I've known IDEO's Brendan Boyle for a good 15 years. I first heard of him before I met him, as an inspired toy designer and one of the best brainstorming session leaders at IDEO (he now applies design thinking to many problems, from consumer experiences to organizational design and strategy). I also heard that he had an incredible ability to come up with really crazy ideas that seemed nuts at first, but if you backed them off a little, or thought about them more, you might actually have something that would sell in the marketplace.
One of my favorite examples, and one I still use in talks at times, is an idea that Brendan came-up with -- a good 15 years ago perhaps even 20 -- for a device that enabled you to use (i.e., steal) those coat hangers that were common in hotels in the U.S. (and I still see them in Europe) that have have the little round balls at the top (see the [picture of one below)-- which are meant to be useless to steal (the new solution to this problem, of course, is tiny hook on the hangar that is too small to use at home). Here is a drawing of this product on an old CAD machine (along with the coat hanger0, and apparently, Brendan has the physical prototype someplace:'
I saw Brendan at a party the other day and was tickled to learn that he is continuing this tradition in a big way. He just completed a book with Klutz founder John Cassidy that is, essentially, and encyclopedia of about 200 ideas where "brilliant meets ridiculous. The book is called The Klutz Book of Inventions. It comes out September 1st. The process by which they produced it was crazy, but very much straight out of the design thinking playbook. They would sit around and brainstorm ideas that were crazy and fun and just just possibly useful -- like coat hanger device above -- and when they would decide one was crazy and brilliant enough to put in the book, they would build a working prototype -- in the end over 200 prototypes were built by IDEO's shop (our of over 2500 ideas generated). Brendan said some of the ideas in the book included a StairMaster for elevators, a helium-filled hide-a-bed (so when you got up, it floated to ceiling), and my personal favorite, parking tickets that have scratchers like lottery tickets where, depending on your luck (I actually have not seen this, and my memory may be off, but this is close), you get, say, a double fine, the usual fine, 50% of the fine, no fine, or now and then, they paid you.
This last one intrigues me because it is so Brendan -- looking for a way to make an awful experience fun -- even if this does not work, the approach reflects a great creative process. You list things that just suck -- going to the DMV, getting parking ticket, and on and on, and try to figure out how to make it fun (you can see why he co-teaches a d.school class on play, see this Fast Company story). As an example, I think Disney does a great of with people standing in line, for example.
The book contains pictures and and the philosophy, that Brendan explains so well, that one of the big impediments to creativity in everyone from kids to college students, to people who do creative work like product designers and artists, to executives is that they take themselves entirely too seriously -- is they not only are often afraid to have fun, don't know how to do it, and feel guilty when it happens, they look on people who are having fun with suspicion and try to stop them when they "catch them" the act.
I just pre-ordered the book because it sounds so fun. I hope you will join me in the fun.
P.S. Brendan sent me some pages of the book, and it has line I just love, one I believe to be true: "Dignity is enemy of invention." The creative process is often about trying stuff so weird and putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, so one motto might be that embarrassment in combination with pride and persistence are hallmarks of the creative process!
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