Nottingham-Spirk

Chances are you’ve never heard of Nottingham-Spirk, the industrial-design firm whose creations include the Crest SpinBrush, the Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner and the ever-popular Sherwin-Williams twist-and-pour paint can, reports Anne Fischer in Fortune (6/11/07). In fact, over the past 30 years, Nottingham-Spirk has “patented 464 products, with combined sales of more than $30 billion.” What’s their secret? Craig Saunders, who has been with the firm for 24 years, “says he’s gotten the most useful insights from focus groups by asking them what makes them mad.” That’s how Nottingham-Spirk came up with the SwifferVac, for instance. People said they “loved the Swiffer mop” but were frustrated by its inability to clean up anything other than dust.