Some innovative products are designed to solve a specific pain point for consumers, while others will address a problem they don’t even realize they have.

Take soggy sandwiches, for example. A focus group wouldn’t necessarily highlight the need for a cooler that keeps sandwiches from getting soggy—but once the problem was identified, it helped inform the design of Ninja’s line of FrostVault coolers, according to Michelle Crossan-Matos, the chief growth officer of SharkNinja.

Engineers and inventors are steeped in data that they can then leverage along with insight and empathy, in order to create the wide range of innovative products SharkNinja has become known for, Crossan-Matos said during a panel discussion this week at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York.

“It’s the marri

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