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tangents

Exploring In All Directions
‍Down One Path, Up Another

Tangents

We start going down one path, and then take it in a completely different direction. This is where we explore ideas around insights, design, brand, and business development and how these topics affect our daily lives.

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Tyler Hagler
10.14.2024

CPLL - Cost per Lesson Learned

Cost Per Lesson Learned—captures the essence of what innovation should be: a learning process. Every prototype, failed experiment, and pivot teaches you something valuable about your market, product, or users. The more you learn, the closer you are to finding a breakthrough. The key is to optimize the cost of gaining these insights, not the speed or efficiency of getting to a finished product.

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Tyler Hagler
4.15.2021

Introduction to Human Factors for Medical Devices

There are a lot of topics that can be included with human factors beyond medical devices and biomedical engineering. When we constrain the field down to what the FDA cares about, the guidance documents are primarily concerned with usability. Is the device demonstrated to be safe and effective for the intended users, uses, and use environments? The FDA isn’t as concerned about mandating ease of use for the device, except where it might impact safe and effective operation on critical tasks. The goal is to ensure that the device user interface has been designed such that use errors that occur during use of the device that could cause harm or degrade medical treatment are either eliminated or reduced to the extent possible. Human factors for medical devices are substantially bracketed down from an otherwise broad domain of knowledge.

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Connie Tran
4.14.2021

Designing a joyful and ergonomic workspace at home

According to the Pew Research Center, about 71% of employees are working from home as of December 2020, and over half of them state that they’d prefer to work from home even after the pandemic is over. As a company that has been virtual since our founding in 2007 (and as designers who are always thinking about the most ergonomic and fun ways of doing anything), we thought it would be nice to write an article about how to create the most joyful and ergonomic work environment for your own home, both physically and mentally, based on our own experiences over the years.

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Connie Tran
Tyler Hagler
4.14.2021

Press Release: ZEISS UVClean Wins Two Red Dot Awards

Trig’s collaborative product design with Voxelight LLC for the ZEISS UVClean has won Red Dot awards in two categories: Industrial Design and Innovative Product. This marks the first Red Dot awards Trig has received for their work. The ZEISS UVClean is a simple, yet powerful UV disinfection tool for eyecare professionals. With a push of a button, a cycle of UV-C radiation is initiated, effectively disinfecting up to 6-10 pairs of eyeglasses in only 40 seconds. This product requires no chemicals or liquids and produces zero waste due to its innovative use of 4 germicidal UVC bulbs. The bulbs bathe each eyeglass frame in powerful UV-C light, killing up to 99.5% of common viruses and bacteria on the surface of the eyeglasses.

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Brian Himelright
Tyler Hagler
3.9.2021

Visual Process Mapping

As design thinkers, we get approached by clients to help navigate uncertainty. Some of our clients are managing incredibly complex user journeys that can change based on multiple possible technology pathways. It can be challenging to sort through each of the steps in advance.

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Connie Tran
2.19.2021

Introduction to Brand [webinar]

We’ve heard that branding is important, but do we know exactly why? How does good branding affect our companies and organizations, and how does bad branding erode relationships with our stakeholders?

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The Trig Team
11.9.2020

Fall 2020 Core Values Awards

We have a quirky tradition at Trig where we vote internally for employees that best modeled each core value the previous quarter and then recognize these outstanding team members by giving them a painted rock. It might seem silly and whimsical at first, but deep down, the act of preparing and giving a piece of art is a small token of appreciation given to the team member in acknowledgement of their hard work and creativity. Each rock is hand lettered with one of the five core values that help to define Trig’s cultural standards. Check out our winners:

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Kelly Harrigan
Tyler Hagler
10.16.2020

Introduction to Customer Research

From small startups to large well-established companies, the success of a new product is often tied to insights gained in customer research. During a recent recorded webinar session, Trig team members Ty Hagler and Kelly Harrigan gave an introductory overview of customer research and how it integrates with the product development process. If you have been curious about how and why you might involve customer research in new product development, this webinar was designed to help answer fundamental questions and identify potential pitfalls.

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The Trig Team
9.18.2020

ZEISS C-UVProtect Tablet Wins Finalist Recognition from IDEA

On September 16, 2020 at the Industrial Designers Society of America IDEA Awards Ceremony, Trig’s collaborative product design with Voxelight LLC for the ZEISS C-UVProtect was recognized as an Award Finalist. This marks the fifth IDEA award Trig has received for their work on client projects.

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Stephen Lindamood
Tyler Hagler
9.2.2020

New Website Launch Announcement

We are very excited to announce the launch of our new website. After several months of dedication from everyone on the Trig team, we officially went live on Friday, August 7th, 2020. The new website represents a major upgrade in our capabilities to develop digital experiences for our clients.

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Tyler Hagler
7.21.2020

Product Innovation Examples: Hedgehog Teams

Hedgehog Innovation Teams: Focused, Nimble, Dangerous How might we disrupt the experience of buying a shower door? Pat Boehnen with Predicta and Ty Hagler with Trig share practical lessons from their track record of repeatedly breaking into new consumer product categories, unseating incumbents.

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Tyler Hagler
7.7.2020

Featuring Stephen Lindamood, Visual Designer

Stephen Lindamood joined Trig as Visual Designer in 2018 to build our Brand Asset Management team. Since that time, he’s become an integral part of the Trig team, bringing his incredible talents, sense of humor, and uncompromising drive for excellence. Most recently, he’s been an integral part of pulling the entire team together for a complete platform upgrade to Trig.com from Squarespace to Webflow.

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Andrew DiMeo
Kelly Harrigan
Tyler Hagler
5.11.2020

Mapping the Patient Journey in Telemedicine

We ran a virtual workshop on virtual healthcare, which, if you think about it, is the best way to create implicit empathy for the physicians and patients being considered and their challenges. While elective treatments are being postponed to prepare for the influx of COVID-19 patients, that doesn’t mean medical care needs to be brought to a full stop. By walking through this exercise, we hoped to build deeper empathy for the broad patient population as their care has transitioned to telemedicine solutions.

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Connie Tran
3.20.2020

Marketo vs. SharpSpring: A Marketing Automation Insider’s Take

Though Marketo and SharpSpring are both categorized as marketing automation platforms, I find they are starkly different in capabilities and in use case from my extensive experience with both to build and manage campaigns for clients.

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Andrew DiMeo
3.14.2020

Shaping Boxes: Need Statement Development

Shaping a box or molding clay into a vessel have been the metaphors used for Need Statement Development. It is a useful vessel, and the emptiness inside of it will be used to create something. It could be anything. That is, anything that fits in the vessel.

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Tyler Hagler
2.28.2020

Turning the Flywheel and What Spins Off

While I have known of the Flywheel concept ever since reading Good to Great by Jim Collins in 2006, we haven’t tried to put it into practice until this year. Starting in March 2019, we discontinued using the Rock framework from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS).

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Andrew DiMeo
10.17.2019

Commitment to Community

This phrase captures more than I’m going to try to fit into this post. It’s about our employees. It’s about our clients. It’s about family. It’s about all people. And it’s about the community. It is certainly one of the underpinnings of our commitment to community.

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Andrew DiMeo
10.17.2019

It Speaks to Me

When an object speaks to you, it may be through product attributes, such as the way a door handle is designed to be pulled, versus a plate to be pushed. However, there are often non-product (or brand) attributes that can affect how the product is used (if used at all).

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Andrew DiMeo
6.5.2019

Chasing the Genius of the AND

So why did I leave the university? Because I was chasing the Genius of The AND. In my humble opinion, many academic institutions and design firms have lost the Genius of The AND, often times reducing Industrial Design to primarily aesthetics. As a best practice however, Industrial Design IS the Genius of The AND.

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Tyler Hagler
5.29.2019

Challenge Statements and Hawaiian Pizza

My colleague, Andrew DiMeo, is one of the foremost experts in the world on defining the unmet need. In his article, Need Statements vs. Challenge Statements, What’s the Difference? we get a master class in understanding the unmet need statement, but I feel compelled to elaborate on the Challenge Statement and nuanced flavor of Pineapple Pizza, or more properly, Hawaiian Pizza.

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Tyler Hagler
5.14.2019

Spring 2019 Core Values Awards

We have some truly exceptional people at Trig. As our new tradition is maturing, a few of our talented folks were recognized for their amazing efforts with a painted rock. The UPS guy didn’t even blink this go around when I asked for help mailing five rocks. I think he’s gotten used to me shipping out bizarre items.

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Andrew DiMeo
3.20.2019

Innovation is Caring and Thoughtful

The word “innovation” is getting used a lot these days. So much so that its meaning has become generic and its definition lost. I wish to find it. What follows is an exploration of the word “innovation” in search of a useful definition, for clarity, and for enlightenment. My favorite definition to date comes from Scott Burleson, friend and innovation expert at The AIM Institute. Scott describes innovation as, “an improvement in value” and then further defines “value” as “benefits over cost.”

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Tyler Hagler
3.7.2019

Biology is Destiny: Choice of Culture and Startup Survival

SPEC’s research revealed a breathtaking finding: one of the six cultures had a 100 percent survival rate through the dotcom bubble, was the fastest to go to IPO, and continued to hit growth targets as a maturing public company.

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Tyler Hagler
2.26.2019

What is the Origin of the Name Trig?

Trig hasn’t always been Trig. I didn’t like the first name for this company, mostly because it was my name, Studio Hagler. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with my surname (pronounced Hay-gler) but it wasn’t building anything other than my ego. I wanted to build a brand.

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Tyler Hagler
2.13.2019

Innovation is Generous

The finance mindset, when starting up an innovation program, only produces incremental results. The tendency to expect ROI from early stage opportunity screening misses the point. Large corporations routinely struggle to compare unproven ideas to known products that regularly produce revenues.

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Tyler Hagler
1.20.2019

The Art of Strategy

Taking a page from Great Game of Business, we started the planning in July with building a sales forecast for 2019. Those numbers established our operations and staffing system for the year. We took our time. We realized that spreadsheets don’t bring us joy. So we did what made the most sense: we designed our own strategy game.

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The Trig Team
1.8.2019

C-UV400: The Future of UV Protection

With the C-UV400 tablet, professionals in the medical industry along with eyewear specialists can show their clients exactly how defended their eyes will be in any set of glasses. Sunscreenr previously made waves with a UV detection camera displays sunscreen coverage on skin. This technological foundation has been built upon to create the indoor detection technology that is now at work in the C-UV400. The 8” tablet is easy to transport and features intuitive operation making it fun and informative for clients and technicians alike.

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Andrew DiMeo
12.25.2018

Built to Last

Consider the classic Coke bottle. Can you see it in your mind? The silhouette of that legendary shape. What is that shape? Is that the brand of Coke? Or is that the product? Whether pouring it over ice or drinking it from the bottle, you are experiencing both the brand and the product of Coke all at once.

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Andrew DiMeo
11.27.2018

Why Spike the Eggnog

Each year around Thanksgiving, Dr. Lancefield would spike a batch of eggnog in the lab, and then let it sit there for about a month to be enjoyed around Christmas. Letting that eggnog age in the cold of winter over those weeks between the holidays made it “better” according to her original recipe (below). But maybe what the microbiologist meant was, “better for your health.” So the question is, does spiking the eggnog kill the Salmonella?

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The Trig Team
11.27.2018

2018 Core Values Award Winners

In preparation for our most recent meeting, it became clear that several team members had done amazing work deserving of special recognition. We wanted to do something fun and creative, perhaps even start a new tradition. Four times a year Trig team members each take on a special project that we refer to as our “rock” for the quarter, so we decided on a trophy that fit these awards of achievement particularly well.

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Connie Tran
11.1.2018

How Archetypes Build Robust Brand Frameworks

Building the connection between your brand and your audience doesn't have to be complicated. Most of what goes into building a solid brand is just extracting the good stuff you already have in your head. How we go about organizing the stuff what comes out of your head, that's another story...but no worries, this is why we use archetypes to set up a solid foundation on which to build a brand's personality.

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Samantha Harr
10.29.2018

Innovation History of Trig's Logo Development

Ten years of business has taken Trig through many changes in the pursuit of growth. One of the best ways for a company to showcase shifting corporate values and service expansions is to design a fresh new logo. A logo should represent the very nature of a company’s culture. Take a look with us into the logos of Trig-past to explore our branding evolution.

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Andrew DiMeo
10.26.2018

Why Ask Why 5 Times?

If you have ever spent a lengthy amount of time around any child, you've probably heard the question "why" at least once. Maybe even a few times. A few dozen times. A few thousand times. On some occasions they're genuinely curious and on others... they know exactly how to push buttons and you have to learn when to say enough's enough. Ultimately though, kids may have the right idea. We guarantee you aren't asking "why" nearly as often as you could be or should be.

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The Trig Team
10.12.2018

Trig Sponsors Hangar6 Advanced Rapid Prototyping Center

Trig is proud to be an early supporter and sponsor of the advanced rapid prototyping center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, known as Hangar6. The center is an initiative of the First Flight Venture Center, which has a 26-year history of incubating 300+ technology-based startups that have a combined valuation in excess of $7 billion.

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Tyler Hagler
10.2.2018

Couplet Care Infant Bassinet Awarded a Phase I SBIR Grant

The Couplet Care postnatal infant bassinet has been awarded a $150k SBIR grant through the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development through the National Institute of Health. Kristin Tully, PhD with UNC and Ty Hagler with Trig are Co-Principal Investigators for the award, reflecting the highly collaborative nature of the project.

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Tyler Hagler
10.1.2018

Trig Celebrates 10 Years!

Wow. You look up one day, shut your laptop, and you realize that you’ve been in business for 10 years. Happy birthday, Trig! Enjoy a walk down memory lane as we explore many of the team members and awards Trig has picked up along the way over the course of the last decade.