Small Business
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Background: Standing desks are a semi-popular office furnishing at many workplaces. Most models of standing desk can be raised and lowered (either with a hand-turned crank or an electrically-powered button). The Issue: Regrettably, many people end up keeping their standing desks at the lowered normal-desk height for 99.9% of their work hours, thus depriving these…
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Background: Thanks to modern technology, it’s possible for many meetings to be conducted over video chat. The Issue: Frequently, it’s not really necessary for a participant in a meeting to be paying attention: that person’s time could be better spent doing actual work, or writing emails. But it is important for the person to look…
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Background: Companies have various approaches to firing employees (or “laying them off” or “making them redundant,” if you prefer a softer and more soothing terminology). However, generally speaking, no one regards the layoff process as being pleasant for either the fire-er or the fire-ee. Proposal: Instead of making the firing process a brutal and harsh…
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The Issue: At many companies, large group meetings are a regular occurrence. However, sometimes meetings are unproductive. For example, it might be a situation where only a couple of people run the meeting (and everyone else spaces out), or the meeting participants might includes archetypes such as “jerk who interrupts people” or “yes-man who agrees…
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Background: Workplaces will occasionally have “countdown clocks,” like “X days without a workplace injury” or “Y days until our product is launched.” The Issue: Sometimes, it’s hard for companies (and employees) to take a long-term view of things—everyone is just focused on the next financial quarter’s profits, or short-term stock value. Proposal: In order to…
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Background: In most cases, the listed price of a product is also its actual price. But sometimes this is not true. Airlines, cell phone providers, and restaurants (among other businesses) occasionally add non-obvious “bonus” costs to the final fee. Sometimes, these are temporary: in New York City in 2021, a ~10% “COVID surcharge” was authorized…
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Background: The concept of buying a “stock” is that the buyer becomes a partial owner of a company and its assets. The Issue: However, there is no option to buy a stock-like investment in a particular sub-product of a company. This is surprising, since so many bizarre and creative “financial instruments” exist: you’d think someone…
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The Issue: Two elements are important here: 1. It is generally the case that if a person expends more effort in an endeavor, the person appreciates it more. See also 2017’s Art Obstacle Course proposal. (Incidentally, this is also described as a factor in the popularity of hazing and initiation rituals in the “purpose and…
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Background: Some products, like printers, razors, and coffee machines, rely on a recurring purchase of input materials (ink, razor blades, and coffee, respectively). Frequently, the company that sells the durable part of this system will sell it at cost (or even below!), with the hope of profiting from a hefty markup on the consumables (Figure…
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Background: Hiring a new employee can be difficult: It’s hard to find a candidate who collaborates well, is reliable, is cool under pressure, and has a valuable set of skills. The Issue: The job interview process is archaic, and most interviews rely on the candidate self-reporting their behavior (e.g. “how did you resolve a conflict…
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