Idea-Mill.net

Coffee Tripod

I don't live in the Pottery Barn catalog, so not every comfortable chair in my home has an accompanying end table. Lately I've found myself carting around a small footstool that my young sons stand on to brush their teeth, and place it next to a rocking chair near the fireplace that I like to read in, for the sole purpose of having a place to set my coffee. This keeps it off the floor (and keeps me from kicking it over), but is still too low to reach comfortably. As a makeshift solution it's passable, but not ideal.

Idea: The Coffee Tripod
Picture a square platform about 4" x 4", maybe the same size as a coaster. But instead of a flat bottom it has three telescoping legs that fold down so that they're invisible under the platform when not in use (if you're looking down on it - the idea is for the stowed unit footprint to remain the same size), but that extend on an angle and lock for stability to create a platform about 24" high.

It might even be a coaster when it's not a tripod, so you keep it out in the open and don't have to hunt around for it when you're moving to a chair without an end table - maybe in your living room, but maybe also on your deck, in your yard, on the beach (OK, probably not for coffee there). And if it's small and light enough, it might be a suitable accessory for road warriors. Most seats at airport gates don't have end tables nearby, and how many times have you seen coffee perched precariously on a rolling carry-on, or an armrest a little too narrow?

This product is no blockbuster, I know. But I think there's an increasing probability of niche products turning profits because the rules of marketing and distribution have changed. Remarkable products get talked about (we see evidence online, but most of the talking takes place offline), and what makes a product remarkable is how perfectly suitable it is for a person, and other like-minded people. A product no longer needs to sell 500,000 units in its first year, at a net profit of $20/unit, just to break even on the $10 million TV ad spend to support the launch. Remarkable products find other ways of reaching customers, and can turn profits at much lower quantities as a result.

So if someone wants to take a flyer on this one let me know, and fast. I have to suck down the rest of this java because my son has to brush his teeth.

Single-Use Washcloths

At the risk of being a cliche, I'll admit that this idea came to me in the shower. Most of the gyms (my current one included) I've ever worked out in have those wall-mounted shower gel pumps in the shower stalls. But it's not really gel as much as a watery soap, less viscous even than shampoo. So to actually get clean you need to pump out one handful and apply. Again. And again. And again. I usually quit after one set of 12 reps. But I don't feel especially clean because I don't get a good lather and have no appreciable exfoliating. Either would be acceptable: visible lather would convince me psychologically that I'm clean; a good scrubbing would do the same empirically. But because there is neither, the shower is highly unsatisfying.

My dad used to carry handkerchiefs. Not pocket squares to add a splash of color to your suit jacket, but actual handkerchiefs to be used for blowing one's nose. The progressive world has now given us paper tissues. I'm told the diapers I wore as a baby were cloth. So were the dustrags I used as a boy to earn my allowance, and the napkins I set the family dinner table with.

You can make just about anything of paper nowadays, so why are there no paper single-use washcloths? I know there are baby-wipes repositioned as disposable washcloths, but that's not the same thing. When I'm showering at the gym, or in a hotel, I don't want to feel (and smell) like I have a medical condition. And the thought of using a washcloth that the last person who stayed in this room may have used is just icky to think about.

I'm talking about something that looks like a loofah (or maybe is a loofah, just a really small one that falls apart after one use), and gets me clean like a loofah. I want to feel the way I do when I get out of my shower at home, not like a leather car seat does after it's been detailed.

My guess is that making such a product is not the stumbling block. Adoption by a couple of key customer segments is the challenge. I've identified them as gyms and hotels, but maybe there are other applications. Why should these institutions adopt Single-Use Washcloths? Here are some thoughts:

• Service component: they create a more pleasurable experience
• Potential cost savings: may allow for reduced consumption of shower gel in gyms, and lower laundry expenses in hotels (though my guess is that the added cost of the product would offset any losses, and that this is the major obstacle towards manufacturing and adoption)
• Environmentally friendly: especially if they are recycled/recyclable, or even biodegradable (sometimes in marketing environmental green trumps even economic green).

So if anyone knows if these things exist already do let me know. At the very least, I'd buy a case or two myself to bring to throw in my gym bag or my dopp kit.

Text-to-List

Now that it's the holiday season, I spend a lot of time thinking about holiday presents. But I often get an idea when I'm not trolling for one. For example, a couple of weeks ago I was at my father's house on a quiet weekend. I suggested to his girlfriend and my niece that we break out the Scrabble and have a game. Great idea, but there was no Scrabble. Normally a discovery like this would prompt a search for a replacement activity. In November, it suggested a gift opportunity. So I made a mental note to remember 'Scrabble' to add to my holiday shopping list, which incidentally is an Excel spreadsheet with a column devoted to each giftee, using annotations like bold and italics to show purchased/received or ordered status.

The following weekend I took a getaway with my fiancee to St. Michaels, Maryland, a precious little town on the Chesapeake. One morning we hit the local shops, a context that generated a handful of gift ideas for her. Most weren't  things in the stores I could buy on the spot, so I had to remember them. Absent a pen and paper, but not my mobile phone, I sent myself text messages to my email address listing the items.

Incidentally, on the same trip I sent myself text messages to my email address listing other 'ideas' for this very site.

Good ideas come very often from observing how people use and modify existing products. I remember reading a case study in school once about product development at Whirlpool. They saw that their customers were buying gallon jugs of milk and jamming them into the shelves on the doors of their refrigerators, often bending or breaking the little shelf guardrail. Other customers were buying 3 or 4 half-gallons of milk to line them up along the door shelf, when a full gallon wouldn't fit. Whirlpool designers promptly increased the depth of the shelves on the fridge doors to accommodate the fatter gallon milk jugs, and then began marketing this feature expressly.

I'd like to find a way for my text messages to go straight to lists that are actually actionable and manageable, instead of to an inbox that I then paste into Excel (itself not a list management tool without some modification on my part). So imagine a website or widget that is pre-designed to take in lists - holiday shopping, grocery shopping, to-do, whatever - all the things we keep in our brain and try to remember, ultimately stressing us out with their insistent overwhelm. When we're at our computers, modifying each list should be easy (why I think a widget would be better than a site - you could drop it right onto a personal homepage or if it's an O/S widget right onto your desktop or dashboard). They should be shareable with multiple people having the ability to modify them.

And there should also be alternate means of adding to each list - SMS certainly, but also dynamic or recurring events, such as regular searches of retail or shopping comparison sites that add 'Buy iPod - $50 off this week at Radio Shack' or 'Transfer money from checking to savings' every month to cover the recurring payments in your online bill pay, or 'New product that meets your criteria now available at eBay'.

Not that I need more excuses to buy things. Maybe seeing all in one place everything I think I ought to buy, right next to everything I ought to do, will result in me contributing more to the economy as a producer than a consumer.

Coffee Connoisseur Travel Kit

Now that I've stopped drinking, coffee is my drug of choice. I got hooked on coffee during my first job out of college, when my boss signed me up for a Green Mountain Coffee Roasters subscription program. They're crafty somebodies over at Green Mountain. The minimum order for the subscription was something like 3 pounds every two weeks, roughly the equivalent of about 8 cups a day. I lived alone at the time and, combined with my father's waste-not ethic, it's no surprise I quickly spiralled into addiction.

I don't know if mine is the average addiction, however. I'm not a coffee snob. When I travel and there's nothing in the hotel room but the bitter-bag-o-blend, or I'm at a rest area and the only place open is a Roy Rogers with a half pot of sludge on the hob, I'll still belly up. With me and coffee, it's a bird in the hand philosophy. If I happen to see a Starbucks or Caribou 10 minutes later, I have another hand for another bird.

I probably would be a connoisseur if I had any self-restraint. Or if I had a Coffee Connoisseur Travel Kit. Its purpose would be to enable anyone who loves coffee to enjoy it fresh-brewed wherever they are. It's a self-contained kit that has everything necessary for storing, brewing and - importantly - repeating. Ideal for the coffee lover on the move.

Here's what it might contain:

• French Press
• Portable  Water Heater (this is the missing link, I think - portable water heaters exist, like this one from Coleman that runs on propane. But other power sources would be more appropriate, which I'll get to in a minute)
• Mug(s)
• Canister for coffee beans or grounds
• Portable bean grinder (like this hand-crank)
• Thermos to keep milk or cream chilled
• Small canister for sugar
• Necessary scoops and stirrers
• Travel bag or case

The important question is what actually constitutes 'on the go'? Is it camping or hiking, where you're removed from civilization but want to carry with you some of the creature comforts you're addicted used to? Probably not - it's simply not feasible to be a connoisseur of anything when your bedroom is a 1/16" swatch of nylon and your bathroom is a shovel. There are plenty of camping coffee solutions available, but none that rise above bird-in-the-hand status. Carrying your domicile on your back entails some necessary compromises, connoisseurship among them.

Is it business or vacation travel, typically by air? Here, you'd only be able to use your Kit when you weren't actually in the act of traveling. So carrying it around, checking it onto the plane, and carting it to your hotel room may ultimately yield diminishing returns if the place you're traveling to has decent coffee.

So that leaves car travel. There's enough room in the car for the kit, and little need to carry it anywhere other than door to driveway to motor lodge or tailgate party or campground or fishing boat. I'd start there and then see which of the above components are need-to-have, and which are nice-to-have.

Keeping in mind that the objective is to solve a problem - which would also have to be clearly defined before beginning. Is the problem:

1. The unavailability of B+ or better coffee at periods when decent or better coffee would be desirable
or
2. The unavaiability of A/A+ coffee at periods when premium coffee would be desirable

If the conculsion (via hunch or research or whatever other means available) yields (1), then the bean grinder could be done away with. If you're going full gourmet, it's a necessary inclusion. (And it would have to be a burr grinder, not a blade grinder.)

But the other consideration is how 'unavailable' are we really talking about? Are we on the interstate where we could at least stop for hot water and cold milk? Or do we need to be entirely self-contained, in which case we'd even need a place in the kit for the bottled water used for brewing?

My guess is that if George Foreman can make and market 12 different variations of his grill, there are as many iterations of the Coffee Connoisseur Travel Kit brewing as well, for different applications and functions. The first and easiest to market would be one that relies on existing components: thermos, canisters, french press and spoons - all in a bag and ready for picnics, soccer games, fishing and hunting excursions, and road trips. But a battery or 12-volt auto charger powered water heater could be a real gamechanger, and open up a niche not yet tapped.

At the very least, it would create something to give my gadget-loving father for Christmas, since he already has two of these, three of these and four of these.

The Modular Kids' Car Seat

Why is it that the smaller the person, the more space is required to transport them around? Throw a young-un in the car and you also have to find room for the stroller, diaper/toy/snack bag, and whatever other accessories you've deemed essential for your bundle of joy's joy.

And then there's the car seat, perhaps the most short-sighted invention ever to achieve raving success.

Remember when the family car actually used to be a car? Today the most popular car on the road is something like the Toyota Camry, a modest sized sedan or wagon with seating for 5 adults. It's economical to own and drive, reliable, and equipped with all the safety features responsible parents look for. Good honest transportation. You could say the same thing for dozens of other cars and wagons and SUVs - perfect family vehicles, differing largely in the quality and quantity of their accoutrements to satisfy families' different tastes.

But what they have in common is less interesting than what every single one of them lacks - enough room for 3 small children in the back seat. Put an infant or toddler seat or even a booster in the back and suddenly your back seat for 3 adults has enough room for one adult and a diaper bag. Strap 2 seats (of any variety) in and your diaper bag had better be a fanny pack. My own car is a wagon the size of a Subaru Outback, with seating for 5. I've got seats in the back for my 3- and 5-year-olds and the cup holders on the seats brush against each other. I couldn't strap a goldfish in between them without feeling remorse that I'd cramped his quarters.

I did a lot of research on this, which meant that I looked it up in Google. There are no shortage of online forums where people discuss this very idea - how do I get 3 kids in car seats into the back seat of my car? Here's one of many examples:

Best vehicle for my 3 kids under 3 years old

Invariably, the feedback comes back the same - Get a minivan a SUV with a 3rd row of seats. Either way, that means get rid of the 'family' car in exchange for a family truck. One that takes up more parking lot space, has a bigger footprint on the road, guzzles more gasoline, and in general is less respectful to society than a smaller 5-person car which should actually accommodate 5 people.

Families should not have to get a new car just because they have a 3rd child, or because one of their two children have a friend who needs a ride to pre-school once in a while.

So how about this: A modular car seat system where the seats (infant, toddler, booster) are designed expressly to fit 3 across a standard-sized car. I'm no engineer but it seems to me there must be a way to safely put a child who is 12" wide at the shoulder into a space less than 18" wide. You know how airplanes have shared arm rests? Why can't car seats have a shared should bolster? Or cupholders that don't enlarge the footprint, or at least interlock with each other, or something?

My idea would be a rail system that is secured to the back seat using the car's existing restraint systems. The seats could then snap or slide onto the rail and interlock with each other in some way, based on their design. The rails would come in varying lengths based on the car (like roof rack rails and systems, though the need for variety wouldn't be nearly as complex). One option for each however would need to be a 2-wide rail, so that two car seats could go into the back and still leave room on one side for someone to sit without a car seat.

Also using this system, it would be easier (and probably less expensive) to swap out seats for different occasions, and as children grow. Snapping or sliding them on and securing them would have to be designed to be relatively easy, especially since the straps and tethers would be to the rail system and already in place.

Want to turn this into a bigger opportunity? Design center consoles with entertainment systems or toy bins or juice box holders or whatever that will fit and use the space perfectly between two seats on either end, so that the system has appeal to families with two kids as well. Need to give a friend a lift to school? Lift out the console and snap in a 3rd booster. You're done, and on the road.

This is the one idea I wish I had the time and know-how to pursue on my own. I can't, and I'd rather see someone follow through with it than never have it materialize. If I'm giving up my inventor's profit so that families don't have to needlessly upgrade to bigger, costlier, environmentally sensitivelesser trucks and vans, well, that's worth more to me than bragging rights on an idea that never goes anywhere.

Someone have at it, please.