Don’t worry, nothing else is changing. You’ll still be brought up to speed by Ben and other members of the Quirky Staff, and there’ll still be a no holds barred Q&A immediately following the presentation. So keep your questions coming either on this post or on this thread in the forum.

So as a reminder…

What: Quirky Town Meeting + Q&A

When: Thursday, Feb 16 @ 8pm EST

Where: Quirky’s Ustream Channel

Do…
-Keep an open mind. We’re here to create new things, so take the time to fully consider people’s ideas.

-Give reasons for why you like or don’t like an idea. Criticism is fine as long as there’s something to build on.

-Speak up if you think someone is being disrespectful. Be kind if it’s someone new. They might just need to learn from a seasoned Quirk.

-Tell the world about Quirky, whether it’s an idea you submitted, a product you like, or just the overall process.

Don’t…
-Message people, start forum threads, or comment on submissions to ask for votes. That’s spamming and disrespectful to other people’s time and ideas. Plus, a lot of people actually rate ideas down to protest these tactics, so it might backfire!

-Get offended by constructive criticism. If someone is taking the time to explain what didn’t work about an idea, it’s an opportunity to address those points and/or revise that idea to be stronger.

Ben will be hopping on Quirky’s uStream channel tonight (Wednesday) at 5:30pm ET for a live Q&A session. Gaz is out of the office this week, but we’ll see if we can wrangle someone else from QDS to speak to your design related questions. Now’s your chance to ask all the questions you’ve been dying to have answered… and if you know Ben, you know that everything’s fair game.

If you’ve got questions you want answered, add them to the comments on this blog post.

To recap:

What: Ben answering all your deepest, darkest questions

When: Tonight, 5:30pm ET

Where: Quirky’s uStream channel

See you then!

That’s right, now we’ll have not one, not two, but three cameras set up in the model shop to allow for close ups on the mind map, wide shots of the QDS designers, and a “confessionals” cam so a designer can step away from the group and talk face to chat with the community participants.

This week we’ve got three topics to discuss, so we’re going to add some more time onto the clock.

From 12:00 – (approx.) 1:15, the Quirky Community, will have the opportunity to participate in this week’s brainstorm through our Quirky Design Staff + Quirky Community Brainstorm Livestream channel on Ustream.

This week’s topics are:

1) Product 151: The improved pizza cutter

2) Pet care brief winner 1:  The litter scoop

3) Pet care brief winner 2: Pet cleaning soap brush

To try and maximize the amount of community participation in the conversation, we’re going to start it right here, in the comments of this blog post. Think about all of the different aspects that go into mindmapping, i.e. exploring all opportunities in terms of design, market, end user, user scenarios, modes/habits, current/future cleaning trends, materials etc. Start throwing out ideas and remember, this is a brainstorm so anything goes.

Here’s what this week’s brainstorm looks like (click images to enlarge):

Product 149: Retractable Whisk

Product 150: Suction Cup Fridge Shelves

The entire brainstorm is embedded below.

We’ll be back  next Wednesday with another live brainstorm session.

From 12:00 – (approx.) 12:45, the Quirky Community, will have the opportunity to participate in this week’s brainstorm through our kind of new Quirky Design Staff + Quirky Community Brainstorm Livestream channel on Ustream.

Instead of jumping right in to the brainstorm, one of the QDS participants will give a brief overview of how the brainstorm works and the topics they’re going to be covering.

We got a lot of community suggestions to use a digital whiteboard to capture and digitize information as it’s written, but that’s not a possibility at this point. Instead, we’re going to set up some more lights and move the camera closer to the page so it’s easier to see (and hear) what’s being written (and spoken). Behind the scenes we’re also playing around with a Flash codec thing that Ustream claims will increase the quality of the broadcast.

We’re also doing away with the moderator. Some Quirky staff members will be monitoring the stream, but the chat comments are going to be displayed on a screen for the QDS participants to read off of as they pop up. QDS tried this with the bonus brainstorm that took place last Thursday and felt that it helped eliminate the lag between a comment being made, received and announced and kept the flow moving along nicely.

While we’re on the topic of the chat, it has come to my attention that there are two ways to submit comments, via the chat, and the Social Stream. We can only display one of those at a time, so if you want to participate, make sure that you are sending your comments through the Ustream channel chat, not through the Social Stream.

So that’s what’s changed for this week. As previously mentioned, this is something that is going to evolve from week to week, so if you have any suggestions, add them to the brainstorm thread on our support forum.

Now, without further adieu, this week’s brainstorm topics are:

1) The suction brief winner: Suction Cup Fridge Shelves/Containers

2) The retractable whisk

To try and maximize the amount of community participation in the conversation, we’re going to start it right here, in the comments of this blog post. Think about all of the different aspects that go into mindmapping, i.e. exploring all opportunities in terms of design, market, end user, user scenarios, modes/habits, current/future cleaning trends, materials etc. Start throwing out ideas and remember, this is a brainstorm so anything goes.

For the readers out there, here’s the slide deck from the meeting.

Don’t have time to watch the whole meeting, but still want a taste of what we’ve been up to? Check out how we built the flagship Quirky display in Bed, Bath & Beyond in one night.

After browsing the forums and spending a quick several hours going through product pages at different stages of production, it’s very obvious to me that this community is special and deserves the best from their ambassadors. I hope I can help on this front, as I believe open communication and mutual understanding are integral parts of maintaining a flourishing online environment.

Although I’m interested in many areas, such as marketing, psychology, sociology, communications, and the humanities, my main inspiration and passion in life is music. I play electric guitar and sing (rock music, though I love to draw influence from jazz and folk) and hope to someday have the ability to setup an incredible home recording studio and spend the rest of my days recording whatever comes to my mind. But for now, I’ll be spending my days at the Quirky office, helping run one of the most unique and innovative online communities around!

Name: Jeremy Judelson

School: Stuyvesant High School, Class of 2010 // Wesleyan University, Class of 2014

Hometown: New York City, born and raised

What Makes Me Quirky? I take absurdly long showers in the morning, often with the lights dimmed so I can spend the time catching up on sleep. I love trying different types of food, especially if there are some weird condiments around. And although I play rock music, I’m really into jazz, hip-hop, electronic, funk, soul, prog, and just about any other genre I manage to stumble across.

Here’s the deal.

A retail partner came to us asking us to make a specific product. Since there won’t be an evaluation phase, the 50% influence that’s normally divvied up during evaluation is going to be split up amongst the various design phases.

Here’s what you need to know.

The  product they’re looking for is an iPad stand that can fit in a cupholder. Don’t just think about cars here, there’s other things with cupholders like treadmills and movie theater seats (although that would be pretty obnoxious).

We’re going from sketch to store in one week on this one. Each phase is going to only last around a day, so make sure to check back frequently and participate as much as possible.