runs of foil-parchment paper for testing. The result, after more rounds of feedback from focus groups, was Reynolds Pan Lining Paper, a single sheet offering a durable, non-stick surface that can also be molded around the edges of pans for baking and thrown away after.
Another company sought our help in finding new opportunities in home fragrances. We visited eight homeowners who had signed up to be part of a survey and asked them a wide range of questions, mostly about their home decorating choices. We also asked them to rate some existing home fragrance products
The scores were not important; we just wanted to hear how they talk about their homes, to gain some insight into the factors that come into play when people make decisions about improving their living spaces.
“It’s mainly for us in the beginning,” Carrion explains, “but we’re also looking at it differently than the client would, because our designers and engineers are coming along. It’s about trying to understand decision processes and what the customer journey looks like.”
Fresh eyes
HALO™, inventor of the SleepSack wearable blanket for infants, was founded by a couple who lost a child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The company wanted to bring more baby-safety products to market, and came to us for help. We talked to new parents about sleeping (and not-sleeping) arrangements in their homes. Predictably, they expressed the wish that they and their babies could get back to sleep quickly after the inevitable disruptions. Some mentioned co-sleeping, or sharing one’s bed with an infant. This is not only discouraged by most pediatricians in the U.S., it’s a polarizing topic, laced with strongly held views about family bonds, psychological development and, of course, safety. But we couldn’t shake the sense that an opportunity lay in that uncharted territory.
After a lot more research, we developed the HALO™ Bassinest™, an infant bed that swivels over the parents’ bed, providing enough closeness for sound sleep and enough separation for safety. The BassiNest was awarded the JPMA Innovation Award at the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas.
