According to the Centers for Disease Control, food allergies are on the rise.  Just during the three-year period spanning 2009-2011, the country saw a five percent increase in the number of kids under 18 suffering from food allergies.

For severe allergy sufferers, there is always the looming possibility of being exposed to an ingredient that the body is not meant to interact with, whether it’s peanuts, egg whites, or something else. For many, interactions with these substances trigger anaphylactic shock, resulting in death without lifesaving injection of the epinephrine hormone (also known as adrenaline).

Mylan’s EpiPen has become the industry-standard adrenaline autoinjector for severe allergy sufferers.  Whether in mom’s purse or child’s pocket, the EpiPen has become the ubiquitous, pocket-sized choice that’s made saving lives with adrenaline injections a lot easier on playgrounds and in school lunchrooms. The EpiPen has solved many problems associated with making this type of medical device a necessary part of the daily lives of its users and caregivers:  size, form, and function are among the boxes ticked off by this design.

Yet the EpiPen design, like so many first-generation products, has its limitations, which has left the playing field open for competitors to exploit some gaps in design, namely in safety and assurance.  Here to address some of these concerns is a brand-new product, the Auvi-Q.

Auvi-Q is a joint effort of the global pharma giant Sanofi and Virginia-based Intelliject, the brainchild of Eric and Evan Edwards.  The Edwards brothers, both lifelong allergy sufferers, have been on a 15-year journey to change the treatment of anaphylaxis. The Intelliject team has designed Auvi-Q as a disruptive departure from the EpiPen, a stark contrast to the typical me-too follow-on products one typically sees after first-generation devices create a market.

The Edwards brothers have left the pen framework and approached a form something akin to a smartphone.  This standout design features about a one-half inch-thick casing that’s a rounded rectangular form—it’s nothing flashy or mind-blowing, but it has that same comfortable feel as many of today’s smartphones feature. But the differences in function and how the design incorporates them to greater guarantee effective, safe use are what drive the Auvi-Q.

Dealing with a child in the throes of anaphylactic shock can be a panicky time for a parent, friend, or teacher.  The Auvi-Q, unlike predecessor devices, makes an ambitious design leap to solve this problem, providing an intelligent system that leads the user through the steps for how to use the device with auditory cues. As soon as the user removes the case, the prompts begin, offering calm guidance on administering the life-saving epinephrine. Auvi-Q even confirms the delivery of the adrenaline after dispensing.  

Intelliject’s device even uses clever technology to provide post-injection safety to both user and child, another design concern from predecessor devices.  Auvi-Q features needle that automatically retracts, disengaging from the patient after being deployed for five full seconds, just enough time to deliver the necessary adrenaline dose.

As a designer focused on medical devices, the genius I appreciate in the Auvi-Q is that it doesn’t overreach.  The Edwards brothers and their partners at Sanofi have made a device that’s definitely a leap forward technologically in its market space, but only to the degree that’s needed by users.  They’ve made the technology just sophisticated enough to improve on the user experience in the ways intended. The Auvi-Q is smart, but not excessively so—only where it needs to be.

If you think about it, many times we as designers fail by trying to pack as much smart technology as possible into a design, with a “why not” attitude driving our thinking. When we do this, even with the best intentions, we’re failing job one in our product equation:  thinking of the user. Technology may give a device more features, but these features may not add value. In some cases (and I’d propose that administering an injection of adrenaline to a child struggling to breathe qualifies), added features can distract the user from quick, effective use of a product.

It’s evident that Sanofi and Intelliject have focused Auvi-Q on meeting the needs of the typical allergy sufferer. I, for one, will be an interested observer of this device’s marketplace performance. There’s a long list of products that have challenged and failed to dethrone the EpiPen, a true breakthrough product that has stood the test of time. 

As an industrial designer, I like to think that the best product—the one that is closest to meeting the user’s needs—will ultimately win out. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. This fight should be an interesting one, as one product, EpiPen, has a breakthrough design and a 25-year head start in brand-building and market share capture, while Auvi-Q has next-generation design thinking that solves the core user problem with added flair that enables greater safety and effectiveness.

Check out Trig Innovation's newest YouTube video, featuring lead designer Patrick Murphy showing off his digital sketching skills.  With its huge ambition of improving the human condition, the field of industrial design has always been challenging and fascinating.  

Patrick Murphy is a designer's designer, committed to the craft of industrial design, always taking on new tools and techniques to take his creative mind to new destinations. There's perhaps no better way to take in, with elegant simplicity, the way that designers infuse the first breaths of life into a product concept than by watching digital sketches take form on a tablet screen. 

Industrial Design Sketch

As we shared recently in this space, Trig Innovation was proud to sponsor and participate in Innovate Carolina, the signature event of the Carolinas chapter of the Product Development and Management Association, for the fourth year running. 

The Carolinas PDMA has made Innovate Carolina an annual can’t-miss event in local innovation circles from the Triangle and Triad down to Charlotte and Greenville-Spartanburg, and the 2013 event last month at NC A&T State University in Greensboro was no exception. 

From the keynote speakers to the breakout sessions on a host of innovation topics, this year’s conference again exceeded both past efforts and expectations.  As part of our sponsorship commitment, Trig Innovation assisted the Carolinas PDMA with on-site video production, and we’re proud to promote the results. 

Check out the Carolinas PDMA YouTube channel for a series of video highlights of the event’s major presentations given by Jeff Grant of Invue Security Products, Pam Henderson of New Edge, National Gypsum’s Michael Blades, Doug Powell of Leap Insights, and representing our gracious hosts at NC A&T, Dr. Thaddeus McEwen, professor of entrepreneurship and management.

We think you’ll find all of these as thought-provoking as we did—enjoy.

I recently traveled to Wales for the Do Lectures Startup event, a global gathering of bright minds from across the spectrum of business, arts, sports, and more.   It’s an event that is difficult to categorize, from the people, to the presenters, to the overall experience.

To call it a conference is a misnomer—conferences usually take place in large municipal hubs, at fancy hotels, and are full of people who come from the same industry or profession.  To the contrary, the Do Lectures events are out in the country, under a tent, where people from all backgrounds gather to learn what it takes to be Doers, with a bias towards action versus simply having ideas. Doctors, designers, programmers, surfers, chefs, world travelers—the whole spectrum—they were all there.  That diversity made the experience so rich, because we all came with something unique to contribute. 

This diversity sparked something unforeseen, giving the gathering a whole new life, as opposed to a normal conference—something that really couldn’t be planned. There was no segregation between speakers and attendees.  We were all just there to share ideas, have conversation, learn, and most importantly, do. 

The impetus of the group behind the Do Lectures as an organization is more doing, less thinking. So for this particular event, they tasked the speakers and attendees with joining small teams that would hack away at solving real problems.  From getting more local manufacturing back Wales to getting kids outside to play and educating people on sustainability, teams were hooked from the beginning  and hopeful of tackling these problems with a group of like-minded, but differently-abled people. Mentors from various backgrounds made themselves available to help the teams from remote locations via Skype, and each of our groups leveraged their advice and guidance to shape our solutions.  After 72 hours of brainstorming, each of the teams made their pitches on solving these large-scale problems.  The only thing we didn’t have time for was second-guessing our work; there was only enough time to learn the scope and nuances of the problem, quickly build our solution, and then iterate our pitch to the rest of the gathering.

Spread throughout the weekend were 20 talks from leaders and doers from many walks of life.  Just as the conference itself was rich with diversity, so, too were the talks.  I particularly enjoyed presentations from Zack Klein, co-founder of internet video portal Vimeo, and Scott Davis of CNWD, a Welsh food business.  

A recurring theme throughout the talks, no matter the walk of life from which the perspective emanated, was the notion that startups are “all about the people,” another way of expressing their purpose as solving real-world problems for real people, as opposed to ideas for ideas’ sake.  This foundational concept resurfaced over and over again, and, refreshingly, this was at the expense of discussion about bottom lines, exit strategies, and funding.  

To illustrate the point in sharp relief, Owen Rogers of IDEO spoke about a project where his world-renowned design firm was given the task of redesigning the emergency care experience in hospitals.   In order to gain a true perspective of the patient experience, design researchers placed video cameras next to patients, giving stakeholders a true patient’s-eye view of what it was really like to be a patient in their hospital. The result was a video clip of the hospital ceiling. Needless to say, the board of directors was convinced that something needed to change.

Several talks focused on branding, positioning the concept of branding as expressing the “humanness of companies and how brands connect people.  This may seem fairly obvious, but I was reminded throughout the Do Lectures how easily it’s forgotten. After all, the products, experiences, and businesses we are building, are for people. Somehow this can get muddled and for me, as a designer, the obsession with the physical product itself can overshadow the real, quite profound reason that it was created in the first place—to right a wrong. 

In the end, the Do Lectures provided a refreshing getaway, with the opportunity to be around so many people from so many walks of life, coming together with the common purpose of making life a little bit better for the rest of the world.  

We’re honored that Sam Harris and the communications team at North Carolina State’s Poole College of Management recognized Trig Innovation and its founder, Ty Hagler (Jenkins MBA class of 2011), with a recent feature story on the college website.

In the story, Harris tells the evolving story of Trig Innovation, and how Hagler is using the training he received in the Jenkins program, along with the network of fellow students and faculty members, to drive the success of our company. 

Trig Innovation is a real intersection of entrepreneurship and innovation, both hallmarks of NC State’s MBA program for professionals.  Thanks again for the recognition.  Go Pack!

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An emerging ideas gathering based in Wales, the Do Lectures focus on launching big ideas to change the world.  While other conferences, such as TED talks, focus on inspirational ideas in technology, entertainment, and design, the Do Lectures target those who actually want to implement ideas, whether for new businesses, inventions, causes, or arts. Attendees across the globe must apply for consideration, and upon acceptance, enjoy three days on the Welsh countryside completely unplugged, pursuing an idea or set of ideas with the other conference participants.

Speakers and workshop leaders will include CEOs, inventors, artists, physicians, activists, designers, marketers, venture capitalists, social entrepreneurs, and web developers, creating a diverse array of global professionals who will share ideas.

Trig’s Brisley will be attending the April 23-25 Do Start-up conference in Fforest, Wales. At the Do Start-up event, participants will attend talks and workshops led by 20 entrepreneurs from around the world. Start-up topics include venture capital, intellectual property protection, branding, selling, scaling the business, hiring the right people, and much more. At the conclusion of the event, the conference participants will actually launch a new business based upon an idea generated at the conference, thus living out the group’s mission to actually learn by doing.

“I’m really excited to be attending the Do Start-up conference in Wales,” stated Brisley.  “This is a rare opportunity for me to be around so many leaders from around the world, discussing ideas that help to shape ideas into game-changing businesses. As an industrial designer, I’ve chosen a profession that specifically seeks to improve the human condition, and that’s what the Do Lectures are all about. I know that I’ll come back with a raft of ideas that influence my design work for clients moving forward, as well as changing my perspective on how ideas are shaped for wider acceptance.”

Representing Trig at this year’s event were our lead business developer, Lilly Ferrick, video and photography specialist Cristina Fletes-Boutte, and principal and founder Ty Hagler.  The fine people at North Carolina A&T State University gave us a warm welcome and a great venue for the event.  We thought we’d share what we learned while at the conference—the only shame is that we couldn’t possibly see and hear every presenter, so this recap, sadly, doesn’t include all of the great contributions made to the experience.

Chris Trimble, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and author of The Other Side of Innovation, opened the conference with an unforgettable talk. Taking a page from the world of mountain climbing, he said that the difference between novice and expert climbers is that the novices celebrate reaching the summit, while experts celebrate when they safely reach the bottom of the mountain again. So it is, as well, with innovation, he said, as the so-called “Big Idea” is only the beginning. 

Trimble went on to illustrate why innovation within large corporations is a difficult enterprise by outlining differences between what he called the Performance Engine and the Innovation Engine. The Performance Engine excels at repeatable, predictable, sustained business execution. To the contrary, the Innovation Engine is non-routine, uncertain, and building something entirely new to the world as the company knows it currently.  Leaders must mitigate the differences between the two, as the respective groups that form these engines within companies do not naturally mesh well. Without effective leadership, the Performance Engine will squash the aims of the Innovation Engine every time.

The key to successfully meshing these two engines successfully, according to Trimble is based on a model where the two engines are separate, but share resources through a partnership. 

As Trimble was wrapping up, we all had an out-of-body experience that placed much more than the conference under threat.  As many now know, reports of a gunman on campus marred the event for a time, but the authorities at NC A&T did a great job of making sure that the conference participants, in addition to thousands of faculty, staff, and students, remained safe and secure as police swept the campus.

So, the first thing we learned at the conference was how blessed we are with resilient leaders in among this group.  The Carolinas chapter is a plucky group, and the morning’s events just seemed to bring out the best in everyone involved as we resumed the conference at mid-day.

Undaunted by the security disruption, the PDMA conference rolled on, and we split into informative breakout sessions led by a great group of innovators throughout the Carolinas. One of our groups gathered together in an auditorium in another building where OVO’s Jeffrey Phillips, the conference organizer, gave an impressive impromptu talk on the process they use for delivering innovation at his consulting firm.  Particularly notable was his discussion on the the proper scoping of an Innovation Charter.  By setting boundary conditions from the very beginning of an innovation engagement, you narrow the scope and give the innovation team better focus and freedom to explore options that match business needs.

With his audience quarantined in front of a women’s restroom on the concourse of the university’s stadium, Jeff Grant of Charlotte’s Invue Security Products served as a model of adaptability, preparedness, and quick-thinking. Lacking a podium, he turned a trashcan up-side down, fashioning it into a de-facto lectern for his laptop-based presentation.  He shared the story of Invue’s development process for bringing a brand new security device to market for their retail customers.  Key to bringing a speed-to-market component to the process was Invue’s “Shop-and-Chop” method, as they bought commercial products and chopped them up to find the useful components inside that would influence their own development.  

Dr. Pamela Henderson, author of Killing Ideas, gave another stellar talk that helped to round out the day, keying in on the nexus of product development, the convergence of design and engineering with marketing and branding. She defined innovators as those who deploy opportunity thinking, creating as big of a pond of opportunity as possible to catch big fish (customers) with innovations.  She noted that teams must hold on to things that may seem weird or peculiar at first iteration, as these ideas are the ones that can be the ones that influence differentiators in the end. And while engineers doing marketing creates a mess, integrating their thinking among the marketers can be valuable, as brands explain technical differences that can shape the product’s marketplace success.

In the end, we learned a lot about ourselves on Friday, April 12, 2013.  The great host team at A&T rose to the occasion in a way they couldn’t possibly have foreseen, and so did the Carolinas PDMA team, from Jeffrey Phillips to all of the presenters and participants.  While the day may have been marked by high stress throughout most of the morning, we will remember it, as we have all the other Innovate Carolina events, as an event that feeds our passion for shaping products and markets.

We are honored to have her represent our company—she embodies our core values of inspiration, collaboration, pragmatism, and integrity with each client interaction, setting foundations for relationships that are mutually profitable, sustainable, and rewarding.

Tangents, the Trig Innovation blog, recently sat down with Lilly, highly-regarded as both a business developer and serial networker in the service of others here in the Triangle, to learn more about what drives this high producer in the field.

Tangents:  Tell our readers about your background prior to joining Trig. 

Lilly Ferrick:  Business development is actually my second career. From my teen years through my early 30s I had a great career as a contemporary dancer and figure skating choreographer; an all consuming love for an art form. These were some of the best years of my life, in that they were highly competitive, with a lifestyle consisting of blood, sweat, tears, auditions, low pay, no healthcare, and no unemployment benefits, but a daily commitment to being paid for my craft, and always having work, whether it was teaching or performing.

I retired from my coaching and choreography career, making an unplanned transition to sales, mostly because I could not see myself teaching for the rest of my life.  And after moving here to North Carolina with my husband, I was basically out of a job anyway, since there were no championship-level ice dancers or figure skaters here. For a short time, I considered becoming an exercise physiologist and started graduate work in it, but it just didn't light my fire. So, I landed in sales and fell in love again with winning, the sales process, and the fact that sales offers measurable feedback, which is like crack to me after being scored, either on my own dancing or that of the people I coached, my whole life!   A few years ago, I had the revelation that the discipline I had as a dancer is the very same discipline that drives me to close good business transactions as well as develop and work a process. 

A real turning point for me in my new career in business development was joining Forma Life Science Marketing of Raleigh, a wonderful opportunity to sell design and branding/marketing services.  A recruiter called one day and said she'd had an opportunity for me. I had limited science in my education except for the fact that I had a minor in exercise physiology and had prepped for my Masters in that area. So, while I wasn’t completely ignorant of material in health and life sciences, most of my educational was in fine arts.  They search firm conducted a personality profile as part of the interview process and my wiring—from all those years of dancing and coaching—hit  the nail on the head: “Driven, Influential, Rule Breaker and bores quickly without the opportunity to make things better where they need improvement” was the book on me. The CEO of Forma hired me because he knew I could sell.  I'd also been through some highly reputable sales training off and on for several years so I'd gotten better over time. I started on a cold database and had six months to close my first deal. I closed the first one in 11 weeks, another five in the first six months, and I was truly off and running!

Tangents:  What attracted you to work at Trig Innovation?  

Lilly Ferrick: I had met Ty Hagler, Trig’s principal, a couple of years ago during some of my networking activities here in the Triangle, and his reputation was the impetus for my interest.  He and the company have a growing reputation in the market that’s built on integrity and quality.  Without those two things, you’re nothing, so that piqued my interest when he approached me about a role.

But then after talking to him further, I saw that this wasn’t just a group of nice people who did quality work—he had painstakingly built this business with a take-no-prisoners attitude to building a high-performance team.  Not only was Trig committed to doing great, creative work in design, I learned that the company takes growth seriously, investing really early in the game in marketing and expanding service offerings where clients had needs.

I thought, dang, I want to be somewhere that people take growth—in its many definitions, from revenue and profitability to really pushing the creative limits of the people involved--seriously and will support the business development role with sound marketing and support.  What I also love about a young company like Trig is that the stakes are so high to not only achieve success but sustain it.  Things are changing every day, in the service of our clients, building a newer, bigger, and better Trig, and we can implement that continuous improvement starting now.  

Tangents:  What do you enjoy most about your role at Trig?

Lilly Ferrick:  One of our core values is collaboration—taking a collaborative spirit and having that drive everything we do, whether it’s working with each other, with clients, or both simultaneously, to do things greater than we ourselves can accomplish alone. 

Since I’m on the front lines sourcing new business for areas like industrial design and animation, I mostly collaborate with Ty. Like the other people on the team—a precocious group of designers, writers, engineers, and video/animation specialists, Ty is smart and fearless, and from his own world-class athletic background, maintains a highly-disciplined approach to following a process and achieving results on-time and within client budget.

This expression of the company’s pragmatic approach is huge for me on the front lines.  There are lots of companies that do great creative work in product development. As with any other discipline, those who separate themselves do so through their level of commitment to excellence, and I’ve found that commitment to be unwavering at Trig, with each individual playing for the team’s, and more importantly, for the client’s success.

Tangents:  How do you spend your spare time?

Lilly Ferrick: As for spare time, I have as little of it as I’ve ever had in this season of my life, but that’s okay, since I love what I do when I get up every day.  This is a great area to experience nature, so whenever I can, I like to get out and hike the Eno River area. And we’re close enough to one of my other loves, the beach, where I could just live and die and be happy.

I still enjoy dancing, and while I don’t do it formally or professionally any more, my kids and I sure do a lot of it around the kitchen at home!  I also enjoy reading, both for my brain and my soul, and I love recharging by going to the gym.  

Innovate Carolina, held annually at rotating sites in North Carolina and South Carolina, is in its fourth year as the signature event of the Carolinas chapter of the Product Development and Management Association.  Hosting this year’s event on April 12 is North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro.

Keynote speakers for the event, which meets continuing education requirements for product development certified professionals, include Chris Trimble of Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, Eric Tomlinson, Chief Innovation Officer at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and Scott Edgett, co-founder of the Product Development Institute.

The event will feature multiple breakout sessions on various innovation topics.  Ty Hagler, founder and Principal at Trig Innovation, will lead one of the sessions, speaking on the topic of building a speed-to-market product development process.

For the fourth year running, Trig Innovation will support the Innovate Carolina event, this year as a platinum sponsor.  As part of the company’s commitment to the Carolinas PDMA, Trig will assist organizers with video production before and during the event.

“The Carolinas PDMA and the annual Innovate Carolina event hold special places in the hearts of everyone at Trig Innovation,” stated Hagler.  “This event has grown so much during the last four years, reaching new heights of participation by the Carolinas product development community.  We give to this event because it gives so much back to us—everyone that attends leaves with greater enthusiasm and passion for innovation, and a wealth of knowledge shared by both speakers and attendees at the sessions.”

The event will run from a networking breakfast to the conclusion of the event’s final keynote session on the afternoon of Friday, April 12.  North Carolina A&T will host the event in the Merrick/Craig Buildings, home of the School of Business and Economics and Department of Management.

For more information, including registration procedures, speakers, agenda, and more, please visit www.innovatecarolina.wordpress.com.

Patrick Murphy is the lead industrial designer at Trig Innovation, shaping products in multiple market sectors, including hardware, tools, medical devices, furniture, and products for the home.

In his work at Trig, Patrick utilizes a variety of software platforms to bring new products to life in sketches, renderings, 3D CAD models, and animations.  SolidWorks has long been Trig’s preferred software suite for renderings that move into 3D CAD models, since SolidWorks is predominant in usage among the global engineering community. 

Executing industrial design projects through SolidWorks has multiple benefits for Trig Innovation clients, leading to a more seamless transition from design to engineering upon delivering executable files to engineers in a format they can not only understand, but also work with routinely themselves to take the product to pre-market functionality.

Last summer, Solidworks released one of Patrick’s favorite software modules, eDrawings, as a mobile app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.  In the video above, Patrick showcases the new eDrawings app on his Ipad, showing the software’s considerable capabilities and how those capabilities fit into his work as an industrial designer at Trig.