TEI 110: How GE’s FirstBuild creates products – with Taylor Dawson




The Everyday Innovator Podcast for Product Managers show

Summary: Listen to the Interview<br> We have seen significant increases in large companies creating some type of innovation lab or starting a partnership with an innovation lab. One benefit is that the innovation lab can run at a different pace than the organization. The lab has more freedom to try quick experiments and explore new areas that may be deemed too risky for the large organization. One lab that caught my attention when I first learned of it a few years ago was FirstBuild, which describes itself as the “place where ideas come to life.” FirstBuild is a creation of GE Appliances. They have created an open community with access to world-class engineering and design talent for exploring ideas and creating home appliances.<br> I plan to visit FirstBuild in a few months to learn more, but for now, I spoke with Taylor Dawson, their Product Evangelist. Taylor’s background is in mechanical design engineering, having spent time at Lexmark International and then GE Appliances. In our discussion, you will learn:<br> <br> * Why FirstBuild was created and how it helps GE,<br> * How they identify product ideas and potential market segments,<br> * Why they use crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo, and<br> * Why a prototype is worth a thousand meetings.<br> <br>  <br> Practices and Ideas for Product Managers and Innovators<br> Summary of some questions discussed:<br> <br> * How did FirstBuild start? Eric Ries was a consultant to the GE executive team. This resulted in an initiative called Fast Works. It was an experiment to try lean startup principles at GE. Essentially an internal VC panel was created where employees could pitch ideas and seek sponsorship from a senior leader. Several good things came out of that program, but we also recognized that many barriers were still in place hampering innovation. After asking questions how to create an environment that could operate more like a start up, FirstBuild was born. The result was an open innovation business separate from GE. We created an online community where members could share ideas, participate in challenges, and collaborate. We also created a maker space that anyone from the local community can use. They can bring ideas and make something new. The combination of these approaches infuse FirstBuild with a great deal of entrepreneurial spirit as well as providing access to world-class engineers and creative minds.<br> <br>  <br> <br> * Where to product ideas come from? A great example to talk about is Opal, our nugget ice maker. GE already had nugget ice technology. The team that developed it was trying to find a way to get it into a GE refrigerator. I was aware of this effort. We also saw part of our online community discussing nugget ice. Putting the two together was pretty straightforward, leading to the concept of a countertop nugget ice maker. We shared some specifics with the online community – a countertop unit that would hold 3 pounds of ice, make a 1 pound of ice an hour and cost $500. For the nugget ice enthusiasts, this was an appealing product concept. Often our product ideas come from the seemingly random intersection of technology we have access to and what happens in our maker space and online community. Serendipity is at work.<br> <br> <br>  <br> <br> * How do you use design challenges? When we encounter a problem, we can create a challenge in our online community. We try to give the most basic possible specification and frame the problem in a very general way. The great thing about design challenges is we will receive so many completely different concepts. It gives us the opportunity to choose what’s going to be the core that the product is built around. We usually provide a specific monetary incentive for winning a design challenge. If we plan to use a crowdfunding campaign for the product, we sometimes offer a percentage of the campaign to the challenge winner.<br> <br>