Engarde! Thou dost protect thy own with a plastic orb-shield of food weilding +1. Be very afraid!
I sometimes assign weird actions to myself for some reason and this was one of those instances. “Combine household items and brainstorm 5 new products.” Sounded fun so I went ahead and gave it a shot!
This is a brainstorming / creativity / design method I came up with on the fly… not sure if it exists already, but it just popped into my head so I assume it’s new. I’ve decided to call it the “Matrix Storm”. Sorry, no Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne here, but here goes:
- Create a list of 28 items (e.g. – shoes, bowl, fork, ball, hat, etc.)
- Randomly arrange the list into 4 columns, 7 rows deep
- Write down and number 5 blank areas on the same or another sheet of paper
- Randomly pick 3 matrix locations without looking at your list (e.g. – Column 3, Row 2 –> C3:R2, C1:R7, C4:R1, etc.) for each of the 5 blank areas (I went with column/row instead of row/column… no reason in particular)
- When done, use the matrix location numbers to find the item from the matrix and write it down for each matrix location you randomly picked
- Combine the items picked (or features thereof) into some type of new product
For example, here’s what I came up with:
#1) plate / bowl / toothpaste thoughts: bowls hold less-viscous stuff inside / plates are flat products: half-bowl plate /// bowl that collapses into a plate
#2) shoes / pots / belt thoughts: shoes have laces, belts hold pants up and are adjustable products: some form of flexible shoe-lace cover (I’ve come to realize this exists already!)
#3) Infant door-know protector / spoon / cup thoughts: door-knob protector completely covers the knob and prevents movement by child / spoons are held to move food products: some form of clam-shell / sleeve that gently covers a child’s spoon-wielding hand to help train them to eat with utensils
#4) socks / knife / plumbing thoughts: socks are flexible and protective / knives are handy and accessible / plumbing moves liquid products: temporary plumbing sock (patch when pipes are damaged) /// hunting socks with external knife pocket
#5) squeegee / drying rack / sponge thoughts: 3 random choices & they are all dish/drying related… weird! Drying rack pools water that doesn’t dry quickly products: drying rack with squeegee feature on drip pan to move water immediately or maybe just a ramped base to ‘persuade’ water to head for the sink
I don’t pretend to think that these ideas are all that great, but I was completely amazed at just how quickly and easily the ideas just kind of came together. This would seem to indicate to me that if I put a bit more time and effort into the task that I would have come up with some order-of-magnitude-greater ideas. Time and trial will tell, I suppose, but I still found this exercise to be useful, fun, and revealing.
Give it a shot!
PS) I really kind of want the drying rack squeegee/ramp… :)