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“Creativity is just connecting things,” Steve Jobs once stated when talking about why creative people may feel a bit guilty, like they really did not do anything special, when coming up with something creative.  “They just saw something.  It seemed obvious to them after a while.  That’s because they were able to connect experiences they …

Slingshot Product Development Group and Élan Technologies are pleased to announce a collaboration to assist in the development & commercialization of an Élan Technologies revolutionary new patented composite technology. The new materials technology provide a combination of  physical properties that rival or exceed the performance of pure carbon fiber composites whilst also offering a superior …

In a way, following a good product development process is a little like dating.  The process of researching, designing, prototyping, and engineering could be compared to the development of a romance.  A relationship often starts with a few ‘get to know you’ dates, followed by increasingly intimate and serious occasions such as meeting your girlfriend’s …

Gwinnett County based product development company gives back to the community in a ‘Day of Service’. Slingshot PDG closed its office Tuesday, January 17, to spend the day volunteering and working at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Gwinnett location.  The volunteers were assigned spots in Immediate Care and Rehabilitation waiting rooms to help make the …

In the state of Georgia, it is illegal to keep a donkey in a bathtub. A quick internet search uncovers silly laws such as this one that show how ridiculous our bureaucratic system can get. Some people view these as government waste while others just like to get a chuckle out of them. I view …

So I co-wrote a book this year: Handbook of Research on Computational Arts and Creative Informatics.  I’m not entirely certain what the title means, but I have been telling people that the book is about “the collaboration of art and science within product development.”  Perhaps a better phrase would be “the collision of art and …

Recently the CEO of a start-up asked me for the most important advice I could give before she filed a patent application directed toward protecting her company’s core technology. In response, I said “don’t be a selfish patent applicant.” Few patent applicants obtain such counsel from their advisers and it shows: the vast majority of …

The US Patent Office is in a deal-making mood.  Really.  Ever since Director Kappos told his examiners last Fall that “patent quality does not equal rejection,” I have heard many stories about how patent applications that appeared to be stuck in the limbo of serial rejections are now being allowed.  Those of us who talk …

Do you treat your patents as a fence or a tollbooth? If you wish for your start-up technology company to obtain investment from or acquisition by a bigger player, you had better understand the difference. Most start-up technology company entrepreneurs and CEO’s understand that patents can be key to establishing the value of a new …

Slingshot Product Development Group, a global innovation and product development firm, and NP Learning, an experienced consulting and training company announce their upcoming Innovation Best Practices and New Product Development Professional (NPDP) Certificationtraining workshop in Gwinnett. The 2-day training workshop combines Slingshot’s real world product development experience with NP Learning’s wealth of knowledge for innovation …