In monthly episodes, a team of designers and engineers will dedicate 16 hours of time toward solving an everyday problem, following the four stages of product invention: discovery, ideation, prototyping and presentation.
It will be done in partnership with Tomorrow Lab, a technology innovation studio.
The first episode is called “Electronic Brake for Inline Skates”, which follows the development of a mechanised brake for in-line skates.
Throughout the course of the episode, “Potential Genius” Sean Pheanis brings the idea to the Tomorrow Lab team, explaining the challenge that needs to be solved – the ability to more safely brake while going down hills or dodging obstacles. Their team of engineers then goes through the four stages of Tomorrow Lab’s product invention workflow to develop a remote-controlled brake using components from Digi-Key, documenting the process along the way.
“With Potentially Genius, we wanted to highlight the four stages of designing a new product and dedicate time to showing how you can attack problems, make trade-offs and weigh those options with limited time and resources,” said David Sandys, director, technical marketing at Digi-Key.
“We hope the Potentially Genius video series inspires engineers, startups and makers around the world to bring their own ideas to fruition – genius is often just around the corner, and starting the journey is the most critical part of getting there,”
You can see the first episode in the series on both Digi-Key’s website and YouTube channel.
“Tomorrow Lab is beyond excited to be working with Digi-Key on this new, ambitious video series for YouTube,” said Theodore Ullrich, partner at Tomorrow Lab. “Potentially Genius builds on our previous YouTube series, The Teardown, and takes it to a new level. With Potentially Genius, we get to have fun working on ideas that may not have immediate commercial applications and offer our audience a glimpse into Tomorrow Lab’s decade-old product invention workflows and NYC office.”
Tomorrow Lab
New York City-based Tomorrow Lab is a technology innovation studio that works with entrepreneurs to invent new hardware products. It was founded in 2010.
Past clients include Google, P&G, Lyft, CitiBike, NatGeo, and Hasbro.