This week we've experienced with two new techniques of ideation:
Learn from the best
We choose a few products that we thought are great, torn them apart and focused on the features that make them great.
After that, we took our problem and tried to create a solution using those amazing features.
The first one was the iPhone - it has an amazing camera and an easy to use UI.
with those features in mind, we came up with the office photobooth.
this photo booth will be placed in the office space and will have silly costumes and will have plenty of filters to choose from.
The booth will work only when there are multiple employees in it and will provide them with a memorable photo that is printed instantly.
This goofy product is supposed to encourage a good atmosphere in the workplace and hopefully create some new friendships.
The second product we analyzed is the Nespresso coffee machine. this device is loved by many since it's easy to use (usually one click to get your A-grade cup of joe) and it's instant.
And so we came up with the Conversation-Capsules.
A small inscription on the capsules that can light up a conversation in the break-room.
The third product was Waze and the feature that we focused on was the ETA.
merging this feature with our problem wasn't easy but we came up with the ETA coffee (or ETC Estimate Time of Coffee ). this is a small device that is placed on every employee's desk and it has a very simple public goal - to boost productivity since research has shown that 5-10 minutes break after every 40-50 minutes of work can boost productivity.
but it also has anther hidden feature it syncs the break time of multiple employees, and creates more "coincidence" encounters in the break-room and gives the seance of serendipity.
Expert assistant
The next technique for ideation is The Expert assistant. We create a know it all, super-capable human that doing X Y and Z can solve our issue in hand.
John is sitting in the office feeling tired, he had been working hard from 8:00 and it is now 11:30, he can not concentrate any more but he has a lot of work to finish by him 13:00 meeting.
His friend Dan is walking to the coffee station, she stops near his desk and asked him to join her.
"No way," said John, "I have so much work to do!". But Dan insists "come on just one coffee will do you good". "John agrees. As they are going to the coffee machine Dan suddenly says "I forgot to call Jessica! She is dying for coffee with skim milk!" and he is walking to call Jessica. In the meantime, John has made his coffee so he just started making the Skim milk coffee that Jessica is drinking, even though he never spoke to Jessica he thought it will be a nice gesture. Dan and Jessica come by and John say."I made that for you since Dan told me this is what you are drinking". "Wow that is so nice, wow this is perfect! Thank you so much, John!"
CV-Library conducted some research and found that (according to employees) the following gestures make them happiest at work
A colleague giving them support (58.6%)
A colleague making them cups of tea or coffee (43.3%)
Being complimented on their work (32.7%)
Being offered constructive feedback (28.2%)
Being greeted with a smile every day (26.6%)
A colleague helping out when work becomes overwhelming (24.1%)
Being taught new things (19.8%)
A colleague bringing in snacks for the team (13.8%)
A colleague covering their shifts for them (3.5%)
Being sent funny emails (3.3%