A global manufacturer of products for the home improvement and new home construction markets needed to fill and refresh its North American innovation pipeline. Once known for its first-to-market designs and marketing campaigns, the company felt it needed to rekindle its innovative spirit. Additionally, the brand had experienced some “near misses” during a recent series of design launches. So, the manufacturer turned to Escalent to reinvigorate its product innovation and development process.
Escalent began by identifying Creatives—consumers with highly creative abilities—to integrate into the product development process. Then, we conducted a 12-hour co-creation workshop with the Creatives, client brand team, a group of illustrators in a non-traditional environment—an artsy, casual Airbnb home—to prompt conversation, generate excitement, and facilitate collaboration. We utilized a variety of creative stimuli, including the physical space itself, as springboards for generating starter ideas. Using brand-related metrics, we identified the strongest ideas and developed written, illustrated concepts from the top vote-getters.
The co-creation workshop was a resounding success, producing more than 200 starter ideas and 20 written and illustrated concepts for the brand, all of which are now in various phases of assessment and development. The brand now uses our approach of integrating consumers as design creators and architects into their product development process as the preferred way to conduct innovation sessions. Additionally, all co-creation workshops are held in non-traditional settings to continue generating powerful results.
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