The Petal Drops gadget is a water-saving concept by Pieter Laga on the social product development website Quirky. Following an initial design proposal by Pieter, other individuals got involved by making suggestions for the product name, the logo design and product development.
The Petal Drops design is a flower-shaped funnel made from 100% recycled high density polyethene (HDPE) that fits onto a standard threaded drinks bottle. The device makes it trivial to capture rainwater, which you can use for watering your garden or indoor plants.
If enough people commit to buying the product (which in this case has been set at 550 units), then the gadget will be manufactured and shipped. People interested in the unit can commit to a purchase by buying a unit. Your credit card is only charged if the unit is manufactured, and the unit is only manufactured if there are enough buyers.
You can read more about the Quirky social development process, as well as get involved in other newly submitted projects. I’m sure we’ll hear more about Quirky in time, but it sound as if it’s a fantastic concept for using the wisdom of crowds to develop products with a market.
Interested in the Petal Drops product? Well you can pre-purchase a unit on the Petal Drops product page.