Everything I needed to know about product development, I learned from a 10-year old.

Her name is Lily and her dad’s name is Joe Born.  Melissa Harris wrote about them in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend. Joe is a successful lifelong inventor, which helps explain why Lily invents things too. 

Her grandfather has Parkinson’s Disease, which causes him to frequently spill beverages.  Lily wanted to create a spillproof cup for him.

So naturally, she conducted some focus groups, developed some insights, wrote some concepts, tested them qualitatively, refined them, tested them quantitatively, refined them some more, did some BASES testing, went through several rounds with Legal and R&D, then got the go-ahead to create a model of the cup.

Actually, her process was a little more simple.

1. Assess the challenge

2. Sketch out a solution

3. Build a prototype

4. Go to your dad’s friend’s pottery studio in China to create pre-production samples

Other than the China part, it’s pretty simple, intuitive stuff.  In her dad’s words, “The is the way you should do product development.”  It led to her creation of the  Kangaroo Cup, which is basically a cup with legs.  Duh.

When it comes to product innovation, if you know what the challenge is, and have an insight around how to solve it, and have just a little bit of sketching skills (or have a friend who does), you can do a pretty good job of developing great product ideas.  Even if you don’t have a friend in China.

Of course, it isn’t always that easy in corporate America.  There’s lot more at stake than a coffee cup with legs and I’m not sure Lily would survive longer than a few hours.  That said, she still has a lot to teach us.  Primarily, that understanding a challenge can lead to a simple, desirable solution:

 An idea with legs.

Can a monologue can stop a bullet?

Depends on how you look at the world.

You can take the cynical stance and point out how ineffective Tony was, fancy feet aside, in preventing the Jets and Sharks from rumbling.  Riff and Bernardo are living proof. Well, not living, really, but you get the point.

Or, you could side with Hallie Gordon, who’s partnering with great organizations like Facing History And Ourselves and Steppenwolf Theatre, mounting an uphill battle to use the arts to help stop the killings of young Chicagoans.  It’s called “Now is the Time,” and it sends artists into gang-plagued Chicago public schools to at least try to start stemming the violence. 

You can say it’s a preposterous goal filled with ignorant ambition, given the extremely deep-rooted challenges facing many of the people involved in the cycles of violence.  As Chris Jones wrote in the Chicago Tribune, “…isn't some artistic response to this crisis going to be marginal at best…?”

Or, you could believe in the kind of effect that Now is the Time hopes to bring to troubled neighborhoods in need of radical change. While accomplishing that isn’t as easy as bringing in actors or dancers, it’s a different way of thinking.   And changing actions starts with changing thinking.

If nothing else, as Chris Jones also points out, anytime kids are involved in artistic pursuits, they’re off the streets and out of danger.  So for those few minutes, you could say the arts is actively fighting gangs and crimes.

You never know how someone could be affected by one monologue or one plie’ or one aria.  It could stop one bullet. 

It’s worth a try.  

Michael Jordan, Gene Kranz, and harnessing the power of optimism to create success

Last year at Chicago Ideas Week, I hosted a panel titled “Is this economy killing creativity or inspiring it?”  Five panelists discussed the challenges of staying fiercely creative in a less-than-encouraging economic climate.  They all agreed on one thing:

When life gives you lemons, creative people make limoncello.

It’s important to know that these weren’t all super-creative, off-the-charts right brainers.  Along with the owner of an amazing home and garden store (Sprout Home), a clothes designer, and an online entrpreneur, we also had the President of a superhot Chicago ad agency (commonground) and a senior marketing manager for a large packaged goods brand.

I was inspired by their optimism and conviction to take on the challenge of overcoming obstacles, regardless of the climate.  It reminded me of one of my favorite Michael Jordan quotes:

“If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

I flashed back to that panel when I read an article in yesterday’s Sunday Chicago Tribune about young adults who have graduated college and instead of facing the promise of a great future as in previous generations, are facing enormous obstacles. 

It spoke of “…a historic recalibration among expectations of every generation of Americans” and  continued, “As Europeans are being gripped by dream-crushing austerity, hopes are also being downsized here in ways not seen since the Great Depression…”

Wow.

Wowzer wow wow.  A historic recalibration?  Dream-crushing austerity?

How would that make you feel if you were sending a child to college in the Fall?  Knowing you’re about to spend thousands and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars to prepare her for…shredded dreams and crushing austerity?

Well, that would be me, and since I’ve written a post about why I believe college is still worth every penny, I can think of no better person than Apollo 13’s Mission Control Director Gene Kranz to answer the question.  One of the most memorable moments in film.

I think Mr. Kranz would agree with our panelists, and with Michael Jordan, and with anyone in this country and in this world who would argue that there’s always a creative answer for any situation, challenge, or hardship. It starts with enthusiasm and belief.  And above all, a fervent, almost blindless optimism.

And when you get around that wall, a nice cold of limoncello will be waiting on the other side.

Look up before it’s too late

I know a “book” is a relative concept. You can read a “book” on a Kindle or an ipad. You can “turn” “pages.”

I’m not going to go old man crazy on you and tell you how reading devices are ruining reading. Because that would be an understatement.

What they’re really doing is ruining human communication.

Actually, the reading device conundrum is part of a bigger digital dilemma. At the epicenter is texting, and according to Sherry Turkle, who spoke at the Chicago Humanities Festival over the weekend, its affect on the increasing deterioration of actual human interaction. She has a new book on the subject. The NYT liked it.

It’s unsettling when you see people texting during a funeral, or families who sit at the same dinner table staring at their own screens. Nauseating, even. For many reasons which she articulates. And I’ll add one more:

The future revolves around forming communities. Bringing people together to connect and think and create and solve. It’s what Twist lives for and does every day. Because you have nothing if you don’t have community. And while there may be plenty of communities online, you can’t do anything if you don’t look up and talk to one another.

So let’s use technology to create communication, not break it down. I double dog dare you to take a walk with a friend and leave your blackberry/iphone etc behind. You can meet him on eharmony, or talk with her about a book you e-read. Start online if you must. But eventually, just go on a walk. Talk, connect, discuss, develop.

And look up. You never know what might be up there.