Pitch

Pugh Chart

Opportunity: 

Is there a good market opportunity?

Competent: 

Am I competent to implement?

Competitive: 

Would this product have a competitive advantage?

Need: 

Is there a clear need?

Funding: 

Do I have the means to get this off the ground?

Novel: 

Is this product novel?

Final Product Idea

Name

Tri-Messenger Bag

Elevator Pitch Video:

Evaluation

Evaluation I: Valuable

I decided to do in-person surveys with people associated with the university.  This would help me ensure that the people that are answering my questions are of the target audience, and it would also help me probe into their answers if there were questions that I wanted to learn more about as I started getting survey data.  I decided to go to a local coffee shop in Dinkeytown called The Purple Onion in an attempt to get a representative cross-section:

I gave each participant a physical copy of the sketches for each of my top 10 product ideas, and then had them answer the following questions for each ideas:

1. Would you use this?
2. Do you know someone who would use this?
3. How much would you pay for this?
4. Please put an X next to your two favorite product ideas

All of the people that I chose were not associated with one another in any observable way, and I did not allow any person to see the results of any other survey before they gave their response.

Below you can see how I summarized the data that I collected:

The single most important piece of data that I collected here was which products people were interested in using, or products that people thought someone they knew would use.  You can see from those two graphs that of the 15 people surveyed, many people thought they would use:

1. The Rubber Cage
2. The Integrated Cage
3. The Behind the Seat Cage
4. The Tri-Messenger Bag
5. The Elastic Cage

There is correlation between what people would use and what they thought other people would use, however it appears that on top of the products listed above, several people thought that other people would also use:

1. Roll Away Dry Sack
2. Airstream Backpack

I was also very interested in the results of the vote for your favorite question.  I think that this question does a good job of forcing people to pick only two products and essentially be critical of the rest.  In order of popularity:

1. Behind the Seat Cage
2. Tri-Messenger Bag
3. Integrated Cage
4. Elastic Cage
5. Rubber Cage, Mechanical Grabber, Roll Away Dry Sack, Airstream (All tied at 2 votes apiece)

Although the question "How much would you pay for this?" was interesting in that it showed people were willing to pay money for these products, it doesn't really tell much until we can make a cost analysis and determine if the amount would return a profit.

I used these conclusions to down select to the following 5 ideas:

Behind the Seat Cage

Elastic Cage

Integrated Cage

Rubber Cage

Tri-Messenger Bag

Evaluation II: Novel

A) Benchmark these 5 ideas.  Use 2x2s to visualize differences

My top product ideas really fall into two categories.  I am either looking at water bottle cage derivatives, or carrying systems for clothes.

The first 2x2 that I put together looked at different adjustable water bottle cages that I could find on Amazon.com.  I compared the cost (Cheap vs Expensive) and the type of mechanism involved (Flexible/Belt vs Screw/Rigid):

On the matrix above, I am comparing 9 representative products that I found with the 4 applicable product ideas.  You can see that there is a variety of different products out there ranging from $2.99 all the way up to $25.95.  My survey data shows that all of the products I came up with were valued at around the $10 dollar mark for what people would pay for them.  You can also see that there are very few mid range products that use a belt or flexible mechanism.  Both my Elastic Cage idea and my Rubber Cage idea would fit into this gap.

The second 2x2 matrix that I put together reviewed packs that could potentially be used to transport dress clothing.  I used both Amazon.com and Backcountry.com.

I compared the intended use of the bag (Specific to carrying clothes vs General use) against its design intent (Waterproof/rugged vs Trendy appearance).  You can see from this hit matrix that there is a clear gap in the market for a system that is both specifically designed to carry formal clothing and is also designed to withstand the environment that a biking commuter might run into.  My Tri-Messenger bag fits right into this gap.

B.) Patent Search

 I used Google Patent Search to find the following patents related to each of my top 5 ideas:

Behind the Seat Cage:

Bicycle hydration bottle system - US 20100237118 A1

 

Elastic Cage

Water bottle holder system with attachment mechanism - US 6004033 A

Integrated Cage

Integrated removable storage and handlebar system - WO 2013017952 A2

 

Rubber Cage

Bicycle flask holder -  US 5704525 A

 

Tri-Messenger Bag

Combination suitcase-garment bag - US 4817791 A

 

 

 

  

Evaluation III: Feasible

A) Biggest Concerns

My biggest concerns are the following:

1. Behind the Seat Cage: There is clearly patent coverage on this idea, and I have also been able to find a substantial number of products on the market that might fall into this category.  While this idea could be combined with another idea, there is not enough novelty in the "Behind the Seat Cage" by itself.  This would be a fairly simple product to make.
2. Elastic Cage: It will be a challenge to find a material that has the right elastic properties, but is also durable enough for this application.  This product would have to go through many cycles of being stretched out, and it would need to be able to withstand wide temperature variations, UV exposure, and moisture.
3. Integrated Cage: This product would have to be built into the frame of a bike, so it would need to be sold as a new bike rather than an accessory that people could add to their current bike.  This would be a pretty high cost given the target audience, and the amount of value that would be produced from the product
4. Rubber Cage: There would actually be a relatively low range of diameters that this product could accept.  Since the flex would occur along the bottom of the frame or at one of the corners, the outer frame portions would not stay parallel with one another.  This would cause a decrease in grip on the container as the container's diameter increased.
5. Tri Messenger Bag: This would be the most expensive item that I have come up with, and it would also be the most challenging to produce unless I were to partner with a company that already has a mature manufacturing base.  I would need to work with an entity that has experience with textiles, and with waterproofing methods.

B.) Manufacturing Cost Assessment

In the lecture, the following general relationships were presented:

Retail Cost ~ 10 x Material Cost
Manufacturing Cost ~ 2 x Material Cost

Given those relationships, and the retail cost that I found for similar products (as shown on the HIT Matrices above) I am estimating the manufacturing cost of my items to be:

1. Behind the Seat Cage: ($25) / 10 x 2 = $5.00
2. Elastic Cage: ($15) / 10 x 2 = $3.00
3. Integrated Cage: ($750) / 10 x 2 = $150 *
4. Rubber Cage: ($5) / 10 x 2 = $1.00
5. Tri Messenger Bag: ($200) / 10 x 2 = $40.00

 *Note that the Integrated Cage cost is the cost of an entire frame with a built in cage

Structure

Generate More Ideas in a Structured Manner

Part 1: SCAMPER

My first attempt at structured idea generation is to apply the SCAMPER prompt questions to an archetypical existing product related to one of my problem statements.  The product that I am going to direct these prompts at is a standard water bottle cage:

 Below, I a have listed out a sketch of an idea that was generated from each of the 7 SCAMPER prompts:

1. Substitute
2. Combine
3. Adapt
4. Magnify/Minify
5. Put to Other Use
6. Eliminate
7. Reverse/Rearrange

Substitute - What if I substituted the standard steel wire that water bottle cages are made out of with a flexible rubber, and also changed its shape?  My sketch shows an attempt to reform the geometry to be more conducive for stretching the inner diameter of the cage, and the replacing the material with a high durometer elastic rubber or spring steel.






Combine - What if I combined the cage and the bike frame that the cage is mounted on?  The bike (or a part of the bike) had an integrated cage, rather than the cage and the bike being two separate parts.











Adapt - What if I used something similar to the soft water bottle holders that are on the sides of backpacks and mounted that to a bike?  If I had a big enough cylindrical section of cloth or mesh (similar to what would be on the side of a backpack) and some draw strings to tighten & secure the pack, that might work.

Magnify/Minify - What if the cage was huge, and there was a high loft open cell foam in the interior of it to fill in the extra volume?  This way the cage itself would be big enough to accommodate very big containers, but the foam would hold smaller containers in place.  An added benefit here is that the foam would also offer some degree of thermal insulation

Put to Other Use - What if I used the cage as mounting hardware in a home?  This cage could easily be used to wall mount things in the house, such as a small plant holder.  I have also seen these cages used on bikes to hold battery packs within the water bottles rather than a beverage




 

Eliminate - What if the cage was eliminated entirely, and the water bottle was incorporated directly into the bike frame?  A hose or straw type system could transport the liquid from the bottle/bladder up to the cyclist

Reverse/Rearrange - What if the cage was positioned somewhere else on the bike besides mounted in the top of the down tube?

 

 

Part 2: Table Based Tools - Morphological Analysis

After completing the SCAMPER prompt exercise, I moved on to using the table based tools to generate ideas.  The specific method that I used was Morphological Analysis.  I examined the functional requirements of the water bottle cage.  The specific functional requirements of a water bottle cage are:

1. Holds beverage container in place
2. Mounts to bike frame/metal tube
3. Corrosion resistant
4. Can easily release beverage on demand
5. lightweight
6. resists deformation

From there, I came up with several other products, parts, and materials that independently filled a given functional requirement.

and from there I made connections between these individual parts to come up with a couple of ideas that might be plausible.  You can see below the two sets of connections that I made.  The first series of connections I circled in red, the second set I circled in blue.

The set I circled in red resulted in the Mechanical Grabber Beverage Holder.  The four arms that you see below articulate at every hinge.  These can then be adjusted to fit a wide variety of beverage container diameters.  Once the proper diameter is set, the hinges are locked so that the device acts like a static cage.  The entire device is then attached to a bicycle with bolts using the same standard hard mounts as a standard water bottle cage.  The entire product could ideally be made out of aluminum or plastic for proper strength & durability characteristics.

The set I circled in blue resulted in the Ratchet Strap Beverage Holder.  This product uses a ratcheting strap to secure a beverage container to the product.  The product would then be secured to the bike by using the two band clamps shown on the backside.  This system would allow more flexibility on where the product is installed onto the bicycle.  Those band clamps could potentially be replaced with a series of magnets that could also hold the product onto the bike.

 

 Part 3: Review the Highly Rated Ideas From the Blue Sky Brainstorming Session

1. Magna Holder -This product was originally described as "Two very strong magnets (one attached to the bike, one attached to the beverage container) would hold the beverage container onto the bike until the rider wanted to pull it off".  Overall this is an interesting idea, it would do a good job holding a beverage onto the bike temporarily.  I think that it would be most effective if the magnet that is attached to the beverage was semi-permanently held onto the beverage with something like an electric tie.  This would ensure a tight bond to a variety of different beverage containers.  The real challenge I see with this would be that it would take a very powerful magnet to ensure that it could support the full weight of a beverage container.  I am concerned that there would always be too high of a risk that the container would fall off, or that unwanted metalic items would be drawn to to.  Furthermore, I think that there would be a cost issue with procuring such a strong magnet.
2. The Weave - Described as "A mesh system that could expand or contract to allow for a variety of diameter containers to fit snugly." this idea is reminiscent of the Chinese finger trap.  If there was a good way to provide axial tension along the device, this might be a good way to maintain a tight radial fit on a variety of containers.  I think that the challenge on this one would to find a method of maintaining that axial tension, and also a means to connect "The Weave" to the bike.
3. Stretch Bag - This idea would use a flexible elastic fabric to conform to a variety of containers.  I think that this idea has promise, the challenge here would be to find the right elastic material that can stretch across the required range without fatiguing the material.
4. Morning Coffee Carrier - This idea is uses a series of ratcheting straps to hold the beverage tight.  This idea has high potential, and also came up during this week's morphological analysis in the form of the Ratchet Strap Beverage Holder.  An area for further analysis here would be to make a determination of one vs two ratcheting straps, and a thoughtful analysis of the interior surface of the straps to get the correct level of friction on the beverage container.  Overall this is a very promising concept.
5. The Claw -During the blue sky brainstorming session, this idea was produced by Jenni.  Her idea was to have something similar to "the Claw" game that children play.  During this session, there was not a lot of refinement on how the actual mechanism would work, but I do like the fact that it is easily adjustable.  This idea also came up above during the morphological analysis table exercise in the form of the Mechanical Grabber Beverage Holder.  I think that this is one of the more promising concepts.
6. The Carrier - I think that this would be a very effective mode of resolving the original problem statement of "How might we deliver professional attire to a biker's destination without compromising it's  appearance from the effects such as water, dirt, mud and wrinkles?" however I think that it would be missing some key issues brought up earlier in the research.  This concept would ultimately be similar to the Burley systems that are sold for carrying children and items behind bicycles.  This would probably be too high of a price point for most college students, and it would also take up a significant amount of storage space when not being used.  Last off, it would probably be challenging to lock this up outside in a manor that would prevent theft or vandalism.
7. Roll Away Dry Sack - This idea is very promising.  I have seen similar concepts used for conventional commercial airline luggage.  I think that an improvement to the original sketch provided would be to keep a central cavity open that the clothes wrap around.  This would ensure a large radius of roll-up, which should do a better job of preventing wrinkles.  This cavity could also be used for storing other items that the biker might want to carry, such as dress shoes.
8. Tri Messenger - Again a promising idea, and very similar to conventional commercial airline luggage.  One thing that I particularly like about this design is that (unlike with the roll style bags)  this item could potentially hold a laptop as well as the clothes.  This would be a common need for students riding around campus or to their jobs.  I think that an improvement that would have to be investigated is that there is not really any detail on how the sides would be water proofed. 
9. Garment Pack - This idea is almost identical to the roll away dry sack idea except that it is shown as being worn like a backpack while it is rolled up.  This idea was produced by Sam at the same time that Kjersten developed the Roll Away Dry Sack.  All of the same comments from item #7 would apply here as well.
10. Office Dry Cleaner - I think that this is a reasonable solution to the problem depending on the severity of the environmental effects that the dress clothes have seen.  It would do well with minor wrinkles, but I doubt that it would be easy to come up with a system that could completely dry an entire suite after a rainstorm, or clean out mud from a major splash.  I am also concerned about the amount of time required for each "dry cleaning" and the cost of this item.  This idea does not have a lot of potential in my opinion.

Part 4: 10 Realizable Product Ideas (all are Novel, Valuable, Feasible)

1 - Rubber Cage

2 - Integrated Cage

 

3 - Soft Cage

 

4 - Elastic Cage

 

 5 - Mechanical Grabber Beverage Holder

 

6 - Ratchet Strap Beverage Holder

7 - Behind the Seat Cage

 8 - Roll Away Dry Sack

 

9 - Tri-Messenger Bag 

 

 10 - Airstream Backpack

 

Brainstorming

Conversion of Problem Statements into How Might We Questions

 My fist step in brainstorming was to convert my two problem statements from the Research blog posting last week.

Problem Statements:

1. Juli the commuting student needs a way to securely carry her various beverage containers on a bicycle because popular containers such as Nalgene or Starbucks thermos do not fit in standard bike bottle cages
2. Mike the commuting student and intern needs a way to get to work with professional attire because biking tends to compromise dress clothes due to environmental effects such as water and mud or due to packaging effects such as wrinkled clothes.

 How Might We Questions:

1. How might we securely transport various non-standard beverage containers (such as Nalgene bottles, coffee thermoses, or fast food soda cups) on a bicycle?
2. How might we deliver professional attire to a biker's destination without compromising it's  appearance from the effects such as water, dirt, mud and wrinkles?

Facilitate the Brainstorming Session

Assemble The Group

 

I assembled a group of 4 people to help with this project:
 





Mike - A graduate student in the MBA program and a full time working engineer.  Mike would be considered an avid cyclist with a considerable amount of experience biking on campus, and commuting via bike in general.

Jenni - a project manager at a major investment institute in downtown Minneapolis.  It has been several years since Jenni has biked on campus, but she regularly bikes to commute to restaurants, bars, and other social events.

Kjersten - A middle school literacy teacher who finished her graduate studies last summer.  Kjersten commutes via bike between work and  home on occasion.  She also uses cycling as a form of exercise.

Sam - An interior designer/event coordinator.  Sam rarely uses a bicycle and almost never uses a bike for commuting in any capacity.

Develop a Warmup Game to Encourage Creativity

 

I wanted to combine  a couple of characteristics into my warmup activity:

1. Physical activity
2. Mental stimulation
3. Removing a participant from comfort zone
4. Fun
5. Outdoors  

What I came up with was a combination of the human knot and word association.  I had each of the 4  members stand in a circle and grab a random hand of someone else.  This initially left them with their arms knotted up.  At this point each person had to say a word, and squeeze one of their hands.  When the did so, they could make a move to try and untangle the knot.  Then, whoever's hand the fist person squeezed had to come up with an associated word and make another move to further attempt to untangle the knot.  This went on until the knot was entirely worked out.





Everyone ended up laughing and feeling a little bit more relaxed then before the game started, so I consider the game a success.  I think that it would be even more fun with a larger group, as the knot would be more complicated to untangle.

Review Ideas that the Group Generated on Their Own

 

I had asked each member of the team to come up with a couple of ideas before our meeting for each topic, and each of them did.  The following are a couple of the more interesting sketches that were brought in by each person for the two topics of interest:

Jenni came in with an interesting roller bag idea for the clothing protection, and a ratcheting clasp system for the beverage container holder

Kjersten had a backpack system that was large enough to hang clothes in, and had specific compartments for different items like dress shoes.  She also drew out some sketches for an adjustable system to hold beverages on the front handlebars of the bike, including an idea for holding multiple beverages.

Mike drew out a messenger bag with a trifold system, similar to how standard garment bags are designed for commercial airplane travel.  He also drew out a "steam suite" for removing wrinkles.  Mike's beverage container holder included an elastic web solution, a strong magnetized clasp, and a bag system that would be compatible with a standard U-lock.

Sam developed a rolling bag system that worked into a backpack for the clothing protection.  She used a plastic sheath system that ratcheted shut using a standard electric tie for the beverage container.

40 Minute Brainstorming Session (20 minutes per How Might We)

 After completing our warm-up exercise and reviewing the ideas that had been brought into the session,we proceeded with the actual brainstorming session.  I decided to do this in an outdoor setting to help encourage creativity.

First I gave them 20 minutes to come up with all of the ideas that they could for question one:

"How might we securely transport various non-standard beverage containers (such as Nalgene bottles, coffee thermoses, or fast food soda cups) on a bicycle?"

 As they came up with ideas, I posted them onto a board that was leaned up against the tree shown in the picture above.  The populated board can be seen the picture on the left.

I used large post-it notes sized at 5" x 8" in an effort to get as much detail as possible.  Each participant was instructed to use each post-it note to document a single idea.  Each idea was to include a sketch filling out the entire post-it, along with a title.


With 22 ideas generated over the course of 20 minutes by 4 people, we had a calculated Ideas Per Minute (IPM) of 1.1 and an IPM per person of 0.275

 After the 20 minutes of brainstorming was completed for the first question, we completed the same exercise for the second question:

"How might we deliver professional attire to a biker's destination without compromising it's  appearance from the effects such as water, dirt, mud and wrinkles?"

During this session, 20 ideas were generated.  With 20 ideas generated over the course of 20 minutes by 4 people, we had a calculated Ideas Per Minute (IPM) of 1 and an IPM per person of 0.25

Sorting

At this point, the weather was turning hot enough that we all decided to go inside and complete the sorting.  For question one, there were 5 clear groups that people sorted the ideas into:

1. Apparatus that attach to the bike
2. Products or systems to improve or maintain the state of the clothing while it is worn
3. Products that would stay at the destination to improve the clothing upon arrival
4. Packs or containers for transporting the clothing
5. Items that would enhance the appearance but not affect the clothing

 

The sorting of the question 2 ideas fell into 2 clear categories:

1. Methods to attach something to the bike
2. Methods of attaching to or holding the beverage container.

Many of the ideas from one group could be used in conjunction with an idea from the other group.

10 Best Ideas 

For a clothing conservation system, the 5 best ideas (not in any order) were the following.  These ideas were determined to be the best through voting done by the 4 participants.

1. The Carrier (Sam) - A cart system that is pulled behind the bike
2. Roll Away Dry Sack (Kjersten) - A rolling system.  You put the clothes into the water proof bag and then roll it closed
3. Tri Messenger (Mike) - A tri-folding bag that slings over the shoulder
4. Garment Pack (Sam) - Similar to the roll away dry sack described in #2, this would be worn like a standard backpack
5. Office Dry Cleaner (Sam) - This would be a stationary device that would be small enough to fit into an office, but it could dry clean and steam clothes in a very short amount of time.

For a beverage container carrying system, the 5 best ideas (not in any order) were the following.  These ideas were determined to be the best through voting done by the 4 participants.

1.  Magna Holder (Mike) - Two very strong magnets (one attached to the bike, one attached to the beverage container) would hold the beverage container onto the bike until the rider wanted to pull it off.
2. The Weave (Jenni) - The would be a mesh system that could expand or contract to allow for a variety of diameter containers to fit snuggly.
3. Stretch Bag (Mike) - Similar to idea #2, this system would use elastic to conform to the correct diameter.
4. Morning Coffee Carrier (Kjersten) - This system would use an upper and a lower ratcheting system (similar to what can be seen on a snowboard binding or a roller blade ) to tighten down on the beverage container.
5. The Claw (Jenni) - This system was inspired by "the claw game."  Once you put the beverage into the claw, it would clamp down around it and hold it in place.

I realize that these are not in landscape orientation, however the largest size post it notes that I could find (after trying multiple stores) only included adhesive in such a way that they had to be hung in the portrait orientation.  Since this size post it would provide a cleaner visualization of the idea, I proceeded with the materials I had available.