Ever wonder how they come up with those great product ideas? I'm not talking about the next fast computer or the software design that makes the user experience easier. I'm talking about those everyday hardware products that just make life easier or better. I often see products that seem so sensible that I ask myself why somebody else hadn't thought of it before -- especially why I hadn't thought of it.

So I asked Tim Shipley and Jim Beile. Mr. Shipley is a marketing manager for the health and comfort team at Fellowes. Mr. Beile is a senior product development engineer at the same 1,000-person company. These are the people that you probably know for the plastic monitor riser that holds your PC's monitor, which is one of their most successful products. They also make keyboard trays that adjust height and angle as well as paper shredders and other products that you find all over your office.

Many of their products are innovative -- sometimes because they make a subtle change from what was there before. For example, the company's Powershred DS-1 has a safe zone that turns off the shredder if you put your hand or other object in a dangerous place. It still turns your paper into confetti, but it decreases the risk that the same thing will happen to your hand.

Mr. Beile told me that Fellowes' innovation uses the four-stage Stage Gated Process. It consists of:

Ideation. They find the gaps in the market and formulate ideas to fill the gaps.

Development. They do concept testing using six criteria, including how the product fits strategically, how large the opportunity is, and how feasible would it be to create and sell the product. In this stage, they also send prototype models to consumers to see how they use them.

Commercialization. They determine the specifics of the product.

Launch. It could take more than a year from conceptualization of these seemingly simple products until the time that you see them in the stores.

Fellowes' market-research process is not unlike that of the large consumer products companies, such as Procter & Gamble. But unlike the P&Gs of the world, Fellowes' markets often don't exist -- they have to be created.

Mr. Shipley concentrates on two targets: office "gatekeepers" and "success seekers." These are the people who are more likely to request, purchase or approve of the purchase of Fellowes' products. The company sends surveys to identify gaps in which existing products don't address the need. They analyze trends in the market; and they do ethnographic studies, in which they observe people without interrupting them. In this way they get information that wouldn't come out of a survey.

They include trends that might not look as if they affect the market; but they do. The rising cost of health care and the blending of work and play, for instance, have significant impact on the needs that could affect Fellowes' product sales.

Using teams of five to six people, Fellowes has nurtured an environment of innovation that helps it thrive in a competitive marketplace.