What really counts is the experience. Tell the owner of a BMW, or Harley, Ducati, or a few other brands, that his/her motorcycle is just a means of transportation, and you will learn a lot (you may have to listen carefully) about passion, curves, design, engineering, branding, values, cultures, and everything that goes into making products that people desire and buy. We share the passion for the ride, but more importantly we listen to riders, users, customers, and we know that products are more than just functions in a nice body, they are really reflections in customers' brains. More...

Open minded. No fads. No cookie cutters. We keep balanced perspectives, think in terms of continuums, and open our minds to the latest trends, ideas, and methods. We subscribe to hundreds of RSS sources on culture, design, business, gadgets, etc. But, we don't get overly excited about every new new thinking. Admittedly, proudly, for an innovation firm we are often kind of slow on the buzz adoption curve. But when we see something good, we recognize it, then we dedicate ourselves to learn about it, and sometimes we even become experts on it. We flow with the zeitgeist and think beyond it.

Clients Wanted. Our clients are the most important members of our team, and we mean it. We are highly experienced professionals, yet we keep "low ego emissions" (we love this term coined by VW). It is our rich experience and observations of others that has taught us to listen very carefully to our clients (usually they know much better than even they realize), to avoid fast conclusions before we study an issue, and keep a good company of professionals. We are always on the lookout for great clients to join our team. As VW used to say, clients wanted.

What's your point? Developing products that truly resonate with the market is a complex optimization problem, both of the product as well as the resources needed to design it.

Finding the point of optimal insight (actionable, deep enough, fidelity/quality) on the investment curve is critical. How much should you invest in order to gain insight and optimize a solution for your target market? It is up to you, but it has been our experience that in most cases you don't need to get into the fancy zone, and you gain the insights you need at some optimal point before you get into the zone of diminishing returns.