workspring - high performance offsite location

In January 2007, I joined Steelcase Inc and, under the direction of Mark Greiner, SVP of WorkSpace Futures, my team began to envision a new type of workspace. Based on emerging work trends, enabling technologies, and emerging social norms, we designed an innovation platform called Workspring. Our first location opened in November 2008 in Chicago, IL. It’s a beautiful space that’s well worth visiting. If you get a chance, please stop on by! It will be an experience like no other.

Workspring is a full-service off-site meeting and retreat center. It is a place where the art and science of collaboration are in play, and that makes all the difference to productivity. Surroundings really do influence how people think and act: their willingness to listen, their confidence to speak up, their openness to absorb data, and their ability to find that positive place where great ideas are born.

BoomMaster - for the iPad

BoomMaster was born out of pure creative necessity. The first time we picked up the iPad, we immediately wanted to play with it. Sure, we wanted to play around with the interface and the other apps on the iPad. It wasn’t the iPad’s interface that first excited us but rather the object itself that caught our eye and our imagination. Within the first thirty seconds of holding it, we started carrying it around on our shoulders saying “wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a boombox app for the iPad?” A short while later, voila!

surfing with new friends

Yesterday, during a wonderfully warm Fall day in New Jersey, I jumped back onto the saddle (so to speak). It was a beautiful morning day with a light overcast; nothing to be concerned about really. Sure, I was running incredibly late for an important meeting, but my leader didn’t seem to mind.

Lance, our surf instructor, fit the part to a T. He had just that perfect surfer hairstyle, the flat-shaped Billabong hat, a laid-back way about him and over 40 years of surf experience behind him. In other words, he had the street creeds to make be feel great about my choice to come out and learn to surf with proper instruction. His wife, Jen, and he run Coastline Adventures Surfing School – an awesome Jersey-based school with years of experience and plenty of happy students.

A quick series of sand-oriented lessons where he quickly described water dynamics and the best place to be, and we were on our boards, in the surf and surfing! Sure, I ate it on numerous occasions, but it was awesome! We watched dolphins make their way down the coast, talked about surfing theory and wave conditions and just generally had a great time.

I can’t wait to go back again and surf like there’s no tomorrow. I was stoked. It wasn’t an escape that I found. It was life itself. Let’s just say that I was hooked… yet again!

Photo credit: Fernando Fratacelli

Please let me know of any stories of success or failure.

re-launching a great brand

While working with Steelcase Inc. I had the pleasure of helping Steelcase re-boot its Turnstone brand – an amazing little engine that could. It reaches small businesses with great and affordable products – one of which I enjoyed co-creating with a great little team. The BiVi table system is a unique product line that makes me happy. Take a look at turnstone.com!

Our GPS bike computer pre-dated any other by years

Our five-person team developed a design brief detailing Garmin’s opportunity to build a GPS device for bicyclists. A year later, Garmin seemed to follow our advice, producing a bike GPS device.

Assigned the task of creating a new product line, our team chose to develop a concept for Garmin, the market leader in Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. By first understanding the industry, our client, and user needs, we were able to design a product with real business potential – a GPS unit for bicyclists.

Course: New Product Definition, Institute of Design

Team: Jaime Chen, Henning Fischer, Ah Young Hahn, Laate Olukotun, Jose Sia

Advisor: Chris Conley

Date: Fall 2004