A home improvement product whose development we led while at IDEO has hit the shelves at Lowes, Walmart, Ace and beyond. It also won a Business Week innovation award along the way.
Have you ever taken on a caulking job in your home? If so, perhaps you can empathize with consumers who feel like they are the “perpetual novice.” When you only tackle a task every couple years and it requires a collection of tools and an artful hand, it’s easy to feel like a messy, wasteful rookie.
During our tenure at IDEO, Daylight principals led a program to help GE tackle these problems, and in so doing, help rethink the caulking experience.
You won’t find innovation in a number
We knew we weren’t going to find breakthroughs in traditional market research statistics. Instead, we spent many hours in the kitchens and bathrooms of real people attempting home repairs, we walked the caulk “aisle of confusion” with customers at home improvement stores, and traveled to construction job sites with the pros.
Rapid prototyping leads to discoveries
Coming out of the field research, our opportunities were clear. If we could help people overcome that perpetual novice feeling and help solve the problem of half used, fully cured tubes of old caulk, we would make the task of caulking a whole lot better. The ideas to help resolve those challenges came from the prototyping lab. Through hundreds of rapid little experiments, we were able to rethink caulking.
Small package, big ideas
The results of our rigorous engineering was the Caulk Single – a small container that gives you enough sealant to tackle a job without a lot of excess to waste. It doesn’t require a caulk gun or other ungainly tools. And unlike other hand tubes, it has a clever way to dispense the sealant evenly and easily—as you fold the package, a rigid cardboard backing serves as a bellows that helps you squeeze out the contents. And to make you feel like a pro, the Caulk Single has an engineered opening that dispenses sealant in a clean, round form.
Market success and an innovation award from Business Week
Caulk Singles are now out in the world. Available everywhere from Lowes to Walmart to your local Ace Hardware, they are making caulking a little easier for everyone. Their success and innovation was also recognized by Business Week, which gave Caulk Singles a 2009 International Design Excellence Award.
A home improvement product whose development we led while at IDEO has hit the shelves at Lowes, Walmart, Ace and beyond. It also won a Business Week innovation award along the way.
Have you ever taken on a caulking job in your home? If so, perhaps you can empathize with consumers who feel like they are the “perpetual novice.” When you only tackle a task every couple years and it requires a collection of tools and an artful hand, it’s easy to feel like a messy, wasteful rookie.
During our tenure at IDEO, Daylight principals led a program to help GE tackle these problems, and in so doing, help rethink the caulking experience.
You won’t find innovation in a number
We knew we weren’t going to find breakthroughs in traditional market research statistics. Instead, we spent many hours in the kitchens and bathrooms of real people attempting home repairs, we walked the caulk “aisle of confusion” with customers at home improvement stores, and traveled to construction job sites with the pros.
Rapid prototyping leads to discoveries
Coming out of the field research, our opportunities were clear. If we could help people overcome that perpetual novice feeling and help solve the problem of half used, fully cured tubes of old caulk, we would make the task of caulking a whole lot better. The ideas to help resolve those challenges came from the prototyping lab. Through hundreds of rapid little experiments, we were able to rethink caulking.
Small package, big ideas
The results of our rigorous engineering was the Caulk Single – a small container that gives you enough sealant to tackle a job without a lot of excess to waste. It doesn’t require a caulk gun or other ungainly tools. And unlike other hand tubes, it has a clever way to dispense the sealant evenly and easily—as you fold the package, a rigid cardboard backing serves as a bellows that helps you squeeze out the contents. And to make you feel like a pro, the Caulk Single has an engineered opening that dispenses sealant in a clean, round form.
Market success and an innovation award from Business Week
Caulk Singles are now out in the world. Available everywhere from Lowes to Walmart to your local Ace Hardware, they are making caulking a little easier for everyone. Their success and innovation was also recognized by Business Week, which gave Caulk Singles a 2009 International Design Excellence Award.