Devee McNally will be the first person to say her intention was never to run a company. She never thought she would be working with a team, collaborating, creating, and developing thoughtful products in a beautiful office space. From the start, her only goal was to provide households with the Junk Drawer Organizer® because it would solve a problem and make their lives more joyful. After that success, she was inspired to continue down the path to creating more useful products which lead to the evolution of the madesmart® brand."

Question

Devee McNally will be the first person to say her intention was never to run a company. She never thought she would be working with a team, collaborating, creating, and developing thoughtful products in a beautiful office space. From the start, her only goal was to provide households with the Junk Drawer Organizer® because it would solve a problem and make their lives more joyful.  After that success, she was inspired to continue down the path to creating more useful products which lead to the evolution of the madesmart® brand."

Accepted Answer

While staying in Negril, Jamaica, in a budget hotel that was no more than a shack on the beach, with no air conditioning, and on a lumpy twin bed, Devee laid awake, unable to sleep, thinking about her grandma’s kitchen in Tennessee. She remembered how her grandma navigated around her kitchen using products that don’t exist anymore.  She recalled how every morning, her grandma would make homemade southern biscuits; she used a big flour bin that was built into her cabinetry and sifted the flour into a bowl below. Devee thought about all the different, unique houses she had lived in and how with each new home there were challenges to organizing and navigating each ridiculously-designed kitchen. Thinking about spaces, then and now, and how these kitchen spaces could be designed to improve the flow of life, Devee thought about remodels and how expensive it would be to replace the existing cabinetry. As her mind continued to wander, she thought about the things people use their drawers for—everyone buys silverware trays, but other than that a person has all these blank drawers with no idea how to best utilize them for organization. And then she saw it—the junk drawer—everyone has one! While tossing and turning through one of her worst nights of sleep, Devee nudged her boyfriend and asked, “Hey, what do you think about a junk drawer organizer?” He looked puzzled, “What do you mean?” and she replied, “I’m envisioning a whole new kitchen that’s designed so that everything has a specific place. Your drawers are pre-compartmentalized and specifically designed—instead of just a blank canvas.” He clarified, “You mean like the cabinetry, like it’d have to be built like that?” She responded in agreeance and he suggested, “Do it in plastic like a silverware tray. That way, people can buy it and put in in their drawers.” And there it was—the Junk Drawer Organizer®. The tidy, well-thought-out product would allow everyone to organize their unruly junk drawers without the need for permanent built-ins. With no money or idea about what a business plan entailed, Devee went to her father and asked him if he could build a product model. Since he was the head of the art department as an Editorial Artist for the Pioneer Press, he had the skill and ability to build her a plaster of paris prototype and, through her vision, illustrated the original sticker decals for each compartment. Instinctually, Devee was already fostering a teamwork culture—she utilized the talented people in her life to bring her vision forward.   Making her way to the James J. Hill Reference Library, in downtown St. Paul, Devee applied for the trademark, “Junk Drawer Organizer.” She copied the trademark application from a book, filled it out, and sent the application fee of $175 to Washington, D.C. Impatient and adamant to get her trademark approved, Devee called up her examining officer. Without delay, she told him she really needed this trademark and that he needed to approve it. She told him that the word “junk” is ambiguous and that validated the name. With a chuckle and sigh, he later approved the name, Junk Drawer Organizer®. During the three months the product tool was being built, Devee found her way back to the Hill Reference Library.  She went through all the annual retail books that listed all the names of the different category buyers at the major retailers. One book at a time, she went through and wrote down the names of each buyer, the number of stores, phone numbers, and addresses. Now, she had a list full of contacts and planned a trip to the International Housewares Show in Chicago, IL to learn more about the housewares industry.  Devee will never forget the day Walmart called her; she sent samples every month to the same buying office. She never stopped and as she fondly recalls she: “bugged the shit out of them and became the most annoying pest.” It was 1992 and she used the courtesy phone at the local grocery store to check her voicemail messages.  While listening, she found one from Walmart saying, “Yes, we’re trying to locate a Devee Philpot because we have this Junk Drawer Organizer® here and I’m supposed to let you know that we want to order these for all of the stores. So, you need to get in touch with us right away—if we have the right number.” Immediately, she jumped for joy, twirled, and danced around—she had done it!! She got Walmart. This was her moment. Devee’s continued product success allowed her to take a break to start her family. After her five-year sabbatical, it occurred to Devee that she couldn’t walk away into the sunset with the success of the Junk Drawer Organizer®. She needed to create a stand-out, original brand identity for her company. This realization lead to the creation of the madesmart® brand and her legacy as a business woman, product designer, and mother. As she walked down the aisles of major retailers, not one of her products, excluding the Junk Drawer Organizer®, looked distinctly different from the rest—they were all just blended together in one big sea of white plastic. Devee wanted to stand-out and go above the rest—to be something more beautiful. That’s where the Classic Collection was born; the revolutionary soft-grip lined (overmold) collection. Working with an outside design firm, she took the lead to develop and design this product line. At this time, her company was a sales-driven company that did local manufacturing, but the commitment to her vision and the necessity to support her three children, as a single parent, continued to fuel her creative drive. Devee continues to make madesmart®’s goal to be inventive and pursue creative-driven design in every way possible. Every product design has to be in alignment with who she is as a human, as a woman, and this instills her high-quality standards. All-in-all, it has to be something we, at madesmart®, all need to be proud of and something that elevates our lives and the world. Note, Devee’s journey hasn’t been all sugar pops and rainbows. It is a story of hustling and finding creative ways to pull off an idea. It has taken her time, energy, successes, and failures. She was able to network her resources and be relentless in her vision to create products that people love. Her fearlessness and humility, leadership skills, and immense creativity in business and design, helped her to establish a successful, proudly women owned business in her hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota.

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