TurningPoint® Case Study

Everyday Edisons

BACKGROUND

Louis Foreman is the executive producer of Bouncing Brain Productions, a Charlotte, North Carolina company that develops the television series, "Everyday Edisons" for PBS television. Currently in its second season, the show strives to educate and inspire the inventor in all of us. Louis says, "Everyone has a great idea. But most people do not follow their dreams." In cooperation with the U.S. Patent Office, Louis says the show teaches viewers how to take an idea from a simple sketch, turn it into a viable consumer product, as well as how to tackle issues such as time, education, financial resources, and technical know-how.

In episode one, viewers meet seven inventors and learn the inspirations for their inventions. In episodes two through six, viewers watch the inventors design their products with the help of professionals. By episode seven, viewers see the inventors' products make it to their appropriate distribution point: retail store shelves or licensed by major manufacturer such as QVC, Sky Mall, Irwin Industrial Tool, and Umbra. In episode eight, viewers meet seven new inventors and track them through the same process in seven additional episodes.

THE CHALLENGE

From casting calls to product commercialization, it took approximately one year to produce the first season of "Everyday Edisons," Bouncing Brain conducted casting calls around the United States with a panel of 40 designers, patent attorneys, product designers, marketing and brand specialists, and engineers. This team reduced 5,000 great ideas to a set of 14 inventions with million dollar potential.

Traditionally, casting calls are grueling. The team starts its 18-hour day at 6:00 a.m. faced with a line-up of 300 to 400 finalists. Casting calls in five different American cities involves processing 500 to 2000 people to get to this number. After each city, the panel brings back ideas that are screened for patentability. Then the panel is left with 120 to 150 ideas. Louis says, "The voting is contentious. Each panelist has a favorite product they want to champion. Further culling produces the 14 that are used in creating the show for our first season."

THE SOLUTION

TurningPoint software delivered real value in real time to the Everyday Edisons selection process. Louis said, "We liked its ability to effectively and efficiently tabulate data as part of our evaluation process. The panel could throw out high and low ratings and run a different analysis with remaining ratings to uncover ideas that had the best potential for success." He added, "We could develop charts and graphs that helped expedite our decision making. It shortened a tedious process, which saved us time, money and a lot of energy!"

In real time, the panel used priority ranking functionality within TurningPoint® to throw out the highest and lowest ratings – ones and sevens – and instead look at ideas with ratings of two and six that

• Had a large commercial market potential,
• Could be patented,
• Could be commercialized in 12 months or less, and
• Best illustrated how inventors could successfully follow through with their dreams and the right process.

CONCLUSION

Louis discovered Turning Technologies through an article he read in Inc. Magazine. He says, "I remember saying, 'Wow! What a great tool for evaluation! And what a great tool for using on the show in the focus groups that were evaluating inventors' products!'" The rest is history.

Louis says, "TurningPoint is really an innovative product. It is valuable for any organization for gathering consensus or for quantifying data. It provides immediate feedback in safe and risk-free environments, and it circumvents the logistical problems inherent in raising hands or filling out paper where people are worried about the consequences of publicly stating their views." He adds, "When we used TurningPoint, we got more objective, honest, and rapid feedback than with the more traditional methods we used in the past. We highly recommend it!"

For more information about purchasing Turning Technologies' audience response systems for your organization, contact us at 866-746-3015.