The Empire Built on Gizmos No One Needs, But Everyone Wants

Mark Barrocas huddled with a group of employees staring at the dead skin extracted from their colleagues’ pores. Minutes earlier, the chief executive officer of SharkNinja Inc. had halted the product meeting so an underling could “go get the gunk”—vials of dirt, skin and blackheads sucked out by a gadget the $6 billion consumer products maker was planning to release ahead of the holidays. Barrocas’ team of engineers, marketers and researchers had been testing the at-home facial device on one another and other co-workers, who serve as guinea pigs for product developers. With 25 new gizmos a year, SharkNinja asks ...