During last Wednesday's Idea Studio at Boulder Digital Works, Napkin Labs co-founders Warren Ng and Riley Gibson stopped by to talk about starting up their company and how its model is changing the way companies handle product design.

What does Napkin Labs do?

Napkin Labs is a collaborative community based new product development consultancy. We are blending the creative energy of the 'crowd' with disciplined design processes to rapidly generate consumer-centric new product concepts rooted in the strengths of our clients' brands.

In other words, they curate a community of some the best young minds (from places like Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and CU) and then set them loose on your project. They provide the structure throughout so everyone stays on track and incentivize participation by using an algorithm to measure how much each member contributed to the final output and paying out a reward accordingly.

Their approach goes beyond simple crowd-sourcing by: one, curating the people in their crowd and two, rewarding everyone based on participation rather than a winner-takes-all approach.

And then I was re-listening to this 2005 TED talk from Clay Shirky about institutions vs collaboration and I realized that Napkin Labs is essentially breaking down the institutional barriers he talks about here:


Shirky mentions how that as barriers to collaboration decrease (the web and web apps like Napkin Labs) people become more and more able to organize and collaborate in increasingly complex ways without the help traditionally needed from institutions. Shirky's vision is brought to life in exactly how Napkin Labs operates.

By connecting big organizations directly to crowds and managing the crowds in a hands-off way, Napkin Labs brings the best of both the institutional and the unruly masses worlds together. As institutions become more comfortable with this approach I think this will mean a sea-change will take place in the R&D world. Certainly, highly trained scientists and researches will never be replaced but think about the example Shirky uses above where a single Linux engineer contributes a single important patch and nothing else. He's probably not worth having on the payroll, but aren't you glad he contributed that one really important piece?

I believe the same sort of scenario will begin to play out across R&D and product design. While dedicated teams in institutions won't be replaced anytime soon, a lot of their work will begin to be offered out to Napkin Labs-esque organizations with excellent results.

It's exciting to see this glimpse into the future happen so close to home. Keep your eyes peeled for how Napkin Labs will help shape the future with your help.

Labels: boulder digital works, digital, napkin labs, new business models, product design

Why would someone drop everything for more than a year to enroll in a completely untested program that vowed to teach the world of digital and interactive in a way never done before? The first class of 12 students in Boulder Digital Works’ (BDW) first 60 Weeks program answer that question in their new short film called The 1210 Project.

The 1210 Project is named after what will be the students’ final day of BDW 60 Weeks, December 10, 2010. The video explores the twelve students’ motivation for jumping onboard Boulder Digital Works’ 60 Weeks program inaugural voyage. Some of the students enrolled after hearing about the program with only weeks before its start. The film looks at what the students have learned, considers their hopes and plans for the program’s remaining 50 weeks and focuses on their dreams, goals and predictions.

These 12 students, who range in age from 22 to 48, have been exposed to some of the best of the best in digital and interactive over the past 10 weeks. Their brains are buzzing and the walls of BDW are bulging with possibility.

There is much work to do leading up to 12/10/10 and years of work after that, but there is no doubt there will never be a year quite like the one that lies directly ahead. Follow my fellow Boulder Digital Works students over the next year at http://bdw.colorado.edu/blogs/60weeks

Labels: 12/10 project, awesome stuff, boulder digital works, justin mccammon

I found out last week that I'm amongst the 16 students admitted to the first class at the Boulder Digital Works. I'm excited, and nervous, and excited some more all at once. It's an incredible opportunity, one that I see as a potentially life changing.

If you're not sure what Boulder Digital Works is you can find out more on their website. Simply put, it's a school for developing future digital leaders. With partners that include a who's who of the digital advertising world it is definitely a program with potential. Huge potential.

Right now I'm figuring out how to pay for the tuition ($25k, and because it's not a degree bearing program, most government loans don't apply) pay for living expenses while attending and still kick ass in the actual program itself. It's going to be a tough balance of debt, work and school.

The whole thing has the potential to weigh me down for the rest of my life with debt or put my career into overdrive and launch me into the sort of places I've only dreamed of.

I'm hoping that by leveraging the things I can control (my hard work, effort, etc) I can overcome the things I have less control over (my lack of money, the economy, etc).

One thing is for sure: it'll be interesting.

Labels: boulder digital works, justin mccammon