EVALUATION
MARKET SURVEY:
From my last brainstorming project I narrowed my 71 ideas down to just 3! The final three ideas I am pursuing are, Pantry Bins, Lazy Susan Shelf, and Portable Shelfs. I picked these because all of them were voted fairly high, during the last vote my group participated in. All these ideas also passed the first order novel, valuable, and feasible test.
Once I picked my top three ideas I wanted to pursue further, it was time for market research. Next I decided to create a google form. I then spammed the link to old peers I have not seen in a while. I ended up receiving 25 responses, which really helped out with the market research part. For my form I decided to ask ten questions. The first question I asked was how messy is your home pantry on a scale of one to six. One being not very messy and six being very messy. I asked this question to get a general understanding of how understanding my surveyors were to pantry organization. The results were what I expected. There was quite a few in the middle and on the not very messy side. The mode for this question was a 2 out of 6.
The next couple of questions I asked dealt with Pantry Bins. I asked if they could see them implementing this product in their own Pantry. I also included the sketch of Pantry Bins from the top, so they could visually see the idea. The response was very positive. 88% of the surveyors said they could see themselves using this product. I also asked for their opinion on how helpful they thought the product would be. This question was also out of 1 to 6, like the first one. One being not very helpful and six being very helpful. The majority thought it would be helpful. Only two people believed it was on the lower side of being helpful. The mode for this question was a 4 out of 6 helpfulness. The mean was 4.32 out of 6.
The last question I asked was, how much would you pay for one Pantry Bin? I left this question as a free response so I got a large variety of answers. The mode from the responses was $5 with a whopping 11 votes. But the answers ranged from $2 to $40. This was probably because of the unclarity for the quality and size of each product. The mean for the responses is $8.12.
Lazy Susan Shelfs was the next product I asked my surveyors to evaluate. I asked all the same questions, and even used the same wording, as the previous product. I just substituted Lazy Susan Shelf for Pantry Bins in the questions. The responses how likely the surveyors could see themselves using Lazy Susan Shelfs was not as good as the Pantry Bins responses. This earned a 72% approval rating from the surveryors. But for how helpful they viewed the product was much higher. The mode was a 6 out of 6 helpfulness, and a mean of 4.52 out of 6.
For, how much would you pay for one Lazy Susan Shelf, the answers were also quite positive. The mode was 5 responses for $15. The range varied all the way from $0 to $40 this time. Lastly the mean price they gave this product was $13.96.
Portably Shelfs was the last product I had my surveyors review. Again I had them answer the same questions on the same scale. The responses to these questions were definitely the most negative. There were only 44% that thought they would use this product. This was by far the lowest for any of the products. The helpfulness rating was also all over the board. The mode was a 3 with 7 people voting for it, but the mean was 3.48.
The last question my surveyors had to answer was regarding how much they would pay for this product. This also had the worst results out of the three products. The mode was kind of high with 6 people voting for $10 but the range was the lowest from $0 to $30. The mean was $10.08.
BENCHMARKING & PATENT SEARCH:
While gathering similar product ideas for Pantry Bins, I went to Amazon.com. There I found thousands of different pantry organization bins. None of the ones I saw had creative and colorful designs to specifically specify where each product goes. I found a couple items that had customizable chalk stickers, but that was it. Then I used a few different items and compared them with a quality axis and specificness axis.
-Pantry Bins 2x2
I also used Amazon.com to find lazy susan type products. I was only able to find stand alone lazy susans. There was no lazy susans built into shelfs, which is what I want to do. I selected four different lazy susans and graphed them on a 2x2 based on diameter and price.
-Lazy Susan Shelf 2x2
Amazon.com is where I also searched for portable shelfs. Once again nothing showed up for my product, besides light shelfs so I used that and a built in pull out shelf. I compared the shelfs between helpfulness and portablilty.
-Portable Shelf 2x2
-Patent Findings
Trying to find Patents relating to my prodcut ideas was quite difficult. I could not find similar products on amazon when building 2x2s and it was the same story while using google patent. I was able to find some patents that were closely related though. For Pantry Bins I found a patent that was a sealable bin rather than a plain open one. This also had a attachable label holder, so you could draw your own designs on it. My idea would have been more a box with labels already drawn on. The patent was called “Storage bin with attachable label holder” and the link to it was…
https://patents.google.com/patent/US7131224B1/en?q=labeled&q=storage&q=container
For a Lazy Susan Shelf I found two patents that were kind of close. The first patent was called “Lazy susan with pull-out shelving”. The link is… https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050076817A1/en?q=lazy+susan&q=into&q=shelf
This is basically the reverse of my product idea. This is a lazy susan that has six pie pieces that pull out like shelfs. While my idea was a rectangular pull out shelf with built in lazy susans.
The other patent I found was called “Moveable organizer”. The link is…
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150122757A1/en?q=pantry&q=organizer
This was once again very similar to my idea but instead of being a shelf with multiple lazy susans built into. It it was almost one big lazy susan/ convator belt in a shelf. I thought this patent was really creative and cool.
For the Portable Shelfs I found something very close. Except for my idea I picture a very light shelf that could roll into a spot, but this patent was for moveable shelfs that were held in by pins. It was called “Demountable shelf” and the link to it is…
https://patents.google.com/patent/US3347187A/en?q=shelf
FEASIBILITY CONCERNS:
- For my Pantry Bins idea, my biggest concern would be quality. I was planning for the final design of these to be wood. But then I am not sure how good a mass produced decal on wood, would turn out.
- Lazy Susan Shelfs do not worry me that much. My biggest concern is how small this product can fit in packaging and if homeowners could install it themselves. To over come this there could be a hidge in the middle so it can fold in half between the lazy susans, then have clear instructions.
- My Portable Shelf idea is the most worrisome. I do not know if a light portable shelf, will be able to also hold a decent amount of wait. Since the shelfs have to be able to slide in and out easy there would be minimal support too. I feel like this one might sag and break in the middle if the weight load is too large.
PUGH CHART:
I made a Pugh chart with my final three I deas and compared them with multiple categories. The categories I selected were, most helpful, sell price, actually using, most concerns, novelty, mobility, and aesthetic. The first three I determined the score based on the market research I did. Then the rest were based off the similar products and patents I found. The product with the best score in the end was the Lazy Susan Shelf.
SKETCH MODEL & FEEDBACK:
Since the Lazy Susan Shelf had the highest total score from the Pugh chart I built a sketch model of that. I put together four pieces of cardboard then, cut two circles on the top layer. These plates resemble the Lazy Susan built into the shelf.
After making my sketch model I had two people across the hall from me give me feedback on it…
- At first they thought that it was not big enough but I explained to them that this was not fully to scale.
- Shelby thought the the radius of the lazy susan could be bigger.
- One improvement I thought of myself was, to add a pull out mechanism to it.
- Maddie wanted the finalized lazy susan to have a grippy surface so when you spin it, items do not fly off of it.
TIMELINE:
MARKET SURVEY: 11/2
BENCHMARKING & PATENT SEARCH:11/4
FEASIBILITY CONCERNS:11/4
PUGH CHART:11/5
SKETCH MODEL & FEEDBACK:11/6–8
TURN IN BLOG: 11/8
PEER REVIEW: 11/10
