Interviewees, Rick Feffer and Stuart McFaul; Interviewer, David Shayt, National Museum of American History
name: label: Collection Interviewer
content: Shayt, David H.
label: Collection Creator
content: Wedge Innovations
setName: label: See more items in
content: Wedge Innovations Records
label: See more items in
content: Wedge Innovations Records / Series 7: Corporate Culture
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Sound recording (Duration 1 hour)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1995 June 22
container: label: Container
content: Box 26, Item 534.8
label: Container
content: Box 25, Item 534.8
label: Container
content: Box 24, Item 534.8
label: Container
content: Box 27
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Moving Images
label: Type
content: Audio
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Location: Feffer interview: Sunnyvale, California
McFaul interview: Milpitas, California

The Feffer interview begins on side one and is a continuation of the interview from tape RTC 534.7. Feffer discusses his age when he started consulting for Wedge, the Series 200 SmartLevel, the durability issue, sales of the Pro and Series 200 SmartLevels, the design of the Series 200 SmartLevel, the weight of the levels, women users of the levels, the purpose and varying uses of the carrying case, his involvement and commitment to Wedge Innovations, working for Wedge, Andy Butler's leadership style, D2M, and his remodeling work today.

The McFaul interview starts on side one and continues on side two. On side one, McFaul discusses the differences and similarities of working for Wedge versus working for a larger company, the New Product Development Conference, knowledge he gained from working for Wedge (his "real life MBA"), the importance of using metaphor and storytelling in gaining public acceptance for the SmartLevel, the use of students to make promotional videos, the importance of promotional videos, public relations at Wedge, and the unexpected or playful nature of SmartLevel.

On side two, McFaul discusses the testing of SmartLevel and its ruggedness, demonstrating and marketing SmartLevel, the appeal of SmartLevel, the high-technology aspects of SmartLevel, measuring marketing success, marketing priorities, the acquisition of Wedge by Macklanburg-Duncan, worker morale at and loyalty to Wedge Innovations, his leaving Wedge and the end of Wedge, breaking into the "old-boy" network of hardware distribution channels, working for a start-up company, the effect of Silicon Valley on Wedge, creating new business processes at Wedge, the development of the Wedge "look" in products and advertisements, the use of teak for rails, and the future of the SmartLevel.