Design Innovation and the Wonderment of Magic

I’m currently involved in the final stage of a competitive RFP for a HUGE well known international brand. As part of the pitch process, the brand issued the following hypothetical challenge:

The goal is to grow the business by creating an entirely new gadget set to become the single most used device in history.

Come up with the design for the most innovative idea since the radio, television, personal computer or iPhone? No pressure.

After overcoming my initial pangs of this company potentially infringing on my intellectual property rights, my mind began to reel with the possibilities. Honestly, this is the type of thinking where I feel the most inspired and comfortable.

If this product is supposed to be “the single most used device in history,” it’s got to fulfill some basic human needs, so I focused on a few core themes including: usefulness, engaging/enhancing innate human senses, portability, personalization and ability to connect people socially.

As our team began the brainstorming process, several ideas were presented—many of which already exist, if only as prototypes. Each idea, while innovative, somehow felt lacking. It was at that point that I realized a couple things. First, coming up with a completely new idea is really difficult; and number two, I realized what all paradigm changing products throughout history have in common… Magic.

Consider people’s first glimpse of the automobile, the telephone, the rifle, radio, television, airplane, personal computer, iPhone, etc. When the average person encounters this kind of new technology, our minds can barely fathom what we’re seeing. Although we understand, logically, that some type of technology has enabled the innovation, we experience it with the same wonder that we would while observing a magic trick.

If you’re in the business of developing (or funding the development of) the next big idea—an entirely new gadget set to become the single most used device in history,—you’ll know you’re onto something big when people experience it with the wonderment of magic.

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