Idea Generation Part 2
This project focused on principle of “Blue-Sky Innovation. In contrast to using the idea generation prompts of SCAMPER and TRIZ, Blue-Sky Innovation involves much more free-thinking and abstract ideas. These ideas best come from people from multiple, diverse backgrounds who feel completely unabashed to share their ideas and their passions. That is the truth of Blue-Sky Innovation.
HMWs:
Original Statements:
Households need a versatile way to accomplish tasks and complete chores, in terms of height and size, because of the variety of users and situations.
IT specialists need a multipurpose device that can act as a chair or desk when not being used to reach high places, because of the barebones nature of the environments they work in.
From these, more general statements were crafted, using the tips given in lecture:
“How might we create a versatile, yet stable device for household work in high places?”
“How might we add uses/purposes to the common step stool design?”
Set Up:

I held my brainstorming session at the One-Button Studio in the Bio-Med Library on the East Bank of the Twin Cities Campus at 10:00 AM (sharp) on Friday, the 1st of November. The participants were as follows:
Nicholas: Sophomore in Mechanical Engineering, works for a landscaping company and is adept at mechanical processes and repairs
Jackson: Graduating Senior in Economics, exceptional student and hardened athlete
Alex: Sophomore in Mechanical Engineering, has worked in customer service and research, freethinking and not strictly bound by logic.
(No fourth member was recruited in place of a missing member, as noted in Assignment 4)
Along with these friends, I moonlighted as a Product Design student, to round out the cast of the session.
The Bio-Med Library was chosen for a number of reasons. Primarily, I knew that there would few people there on a Friday morning as it is one of the lesser-known libraries on campus. Secondarily, the One-Button Studio is a great place to hold a private session, as recordings can be taken for future transcription, using high-grade sound equipment.
The session consisted of 45 minutes of activities, not including a short break. We played the warm-up game as described below.
Warm Up:

- Have all players stand in a circle
- All players start with their arms down to their sides
- The starting player is decided by rock-paper-scissors.
- The starting player demonstrates a motion with one of their limbs.

5. The entire group then repeats this motion.
6. The next player in counter-clockwise (CCW) order becomes the starting player and demonstrates the first move, combined with a move that they add.
7. The entire group then repeats this process of motion.
8. Play continues in CCW order until one loop is completed or until time is called.

Brainstorm Session:
The time used in the session was distributed as follows:
5 minutes — Introductions and General Outline
10 minutes — Game explanation and Demo, then playing
10 minutes — General Idea brainstorming related to product topic
10 minutes — Idea brainstorming related to HMW 1
10 minutes — Idea brainstorming related to HMW 2
5 minutes — Categorization
5 minutes — Voting and Wrap-up
In general, the schedule was punctually adhered to, save for a few breaks, to prevent burnout.
However, there were some surprises: For example, I was originally concerned that having two Mechanical Engineers in the session, but it ended up yielding some extremely useful results. Nicholas ended up with a batch of ideas that were mechanical in nature. Most of his ideas involved moving parts, motors, hinges, locks and the like.
In contrast, Alex’s ideas each had a personal touch. They were very focused on the user experience. Each one would clearly make the user’s life easier, more efficient or more enjoyable. This difference between the two engineers was not something I expected at all, but was pleasantly surprised by this outcome.
As for Jackson, his brains and satirical wit were useful in coming up with the opposite of what I was looking for. However, these ideas were a great place to bounce ideas off of. Although it may seem counter-productive to have negative ideas, the tricks I learned in lecture definitely came in handy here, as the that was one of the recommended ways of undertaking a brainstorming session.




Over the course of the session, a clear trend was developing. At first, the group was purely coming up with ideas that I had already listed. This was to be expected, but ended up yielding several duplicate solutions, nonetheless. However, upon getting warmed up, the radically innovative and creative ideas started to flow in. These ideas were fantastical, whimsical and sometimes, just plain silly, but the creative juices were clearly flowing. As the end of the session approached, however, the burnout was apparent, as the ideas went from creative to insane. While many of the ideas were feasible, they barely met the useful criteria of the evaluation.
In total, 71 ideas were produced, using 30 minutes of brainstorming, resulting in an Ideas Per Minute (IPM) of 2.37 (rounding). The following categories were produced:
- Things That Move
- Different Materials
- Retractable
- Storage
- Miscellaneous



Each person was given five votes and allowed to vote for any idea that seemed feasible or useful to them. The highest voted ideas were:
- Roomba with grabbing arm for reaching high places (Alex)
- Fish tank step stool (Alex)
- Step stool that collapses into wall (Nicholas)
- Heated step stool for all-weather use (Alex)
- Step stool with folding steps that fold out when pressure is applied (Nicholas)
- Personal trainer step stool (Jackson)



Top 10 Ideas:
The top 10 ideas were chosen based on the criteria of Novel, Value, Feasible. These ideas needed to be new and unique, while also serving some purpose and, above all else, they had to be POSSIBLE. With this in mind, I present my top 10 ideas.
- Nesting Step Stools

2. Scissor-Action Step Stool

3. Heated Steps for all-weather use

4. Personal Trainer Step Stool for workouts

5. Fish Tank Steps

6. Extension Shoes

7. Bookshelf with integrated steps for home library

8. Ergonomic Jell-O Material steps

9. Trash Bin integrated into step stool

10. Utility Backpack with step stool frame

Timeline:
(All dates based on a due date of Wednesday, November 6th, 2019)
Wednesday, October 30: Post timeline.
Thursday, October 31: Design warm up exercise for group.
Friday, November 1: Conduct group brainstorming session
Saturday, November 2: UNPACK ideas and move them onto blog (Consider using a method similar to the Unpack in User Research)
Sunday, November 3: Select Top 10 ideas.
Monday, November 4: Begin sketching presentation images for top 10 ideas.
Tuesday, November 5: Continue with presentation images for selected ideas.
Wednesday, November 6: Tie up loose ends. Blog post due tonight.
Thursday, November 7: Present to the team!
Friday, November 8: Peer reviews due!
