1. What is the role of a facilitator in this type of meeting?

2. Describe some of the key tools that a facilitator can use to gain group alignment.

3. Why do you think the room was filled with only Design Engineers? What should be done about this situation?

4. Describe some of the tools that would allow this group to gain a better understanding of what the customer would want. How could this group use this information to build a better computer mouse? Why is this important?

You are sitting in on a meeting with the Acme Corp. new product develcpment team. The team is comprised entirely of design engineers and is meeting in the engineering conference room. The team leader is the Chief Design Engineer, Michael Carroll, who invited you to sit in today. Michael addresses the team. "We've been tasked with designing a new mouse to sell with the next generation of personal computers. We have months to have working prototypes ready to present to marketing and three months after that to have the new mouse in production. It's a very aggressive schedule-we have no time to waste. Let's start by brainstorming ideas for the mouse. Please be as innovative as possible." Michael stepped to the white board prepared to write all of the ideas that emerged from the meeting. Ideas began to surface: