[cuckoo clock chiming]
(male host) Tonight, the deep dive.
One company's secret weapon for innovation.
[jazz music]
We went to IDEO, the product design folk,
and said take something old and familiar, like say the shopping cart,
and completely redesign it for us
in just five days.
ABC News correspondent, Jack Smith,
tells us what happened next.
(Jack Smith) Nine in the morning, day one.
And these people have a deadline to meet.
(male) So welcome to the kick off
of the shopping cart project.
(Jack Smith) This is Palo Alto,
California, in the heart of Silicon Valley,
and these are designers at IDEO,
probably the most influential product development firm
in the world.
IDEO has designed everything
from hi-tech medical equipment,
to the 25-foot mechanical whale in the movie Free Willy,
and the first computer mouse for Apple.
Smith's ski goggles, Nike's sunglasses, NEC computer screens.
Hundreds of products we take for granted.
(Dave Kelley) The point is that we're not actually experts
at any given 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 toothbrush,
a toothpaste tube, a tractor, a space shuttle, you know a chair.
It's all the same to us.
We like want to figure out how to innovate
in- in- by using our process applying it.
(Jack Smith) Project leader is Peter Skillman,
a 35-year-old Stanford engineer.
Project leader because he's good with groups,
not because of seniority.
He's only been at IDEO for 6 years.
The rest of the team is eclectic, but that's typical here.
Whitney Mortimer, Harvard MBA.
Peter Coughlan, linguist.
Tom Kelley, Dave's brother, marketing expert.
Jane Fulton Suri, psychologist.
Alex Cassacks, 26, a biology major,
who's turned down medical school 3 times
because he's having too much fun at IDEO.
Safety emerges early as an important issue.
(Jane Fulton Suri) 22,000 child injuries a year.
Which is, so they are hospitalized injuries.
I mean there are many others.
(Jack Smith) And theft.
It turns out a lot of carts are stolen.
As the team works,
it becomes clear there are no titles here.
No permanent assignments.
(Dave Kelley) And the other side says,
gives us a lot of help, says "be safe".
I give you a big red ball on a on a on a post
and that says you're a big guy.
If you got a ball, you're a senior vice president.
Pfft. You know, what do I get, the desk, a red ball?
It's all the same.
[laughing]
In a very innovative culture, you can't have
a kind of hierarchy of here's the boss,
the next person down, the next person down,
because it's impossible
that the boss is the one who's had
the insightful experience with shopping carts.
It's just not possible.
(Jack Smith) The team splits into groups
to find out first hand, what the people who use,
make and repair shopping carts really think.
(Dave Kelley) Okay, go.
(male store employee) The problem with the plastic cart
is the wind catches it.
And these things have been clocked at 35 across the parking lot.
[laughing]
(Alex Cassacks) Man, that's actually a pretty good point.
(Dave Kelley) The trick is to find these real experts
so that you can learn much more quickly
than you could by just kind of doing it
the normal way and trying to learn about it yourself.
(Peter Skillman) From everything I read
these things aren't that safe either.
You know, um, so probably the seat itself
is gonna have to be redesigned.
(Jane Fulton Suri) One of the interesting things for me
is looking at how people really don't like to let go of the cart,
except for the professional shopper,
whose strategy is to leave the cart at various places.
(Jack Smith) 3:30 in the afternoon
and the group is back at IDEO.
There is no let up.
(Peter Skillman) Each team is going to demonstrate
and communicate and share everything that they've learned today.
(Alex Cassacks) A, uh, shopping cart
has been clocked at 35 miles an hour
traveling through a parking lot in the wind.
(Peter Skillman) We were in this store, what 2 hours,
and it was truly frightening
just to see the kind of stuff going on.
(Dave Kelley) You gotta designate some people
to make damn sure
the store owner's point of view is represented.
(Jack Smith) After nine straight hours the team is tired.
They call it a day.
(Peter Skillman) So uh, well uh. That's great.
Thanks a lot. We had a great time today.
[clapping]
(Jack Smith) IDEO's mantra for innovation
is written everywhere.
"One conversation at a time.
Stay focused.
Encourage wild ideas.
Defer judgment.
Build on the ideas of others."
(Peter Skillman) Uh, that's the hardest thing
for people to do is to restrain themselves
from criticizing an idea.
So if anybody starts to nail an idea,
they get the bell.
[bell ring]
(Jack Smith) The ideas pour out
and are posted on the walls.
(Peter Skillman) The blind.. the privacy blind.
Like when you're buying 6 cases of condoms
(Dave Kelley) Organized chaos. It's not organized. Um.
no one can see it.
(Peter Skillman) If it doesn't nest, we don't have the solution.
What it is, is it's focused chaos.
(Peter Skillman) It's not this idea that's cool,
but an idea that's cool and buildable.
If it's too far out there and can't be built in a day,
then I don't think we should vote on it.
Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning
of a lone genius.
(Jack Smith) Enlightened trial and error
succeeds over the planning of the lone genius.
If anything sums up IDEO's approach, that is it.
Worried that the team is drifting, what can only be called a group
of self-appointed adults under Dave Kelley,
holds an informal side session.
(Peter Skillman) Four or five people.
Four or five teams and we give each team a need area.
(Peter Skillman) It becomes very autocratic
for a very short period of time in defining what things
people are going to work on.
(Dave Kelley) If you don't work on time constraints,
you could never get anything done, because it's a messy process
that can go on forever.
(Jack Smith) Back at the shop, it is 6:00.
Four mock ups are ready for showing.
(Tom Kelley) Baskets also can be used.
If you think you will have more volume,
baskets can be put in.
(Jack Smith) A modular shopping cart,
you pile hand baskets onto.
A high tech cart that gets you through the traffic jam at checkout.
(IDEO team member 1) You could mount a scanner
on the shopping cart that you as the customer,
as you pull it off the shelf, could scan each item.
(Jack Smith) One that's built
around child safety.
And another that lets shoppers talk
to the supermarket staff remotely.
(IDEO team member 2) Where can I find the yogurt?
(voice on speaker) Yogurt is over in the dairy section.
(Jack Smith) But the adults again decide
more work needs to be done before the mock ups
can be combined into one last prototype.
(Peter Skillman) Why don't we
have all of the carts come up here for a second.
(Dave Kelley) I think you take a piece
of each one of these ideas and kind of back it off
a little bit and then put it in the design.
(Jack Smith) The design is still not there,
but there is another motto at IDEO.
"Fail often in order to succeed sooner."
And some of the team will be up half the night
trying to put together a design that finally does work.
(Peter Skillman) There it is!
[cheering]
(Peter Skillman) So we took the best elements
out of each prototype.
(Jack Smith) The cart which is designed
to cost about the same as today's carts is different
in every other way.
(Jack Smith) What do you think?
[laughing]
(Dave Kelley) Well I'm very proud of the team.
I think it's great.
(Jack Smith) Does this work for you?
(Dave Kelly) Works for me great.
It's also beautiful!
(Jack Smith) The cart's wheels turn 90 degrees
so it can move sideways.
No more lifting up the rear in a tight spot
and you shop in a totally different way.
The bags are hung on hooks on the cart's frame.
Remember there is no basket here.
(female store employee) At first I was a little shocked,
but I think you have some fantastic ideas here.
It needs a little refining, but I think that it's great.
I mean we would want them.
(Peter Skillman) She also gave us
some really good comments on how we could
make this thing better.
(Jack Smith) A lot of hours.
Also, an open mind, a boss who demands fresh ideas.
Be quirky and clash with his.
A belief that chaos can be constructive
and teamwork.
A great deal of teamwork.
And these are the recipe for how innovation takes place.
[cheering]
This is Jack Smith for Nightline.
Palo Alto, California.