July 13th 1999, abc News did a report on a
company called IDEO. In the beginning they show the “normal corporate workers
day.” They say that it’s a bunch of stiffs sitting at a desk with alert minds
and tireless machines doing the same routine every day. In other words, they
are probably not likely to invite anything. IDEO shows a different side to
working. They don’t discriminate based on your title or how long you've been
with the company. They bounce off everyone’s ideas and everyone’s opinion matters.
The company was faced with a new project that needed to be
completed in five days. They needed to innovate the supermarket shopping cart. The
project leader is Peter Skillman. He is project manager because he is good with
groups and not because of seniority. The rest of the team consists of different
careers. Biology major, psychologist, marketing experts and so many more!
Safety and theft were the first issues reported. The team splits up to see what
the people who use, make, and repair shopping carts feel. They went around to
different supermarkets and took pictures of the customers with their carts, and
asked customers and the staff questions concerning the carts. They looked at
the shopping cart from different perspectives to come up with useful and
relatable ideas for the 21st century shopping cart. Each group came
back to IDEO and shared their ideas and everything they've learned to the rest
of the team.
Day two is the deep dive! For the next few hours the ideas
pour out and are hung on the walls! One idea was Velcro pants and Velcro seats
for the children. When questioned about the idea, Dave says that you have to
have some wild ideas, then you’re supposed to build on top of those wild ideas
and they end up being great ideas. “If
everyone thinks the same and appropriately, you’d never have any points to
build off of for a really innovative idea” says Dave. A few hours later the
team narrowed down the ideas by voting on them. “Enlighten trial and error,
succeeds over the planning of the lone genius” says Parker. This statement
pretty much sums up IDEO's approach. At 6:00 pm, the team is ready to show their
prototype shopping carts. There were some very interesting ideas the team came
up with. One idea I personally liked was having an item scanner on the cart to
keep track of how much money you’re spending. I think this could be very
helpful to shoppers. Other ideas were personally calling for assistance from a
worker at the supermarket through a little microphone, piling hand-baskets in a
cart, a high-tech cart that gets you through the traffic at checkout, and a
cart that is based on child safety. Many great ideas were made and carried out,
let’s see what happens next!
It’s the final day of the shopping cart project. What do
you know? They designed the entire cart
in a day, then took that cart and fabricated it in a day. The cart they built
costs the same as your average shopping cart, but looks and acts different in
every aspect! Hand-baskets are stacked in a metal frame, there is a handle that
‘straps’ the children into the seat, the carts wheels turn 90 degrees so the
cart can move sideways, and they saved the scanner idea from the prototype.
I think the team did
a very good job with this project! They succeeded in making a low-cost 21st
century shopping cart. I think every new aspect that was added to the cart is
useful and helpful! I loved the way their team worked together, and how they
did their work. I like that they don’t discriminate based on your title or
seniority. Every opinion and idea matters to this team and I think that is what
keeps them going.
