blue sky ideation
Individual Idea Generation
How Might We Statement: “How might we organize luggage bags so that multiple people can share the same bag.”
Before I started my session, I came up with 30 of my own ideas that solved the “How Might We…” statement i came up with. The 30 ideas are shown below:
Most of my ideas revolved around dividing a conventional rectangular luggage bag. This way, the idea is still familiar enough so that people would still buy the product. Several of my bags also featured dividers that could be adjusted to accommodate the differences in the amount of stuff people pack.
New Warm-Up Game
Warm-Up Game Number 1: For this activity, people were each given one writing utensil. They then had to pair up and simultaneously throw their utensil in the air while catching their partner’s utensil. This was designed to heighten both energy and engagement.
New Warm-Up Game 2: Person A will start by pointing to a random person (Person B). Then Person B will say the last name of Person A. Now Person B will point to another person, and the cycle is repeated.
Other games that were played were Zip-Zap-Zop and the creative invisible ball passing.
Session Organization
For my group session, I assembled a group of five people.
I had told them each beforehand about the subject of this focus group, how the activities would unfold, and to come up with ideas beforehand. The five participants are listed below:
- Mackenzie: A sophomore majoring in Marketing. She lived in Illinois before college and travels back home periodically. She uses luggage quite a bit.
- Jack: A sophomore majoring in Materials Science. He lives in Minnesota. He does not use luggage much since his home is very close to campus. When he travels, it is usually by car so he does not make use of suitcases.
- Austin: A sophomore majoring in Physics. He also live in Minnesota. His experience with luggage is similar to Jack’s.
- Jasmine: A sophomore majoring in Psychology. She lived in North Dakota before college and travels back home during breaks. She uses luggage a moderate amount but not as much as Mackenzie or Emma.
- Emma: A sophomore majoring in Microbiology. She lived in Nebraska before college and travels back home often. She uses luggage the most out of the group since she travels home the most and frequently goes on long-distance trips by plane.
Itinerary:
- The group is given instructions and told to come up with ideas. No inspiration or prompts were given. This went on for 5 minutes.
Though the group came up with a decent amount of ideas, by the end of the session, many said that they were running dry on ideas.
2. The group was then given Ritz crackers as a prize. After that, each person told the person to the right of them three fictional character or certain demographics (i.e. Spider-man or soccer mom). Each person was supposed to think of ideas from the perspective of those people. This also happened for 5 minutes.
Even though the group was running dry on ideas from the last round, the combination of the Ritz crackers and the inspiration of seeing things from someone else’s perspective added a few more ideas.
3. Next the group was told to come up with consciously bad ideas.
Yeah, they had no problem whatsoever coming up with bad ideas.
4. The group then was shown the list of random words from Professor Barry’s presentation. They each chose a word and came up with ideas that related to that word. When they ran out of ideas, they were allowed to choose a different word.
Total Ideas (including the 30 ideas I came up with): 80
Ideas Per Minute Per Person: 80 Ideas/(20 minutes x 5 people) = 0.8
Sorting and Voting
Sorting
The group was told to silently organize the cards so that categories were not forced.
In the end, five categories were made. I then told the group to assign names to each group. This time, communication with other members was allowed.
The five categories that the group came up with are as follows:
1) Round Shaped. This is found in the top right of the picture above.
2) Square Shaped (The more conventional shaped bag). This was the largest group found in the left side of the picture above.
3) Unique Shaped Luggage that is Attached to You. This is the grouping second from the top on the right side.
4) Unique Shaped Luggage that Carries stuff for You. This is the grouping second from the bottom on the right side.
5) Unique Shaped Luggage that You Have to Push. This is found in the very bottom of the picture.
The last three categories belonged to another larger group called “Other.” It was then divided further.
Voting
I then gave the group a red marker and a blue marker. I told them to draw a blue dot on a card they think is creative and a red dot on card they think is viable and able to be sold. Each member could give 4 red dots and 4 blue dots.
Top Ideas
The top ideas as chosen by the group are shown below:
After reviewing each top idea as well as the other ideas that may not have received as many votes, I chose the top 10 ideas that I liked. They are shown below.
They were chosen based on two things: My judgement of how good they were and the number of dots they received. The only change that was made between the group’s decisions and my decisions was I exchanged “Duh” with the “Cooler Styled Luggage” simply because “Duh” was, as its name suggests, much too simple.
Plan:
On Tuesday, I will contact the people who will be participating in the group session. I will organize the logistics and make sure all the supplies are available.
On Thursday, I will come up with a “How Might We” statement and also spend some time thinking of ideas myself.
On Saturday, I will hold the session and follow the procedures laid out in class. Sorting and voting will take place on the same day.
On Sunday, I will choose my 10 best ideas and sketch them.
