5 Ways That Standardization Can Lead To Innovation

by Henry King We’d like to think that innovation comes from freewheeling chaos. Think again: It’s extreme order that begets breakthroughs in business. At a time when we are constantly being told to value the new and the different, it may come as a surprise to learn that the standard, the shared and the common [...]

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User Inspired Design

There seems to be a common misunderstanding of user research and user-centered design. Too many people believe that user centered design involves asking users what they want and then building exactly what they asked for. This is far from the truth. Most of the time users are poor at expressing what they really want. They [...]

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Putting Innovation at the Heart of Your Business

by Matthew Link ‘Nothing restricts our ability to innovate more than what we already know, and what we therefore believe not to be possible’ (Geoff Mulgan, founder of think tank Demos) What is innovation? Innovation is all about doing things differently, exploiting new ideas and taking risks. It enables businesses to bring new and improved [...]

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Response To Reader Comment

A loyal reader commented on our post regarding Stanley’s New FATMAX® Xtreme™ Tape Rules. John raises a valid point, and I think it is worth addressing to a larger audience. Not necessarily to defend Stanley’s design decision, but one thing I have learned in my many years doing new product development, is that sometimes a [...]

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Designing hand and power tools with women in mind

According to the National Association of Realtors, single females are the second largest homeowner group in the U.S. In fact, 90 percent consider themselves do-it-yourselfers. Still, the majority of hand and power tools are designed for men. This gap in demand provides a unique growth opportunity for tool developers. Follow these four guidelines, and you’ll [...]

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