Yesterday I was helping out at the University of Cape Town with a business case lecture for their 2nd year Information Systems programme, as part of their partnership with Saratoga.
The lecture opens with an ice-breaker exercise where I simply ask the students to design me a new toaster, as mine has given up the ghost.
They have 5 minutes.
And during this time, they were bustling with ideas as to what the toaster should do and look like — and many unique, crazy and tech-savvy designs were pitched to me at the end.

But sadly none of them met my needs.
Because nobody asked me for my requirements or any constraints I have, in order to design me my brand new toaster.
What a simple but great exercise! Thank you for sharing.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, William.