Week 5

Week 5

Week five was the mid-point in our quarter and marked our conceptualization review. In this phase each student took their 65+ concepts and condensed them down to 3 that best depicted the voice of their particular market segment.This is not an easy task considering the mass volume of content. To do this we constantly refined directions. Many times when developing product ideas there are several in one general area. This is very typical in our process and while we are generating massive amounts on product ideas we are focused in a few areas.

The review sessions were conducted on Tuesday July 20^th and Thursday July 22^nd. These sessions allowed each student to present there top concepts and explain why they best addressed their target market. Each day consisted of 3 hours of presentations and while this was a bit of a grind on the students I found the time when by very quickly. The student’s work was full of innovation and very impressive. See below, I think you will also be impressed

Next on the schedule is our Validation/Refinement phase.

Week 4

Ted, Tyler and friend (our engineering students)

Week 4

Our first class in week 4 started out with engineering students Ted Meyer and Tyler Ladd’s presentations focusing on the technical aspects of our project. Ted, whose focus is on aeronautical engineering, gave the students a very comprehensive overview of the key features of successful aerodynamic forms and configurations. Tyler, a student in biomedical engineering, took a more nuts and bolts approach. He focused on the physics behind gearing and torque. Both presentations were very informative and gave the design students some good info to chew on. Next week Tyler and Ted will be presenting on manufacturing process associated with bicycle design while the design students will be presenting their best 3 concepts.

For the past two weeks the students have been entrenched in concept development. This is were we take information gathered in research and turn it into product. I could write in detail about the concepts, but in stead, I will use the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”……if this it true, what would 65 pictures from each of the 25 students be in words? That’s how many concepts each student has come up with. Enjoy!

Week 3

Week 3
Week three was packed full of great information from both guest speakers and our students. On Tuesday we had our first formal presentation. This presentation focused on the previous two weeks of research. To make things more interesting we had the pleasure of having Ed Benjamin one of worlds strongest e-bike advocates. Ed took time out of his heavy consulting schedule to give us his take on the e-bike market domestically and internationally. Ed’s talk gave the students a very through overview of the market and the differences between major markets such as Asia, Europe and the US. Our student found his talk full of useful information. We had a great exchange that led to the student presentations.

The presentations were the first in a series of three that include Research, Conceptualization and Finalization. Each team focused on their market segment and took a user centered approach to their research. They interviewed individuals who were stakeholders in their area interest, conducted benchmarking exercises, technical aspects, ergonomic considerations and several other areas that were not required but brought new insights into our e-bike exploration. Each presentation captured the essence of the target markets and we had excellent exchanges between Ed and Bill Ropp. After the presentation Ed commented at the depth in which the students studied their markets and level of sophistication they showed in their presentations. We really got lucky to have two great experts in our audience that day. Thanks Ed!

On Thursday of week three students were assigned to take all research and convert this information into design concepts. Also in this class we had our last scheduled speaker joined our class. Rob Cappucci from SRAM came to Cincinnati and gave us a great presentation. He covered the e-bike market as it relates to a component supplier. I have a feeling our students found this topic very interesting considering the following. Rob was prepared to talk for about 45 minutes and then cruise the room and review the concepts. Rob’s talk did take about 45 minutes but the Q&A took about another hour and half. The exchange was full of great information and the questions kept coming. If class didn't end at noon I think we would still be there.

From this point on we will be pushing the envelope on e-bike design. Our students have the ammo they need and are cranking out some very interesting concepts. Next time I’ll post some images that will make you wish you were in our studio.

3rd class

Class three: 06.29.10

Class III started out with a bang. Luke Elrath form Advanced Sports International came in from Philly to talk e-bikes. Luke is an extremely knowledgeable engineer with the unique talent of taking complex systems and verbalizing them in ways that are detailed yet very easy to understand. If anyone ever needs a technical person to talk to e-bikes to greenhorns, Luke is your man.

To start out Luke gave an overview of the e-bike anatomy. This quickly broke into detailed questions about componentry and how the systems actually work and more importantly how to make them work efficiently. Our students are not shy to raise their hands and are natural sponges for information. This open forum was perfect and went on for some time. The presentation and Q&A free for all lasted the better part of an hour and a half. I didn’t expect it to go that long, but questions kept coming and topics became more and more interesting. In the end Luke commented at the sophistication of the questions and was impressed by overall students enthusiasm.

Once the presentation/ talk was completed (Luke had no visuals…..didn’t need them to I guess it was a talk) the students gathered in their teams and put some of this new gained knowledge to work. Before long Luke and a couple of the teams got into deep discussions relating to price structure and strategy. At one point student James Sloss and Luke got into a discussion focusing on overall market strategies that drew over half the classes attention.

Our teams are really starting to understand their particular market segments and quickly gaining knowledge that is bringing them to a high level of understanding. Next Tuesday we present research then off to conceptualization.

2nd Class

Class two: 06.24.10

Today we had a guest speaker Bryan Hallez UC student and the UC Nuclear Renaissance President. Along with Bryan’s studies he is an expert at converting regular bicycles to electric assist. He gave the class his methods to conversion and insights on where he sees this hybrid system going. His bikes can be see at http://www.ebicycle.org Bryan is a true visionary in the area of power assisted bicycles and we are proud to have him a student at UC.

After the presentation students assembled in their groups to begin the projects research phase. The market segments we are targeting in are as follows

Regular folks: Most see the E bike as an “auto alternative” for short tripping and light errands, thus saving money on gas and being “independent” from their cars”…. Just seem like “regular folks” as most of these sales are mass market (applies to lower end WM & Best Buy Currie bikes)

Baby Boomers

Some are older / active or need the additional power for hills during light recreation – they just want fun / recreation / fresh air. Older folks want step-thru frames for ease of entry. & still see E bike use as some of positive light exercise (applies to eZee, Hebb, Eco, Pedego)…some comments say they are “enjoying the freedom that e power assist brings”

Urban / Commuters
User may not own a car, don’t want to sweat on way to work or school, (some are more fashion oriented i.e. A2B, E Road, Pedego, & some are pure function i.e. eZee users)….

Greenies / Environmental activists
Just a few want to make an environmental / carbon footprint statement by not using a car or other form of petroleum powered transport

Visionary
Could buy a very expensive e bike because it’s a cool thing to own (i.e. Optibike, Cherry Pi) Note: a recent trip to Pi Mobility showed they were building several custom models for the Marin County Elite set.

UC e-bike studio: 1st class

Hi Everyone this is the initial post on our e-bike project,
We kicked off the class yesterday and it went extremely well. I went over some basic ground rules for the studio and how we would structure the development. Once that was completed Bill Ropp gave a very thorough overview of the e-bike market and current players. Bill thought this would put the students to sleep but only a few head bobers could be found. From there I had the students put together the bike samples Fuji sent us. This was great, I had those who had never worked with bikes do all the hands on stuff and those who had supervised. It all went well and the students are pumped about the project.

One thing I would ask of you all. We are currently in a research phase and I have asked each student to interview 5 people who are cyclist or not but would like to become more active. If any of you know anyone who would be willing to participate as a research subject please give them my contact info and I will pass it along to the appropiat team.

Thanks again
Steve