Related worlds: Liquid Paper (Tippex)

Bette Nesmith was an executive secretary at the Texas Bank & Trust in Dallas in 1951. She was helping to decorate the holiday windows at the bank, and saw the artists correct their mistakes by painting over the error. Nesmith decided to try the same at work.

She soon has a cottage business supplying Mistake Out to fellow secretaries. She renamed it Liquid Paper, applied for a patent, and when IBM wasn't interested plowed ahead alone. Within a decade she sold out to Gillette for nearly $50m + royalties.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p244

Noble failures at Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab have a history of "noble failures".

It took numerous tech-based failures before they hit on a successful online service, e-Schwab.

For more info see: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p232

"Fail often to succeed sooner"

An IDEO saying.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p232

Pike Place Fish Market

At Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle they turn buying fish into an experience by having the fishmongers shout at each other as you place your order.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p208

Coinstar

Coinstar started with 5 working machines that IDEO created and put in Safeway stores around the Bay area. To most peoples' surprise they worked, even though people had to first see them and then come back in again with their coins.

Marketing people had to stand by the machines and ask people "Have you seen our new Coinstar machine?"

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p191

Answering Machines and Social Norms

"Social norms are notoriously difficult to predict and at times even tougher to change. There was a time when answering machines were considered rude. Then, in the space of a few years, it suddenly became rude if you didn't have one."

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p175

Check your assumptions: Palm Pilot writing

Many pen-based computers failed, because they assume you had to have 100% hand-writing recognition. The Palm Pilot challenged that assumption, proving that it was better at that time to get people to learn a slightly new script.

Source: adapted in my words, from The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p174

Accidental innovation: Kevlar

DuPont originally developed Kevlar to replace the steel wires in radial tyres. But it was the aircraft industry that first responded, using it to save weight. Then other applications were found in bullet-proof vests etc.

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p153

Accidental innovation: Kleenex

"Kleenex was intended to be little more than a niche product, essentially a disposable cold cream remover. Only when the public started wiping their noises with the paper hankies did Kimberly-Clark Corporations see the potential and begin to totally re-position its product".

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p153

Accidental innovation: Saccharin

"Saccharin was discovered in 1879 when a research fellow at John Hopkins University found his bread extra sweet one night and figured that something in the lab must have followed him home. Incredibly, he set about to tasting nearly everything in his lab - and lived to find o-benzoic sulfimide".

Source: The Art of Innovation book, Tom Kelley, p150