ABC Nightline - IDEO Shopping Cart — Transcript

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1. 0:03Tonight the deep dive one Company's secret weapon or innovation
2. 0:22we went to IDEO the product design folk and said take something old and familiar like say the shopping cart and
3. 0:30Completely redesign it for us in just five days
4. 0:34ABC news Correspondent Jack Smith tells us what happened next?
5. 0:409:00 in the morning day one and these people have a deadline to meet so welcome to the kickoff of the
6. 0:48shopping cart project
7. 0:49This is Palo Alto, [California] in the heart of Silicon Valley these are designers at Ideo
8. 0:55Probably the most influential product development firm in the world
9. 0:59Ideo has designed everything from High-Tech medical equipment
10. 1:03to the twenty-five foot mechanical whale in the movie 'Free Willy' and the first computer mouse for Apple; Smith's ski goggles
11. 1:10Nike sunglasses NEC computer screens
12. 1:13Hundreds of products we take for granted
13. 1:16The point is that we're not actually experts at any
14. 1:20given area you know we're kind of experts on the process of how [you] design stuff so we don't care if you give us a
15. 1:25Toothbrush a Toothpaste Tube
16. 1:28A tractor a space shuttle you know a chair
17. 1:30it's all the same to us we like want to figure out how to
18. 1:34Innovate in in by using our process applying it
19. 1:37project leader is [Peter] Skillman a 35 year old stanford engineer
20. 1:41Project leader because he's good with groups not because of seniority he's only been at Ideo for six years
21. 1:47The rest of the team is eclectic, but that's typical here Whitney Mortimer Harvard MBA
22. 1:53Peter Coughlin, Linguist Tom Kelly [Dave's] brother marketing expert Jane Fulton Suri
23. 1:59psychologist, Alex Kazakhs 26 a biology major
24. 2:03Who's turned down Medical school three times because he's having too much fun at IDEO
25. 2:09safety Emerges early as an important issue
26. 2:1222,000 child injuries a year which is and so they're hospitalized injuries. I mean there are many others and
27. 2:19Theft [it] turns out a lot of carts are stolen as the team works. It becomes clear. There are no titles here
28. 2:26No permanent assignments the other side says give us a lot of help says be safe
29. 2:32I'll give you a big red ball on a on a on a on a post and that says you're a big guy if you
30. 2:37Got a ball your senior vice president. You know what do I get over the desk the red ball. It's all sink in
31. 2:44in a very innovative Culture you can't have a kind of hierarchy of here's the boss and the next person down the next person down the next person down
32. 2:51Because it's impossible
33. 2:53That the boss is the one who's had the insightful experience with shopping carts
34. 2:56[it's] just not possible [the] team splits into groups to find out firsthand what the people who use make and repair shopping carts
35. 3:04Really think okay, go
36. 3:06Probably the plastic card is the wind catches it yeah, and these things have been clocked at 35 across the parking
37. 3:12yeah, that's actually pretty good point the the trick is to find these real experts and so that you can learn much more quickly than
38. 3:20You could by just kind of doing in the normal way and trying to learn about it yourself from everything
39. 3:24I read these things aren't that safe either. You know
40. 3:28So probably the seat itself is gonna have to be redesigned one of the interesting things for me is looking at how people really don't
41. 3:35Like to let go of the cart except for the professional shopper. Whose strategy is to leave the cart at various places
42. 3:413:30 in the afternoon and the group is back at I do there is no let-up each team is going to
43. 3:48demonstrate and [communicate] and share everything that they've learned today [a]
44. 3:53Shopping cart has been clocked at 35 miles an hour
45. 3:56traveling through a parking lot in the wind we were in the store wet two hours and and
46. 4:00It was truly frightening just to see the kind of stuff going up you got to
47. 4:04Designate some people to make damn sure that the store owners [Point-of-view] is represented after nine straight hours the team is tired
48. 4:11They call it a day, so I'm a cool well. Uh that's great. Thanks a lot. We had a great time today
49. 4:20I do Mantra for innovation is written everywhere
50. 4:24one conversation at a time
51. 4:26Stay focused encourage wild ideas Defer judgment build on the ideas of others
52. 4:33That's the hardest thing for people do is to
53. 4:36restrain themselves from
54. 4:38Criticizing an idea so if anybody starts to nail an idea they get the [bell] you know
55. 4:43The ideas pour out and are posted on the walls
56. 4:46[oh] the blind beat the privacy plain like when you're buying six cases of condoms you know and suits if it doesn't nest
57. 4:53We don't have a solution. Okay, nice kid
58. 4:56It's [not] organized [um] what it is is its focused Chaos vote with your post-it not not with an idea
59. 5:02That's cool
60. 5:03But with an idea, that's cool and buildable
61. 5:05Um if it's [worry] if it's too far out there and can't be built in a day, then I don't think we [should] vote on
62. 5:11enlightened Trial-And-error
63. 5:13succeeds over the planning [blown] genius enlightened Trial-And-error
64. 5:17Succeeds over the planning of the lone genius if anything sums up ideos approach that is it
65. 5:24Worried that the team is drifting
66. 5:26What can only be called a group of self-appointed adults under dave Kelly holds an informal side session [for] five?
67. 5:34Four or five times a week, and we give each team a need area
68. 5:38It becomes very autocratic for a very short [period] [of] time in defining
69. 5:42What things people are gonna work on if you don't work under time constraints?
70. 5:45You could never get anything done because it's a messy precedent go on forever
71. 5:51Back at the shop. It is six o'clock before mock-ups are ready for showing
72. 5:56baskets also can be if you think
73. 5:58[you] will have more volume baskets can be put in a modular shopping cart you
74. 6:03pile hand baskets [onto] things you've been tied tech cart that gets you through the traffic Jam a check out that you could mount a
75. 6:10Scanner on the shopping cart so that you as the customer as you pull it off the shelf
76. 6:16would scan each item one that's built around child safety and
77. 6:21Another that lets shoppers talk to the supermarket staff remotely uh yeah, where can I find a yogurt?
78. 6:28But the adults again decide more work needs to be done before the mock ups can be combined into one last prototype
79. 6:36[why] don't we have all the cards come up here for a second?
80. 6:38I think you take a piece of each one of these ideas and kind of back it off a little bit and then put it
81. 6:43In that yeah in the design the design is still not there
82. 6:47But there's another motto at I do fail often in order to succeed sooner
83. 6:52Some of the team will be up half the night trying to put together a design that finally does work
84. 7:02So we took the best elements out of each
85. 7:05Prototype the cart which is designed to cost about the same as today's carts is different in every other way, what do you think?
86. 7:14Well, I'm very proud of the team. [I] think it's it's great this does this work for you works for me great
87. 7:19It's also beautiful the carts wheels turned 90 degrees
88. 7:23So it can move sideways no more lifting up the rear in a tight spot
89. 7:27And you shop in a totally different [way] the bags are hung on hooks on the carts frame
90. 7:33Remember there is no basket here
91. 7:36At first I was a little shocked, but I think it's you have some fantastic ideas here
92. 7:41It needs a little refining, but I think that it's great. I mean we would we would want them
93. 7:45She also gave us some really good comments about how we can make this thing better [a] lot of hours
94. 7:50Also an open mind a boss who demands fresh ideas be quirky and clash with is a belief that Chaos can be
95. 7:59Constructive and teamwork [a] great deal of Teamwork [and] these are the recipe for innovation
96. 8:06[tax] place
97. 8:08This is Jack Smith for Nightline a Palo Alto, California