Innovation Sighting: Task Unification with Gifts

Task Unification is a hard working innovation tool.  Task Unification assigns an additional task to an existing resource or component of the product or service.  Here is a clever example from Springwise. It is a service  called “Itizen.”  It allows you to physically tag a special item such as a gift or heirloom that links to a website where the collective history of that gift or heirloom is recorded and kept forever.

For example, suppose your grandfather gives you an antique hammer that’s been passed down through generations.  It was used for many significant projects, and your grandfather gives you a written history about it.  You use the hammer through your lifetime, recording special stories about it.  Then you give it to your son.  Imagine how your son might use that hammer through time.  He records his experience with the hammer so he can pass it to the next generation with the complete historical record.  The value of our worldly possessions increases as the collective history is recorded. The item has been given the additional “job” of telling its story (with a little help from Itizen).

Here is how it works: