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OXO's design process
LA Times profiles the outstanding product design company OXO (The sharpest knives in the drawer):
The measuring cup is one of five Oxo products that were not in-house eurekas but came to the company from outside in the last 10 years. "We have some very passionate consumers," said Gretchen Holt, who handles media for the company, demonstrating to editors why "they should give a damn" about an Oxo breakthrough. Ideas also flow in from retailers and wannabe inventors.
An ice cube tray that releases one cube at a time came from a man who only insisted that the tray carry a line saying it was invented in Peru; a potato masher was suggested by a "mom in Toronto who was not looking to make money" and took a case full of mashers as payment; a mango splitter was devised by a minister from upstate New York who travels to underdeveloped countries in the tropics where mangos are a staple.
(Thanks, Zimran)
