THE CHALLENGE

Entrepreneurs Laura Gordos and Steven Garfield came out of the Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management inspired with a new product opportunity. Having seen one too many people struggle to load their car with ease and dignity, Steven knew there had to be a better way. That’s when their entrepreneurial spirit kicked in. The idea: to provide people with a solution to ease the difficulty many encounter when loading large, oversized and awkward items into
their vehicles.

Realizing that starting a business is a difficult and sometimes unrewarding process, the pair approached MAGNET's product development team to help develop their ideas and to develop conceptual product designs. Laura and Steven hoped this would begin to guide them down the right path, and more importantly, identify the direction they did not want to take.

THE APPROACH

With a basic idea in hand, the process began with an ideation session for product concepts. This innovative approach to new product development engaged the staff of Personal Loading Advantage, MAGNET product development engineers, personal contacts and business people from the community in a creative, collaborative effort.

The ideation session was a two-day event, divided into four sessions. After a first day full of idea generation, product sketches and a wide variety of possible concepts, the pair felt a little overwhelmed. But once re-focused, participants returned on the second day re-energized. “There was a method to the madness. We could not have gotten such a successful session without all the chaos of the first day,” Steven noted.

Ideas evolved and were streamlined during the second day, helping Laura and Steven see the drawbacks involved with some of the concepts and zero in on the more feasible ideas. When the session was completed, Personal Loading Advantage had several solid product concepts to research and develop for production.

CUSTOMER QUOTE

“There was a big payoff in the end. The ideas began to flow and came into focus. The potential products we walked away with are solid. MAGNET helped us take the idea about 75% of the way there.”
Steve Garfield - Co-President

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