Fictional, anonymised story: Stork & Co. Reinvents the Diaper

Based on real HowToFly work: Consumer goods · Continuous inspiration and idea platform. Characters and dialogue are invented.

Stork & Co.Fictional, anonymised story · 9 participants
Real-world reference: Consumer goods · Continuous inspiration and idea platform

Fictional, anonymised story: Stork & Co. Reinvents the Diaper. Based on real HowToFly work, with invented characters and dialogue to protect client confidentiality.

Mr. HowToFly created the group · Stork & Co.
Monday · The flock needs fresh eyes
Captain StorkClient · CEO

Captain Stork here. We’ve delivered babies for centuries and diapers for decades. But our future portfolio keeps looking suspiciously like last year’s.

Mr. HowToFlyAI augmentation

What reaches your teams from the outside world? And whose ideas reach you?

Captain StorkClient · CEO

One annual trends report. Mostly R&D and marketing. Meanwhile materials, sustainability, sensors and parents’ expectations keep changing.

RobinCustomer care · listens to parents

Customer care has a notebook full of things parents ask for. We aren’t usually invited to the innovation meeting.

NovaProduction · night shift

Night shift here. We have ideas too. We’re generally asleep during the innovation meeting.

Mr. HowToFlyAI augmentation

Then inspiration needs to become a habit, and contributing needs to work at any hour. Doc Gold, Mary P and Laura: welcome aboard.

Next Monday · Looking out of the nest
Doc GoldResearch · evidence first

The scouts are watching new materials, start-ups, patents, research, parent conversations and neighbouring markets. We review the signals before sharing them.

LauraCoding & generative AI

Each team gets a short weekly update for its own work. Three relevant signals, sources to explore and one question. No 200-slide migration.

NovaProduction · night shift

That materials question is close to something we noticed on the line. Where do I put an idea?

LauraCoding & generative AI

In the idea platform. A few lines is enough. The AI coach helps you describe who it’s for, what problem it solves and a cheap first test.

RobinCustomer care · listens to parents

So I don’t have to write a business case before anyone listens?

Mr. DittoEmpathy · understands your people

Exactly. Start with the problem you hear from parents. We can shape the proposal together.

Week 3 · May the best idea rise
Mary PGamification · makes change stick

Welcome to the idea tournament. Proposals meet head to head. Colleagues vote, AI challenges the assumptions, and the ranking explains what helped each idea rise.

Captain StorkClient · CEO

How do we stop the loudest stork winning?

Mary PGamification · makes change stick

Compare the proposals against the strategy, not the person pitching. Parent value, feasibility and evidence. A popular idea still needs a test.

Doc GoldResearch · evidence first

And a new material is a signal, not proof of performance. Put the unanswered questions into the test plan.

NovaProduction · night shift

My idea made the shortlist. Someone from R&D just offered to help test it.

🙌🪺
AstroCrew leader · higher ambitions

That’s the point. The whole flock has useful eyes. Connect them.

Quarter end · Ideas become a portfolio
LauraCoding & generative AI

Quarterly view ready: leading ideas grouped into themes, linked to the strategy, with the evidence and open questions attached.

Captain StorkClient · CEO

We’re giving the selected ideas a small budget and a mixed team to test with real parents. A ranking starts the discussion; it doesn’t make the investment decision for us.

RobinCustomer care · listens to parents

I’m on one of those teams. The notebook finally has somewhere to go.

Captain StorkClient · CEO

Weekly inspiration. Ideas from every corner. A ranked pipeline for our future portfolio. We’re shaping what comes next together instead of waiting for the annual scroll.

Mary PGamification · makes change stick

And the night shift contributed without missing any sleep. My finest scheduling achievement.

😴🏆
Mr. HowToFlyAI augmentation

To lead an industry into a new era, let the whole flock look ahead.

Fictional client. Very real challenge.

These characters, conversations and outcomes are imagined to explain the kind of work HowToFly does. They are not a transcript or a named client testimonial.

A consumer-goods company wanted to inspire its teams continuously with an outside-in view of the market, and to collect the best ideas from across the organisation to shape its future portfolio and lead its category.

You’ve reached the end of this story. Your own can start below.