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.