Archive for January 2012
Week 3 Presentation
Posted on: January 31, 2012
Interview – Karin Forssell
Posted on: January 31, 2012
We spoke to Karin Forssell about educational research in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). She recommended several good books and papers to read, discussed research that had been done, and her own personal experiences and feelings about raising a daughter who is going through the “pink phase.”
Books/papers to read
- Unlocking the Clubhouse, by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher
- The research of Yasmin Kafai: “As part of her policy work, she wrote Under the Microscope: A Decade of Gender Equity Interventions in the Sciences(2004)”
Key Learnings
- Though girls go through a “pink phase” and play with toys like barbies and Lego Friends that might be worrisome to parents, what is important is the quality of the play. Do they stay on the toy company’s script or do they go off script and use their imagination?
- Children like teaching. You can get children thinking by having them teach Kermit the Frog something. After children teach Kermit they are more willing to try a new task than before they taught Kermit. Additionally, in her personal experience, Karin said that kids love teaching other kids or their parents new concepts.
- For children that are interested in STEM fields to be successful, it really helps to have one or both parents work in a STEM field. Would there be a way to recreate that support in our toy?
- We should make sure our toy is an appropriate match between the abilities of the girls and the level that they expect to be challenged at.
Other toys to look at:
- Topobo, “a construction kit with kinetic memory”
- PicoCricket, “invention kit that integrates art and technology”
Interview – Roger Rambeau
Posted on: January 31, 2012
I spoke with Roger Rambeau who used to be the vice president of manufacturing for Mattel and worked at Sega. We discussed oversees manufacturing and the children’s toy market.
Key Learnings:
- The big toy companies have become very large and very bureaucratic. He mentioned that it used to be much easier to make a difference in the company but that has changed in the past years.
- The toy development process in a large corporation is quite lengthy and involves several different groups of people.
- Oversees manufacturing can be tricky but if you make sure you are very clear with your directions and the factory is actually able to produce your product it can be a good route to take.
- When contracting with a factory to manufacture the toy it is key that the factory is responsible for getting all the components, so you don’t have to coordinate between multiple factories.
- Inspecting the factory should start with the back end to see how the components from other factories are received and inspected. Then the warehouse should be inspected to see how the finished goods are stored: whether they can be rained on, stolen, etc. Then the quality control group should be checked to see how they handle testing. Next, inventory management and the engineering group. Finally the factory floor should be checked. There should be a sheet of paper at every stating telling the operator what to do. Additionally, the line should be continuously flowing without any bottlenecks.
- Different areas in Asia have different manufacturing specialties.
- When we discussed the details of our product he liked the idea because girls are a fairly difficult group for toy companies to target with toys that are outside the realm of toys like barbies.
We had an excellent conversation with the Children’s Creativity Museum where we discussed their program that lets start ups come in on weekends and have children test their products. We’re really excited about potentially testing our product their and are currently discussing which week would be best.
We’re confirmed to test our product at the museum on the 25th of February!
GOAL:
- Understand the nature (at least on a high level) of the intricacies involved in the back-end of our start-up (i.e. establishing our channels, sourcing, manufacturing, marketing, packaging, and distribution)
- Investigate more parent PAINS and JOBS-TO-BE-DONE
WHO:
Eric is a 3rd year Law student (Patent Law) at the Stanford Law School, is also pursuing a Master’s degree in MS&E at the same time, while managing his business (Innovelis) remotely. Eric likes to spend his free time pitching to VCs and Board Members while balancing his responsibilities as a husband and father of 3 children, the eldest a 9-year old girl. [hint hint: more potential user testing.. :D]
KEY LEARNINGS:
- MAKE MISTAKES: “The way I learned about all of this: about China manufacturing, about redlines, and my graphic designer, etc was really mostly by making mistakes”
- KEEP ‘EM CLEAN: “Keep your distribution channels clean. I made the mistake before to sell my product to others online and they would undercut my price in Amazon and messed up a lot of things asides from my pricing strategy”
- ABSOLVE MY GUILT: Busy parents feel guilty about not spending enough time with their kids and therefore try to compensate by buying them things
- VELOCITY: Eric is another parent who always wants to make a quick but well-informed decision – “In my purchasing decision, I usually want to know how much is she [daughter] going to get out of this toy, and what are similar things to this. I like how Amazon makes it fast and convenient to do both“
- FEEL-GOOD PRODUCT: “Haha yes exactly, maybe that product was a feel-good for me as a parent since it’s an educational product that I bought for her, but maybe my kid doesn’t feel the same”
- ENRICH: Every parent wants to enrich their kid’s life to the fullest and develop their talents
- HORIZON PLANNING: Colorwheels needs to start thinking about all the legwork involved that we’ll be doing down the line (which might be next month or so)
GOALS:
- Test our “Assemble-then-Decorate” product model
- Test if our product is able to convey formal topics (i.e. Circuits, Wires, Power Source) through Hands-on Learning and Instructions
BRIEF DESCRIPTION:
Last Sunday, [C] was kind enough to welcome us in her home and play with her daughters [A] who was 7 years old, and [D] who is turning 4 next week. We played in a more neutral zone this time in their living room (instead of their playroom or bedroom.) We first let them play with 2 of our minimum viable products (MVPs): Car Kit and Puppy Purse Kit. Then decided to show our box of Lego Friends and test her skill at following visual instructions.
KEY FINDINGS:
- LOVED IT: Our Purse Pets have been gaining traction, but [A] liked the Car Kit way more as she was able to race it with her other toys and even build a paper chair + seatbelt for her small doll to ride on.
- ASSEMBLE + DECORATE = WINNING: After 27 kid hours of testing this, we are confident on this approach, every kid loved figuring out assembling the toy, but more importantly being able to decorate it with stickers, write their names on it, etc.
- PARENT INVOLVEMENT: Compared to parents with extremely busy lifestyles whose primary focus is to simply keep their kids busy to free up some “me time,” parents who are more involved with their kids focus on supervising and being there for their kid during playtime.
- LEARNING TOPICS DID RESONATE: From playing with the toy, her father also teaching her, and us being there to explain a little, the 7-year old understood circuits at a basic level and even correctly guess that switching the motor’s polarity would make the car go the other way
- PARENT PAIN: As we hypothesized that “Parents have a pain to raise their child in the best possible manner.” This was evident in the way [C] explained her Middle School hunt around the Bay. She was able to name several schools and the key strengths of each.
QUOTES FROM MOM:
- CONVENIENCE: “If buying a $20 toy instead of a $10 toy saves me time from having to carefully choose which one to buy, I’d do it”
- PRINCESS NERD: “Why can’t princesses wear glasses and have their hair up?”
- LONGEVITY: “I want something that she can use and keep adding on to as she grows up”
- MEDIA EFFECT: “Unfortunately, my girls want to be what they see on TV, have you guys read the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter? It’s literally about that”
- EARLY GENDER BIAS: “As early as 2nd grade, I’ve noticed with my daughters, their peers, and their schools that there are gender differences/bias already”
- FEED THE NEED: “My daughter got hooked on this whole Magic thing and it’s something that I’ve supported her on, but I’m just not satisfied with the content that’s out there online”
GOAL:
Fix our Landing Page!
[Brainstorming in true whiteboard fashion…Thank you GSB room for having at least 30 markers for us to use!]
After being eaten alive by the comments and feedback about our initial Landing Page, our team decided to bump up the priority on developing our site. I met with Nicolai and Sergey who were kind enough to brainstorm with me late Friday afternoon on what exactly should be included in our Landing Page.
In the process, we were able to articulate a bunch of things about what exactly it is we’re trying to do. Namely:
INITIAL CUSTOMERS:
Parents with daughters aged 6-9
WHO NEED TO:
develop their daughter’s creativity, motor skills, and visual comprehension
AND ALSO NEED TO:
provide fun and entertaining activities for their daughter on a constant basis
WHICH IS SOLVED WITH:
our line-up of toys [Car, Helicopter, Purse, Disco Ball, Animal] delivered to their doorstep via subscription
OUR NO.1 VALUE:
Keeps their daughters busy with an activity that is value-add because they learn about different topics such as voltage, On/Off, solar power, energy sources through Hands-On Learning
COMPELLING REASON TO BUY/SUBSCRIBE TO THIS PRODUCT TODAY:
Parents need to influence and develop their daughters before it’s TOO LATE (Pre-teens, teenage phase)
Our mock-ups of the Page are in the slideshow above, stay tuned for our live website…
GOAL:
FEEDBACK:
- Mike, as a branding person, immediately was wondering where our LOGO was and found our Colorwheel text to be boring
- Looked too cheap, too simple – “Come on guys, this like one of those WYSIWYG templates free website kind of thing, you can do better than this” [Oh YES, we agree Mike. We already got a beatdown on our Landing Page the previous night. Perhaps we were taking the word MINIMUM in MVP a little too extreme…]
- Liked the name Colorwheel
- He commented on how he relies on comments from Amazon when he buys toys
- “I don’t wanna feel alone, am I the only one buying this product from you guys? Show more social channels on your website”
- I refrain from buying those $7.95 toys from Target since they don’t have any longevity at all.
- “I’d rather pay $40 than $20 if I feel that I’m a getting the PREMIUM aspect out of this Colorwheels product
OTHER LEARNINGs:
- “Under the Christmas tree this year, my daughter had an iPhone, clothes, gift cards…completely different from last year when it was still all toys. I do think you lose them at 10 — they go Ice Skating, watch more TV, I think 7-9 is the spot”
- “We like to play in our swing with our magic wands, DAD IS THE BEST at making them!”
- “We also always ask Daddy to make swords for us, and then we’ll make cars and then make a curly bridge, and then put a star…:)”
Set up
Analog and prototype testing on Friday afternoon with two seven year olds, A and T for 2 hours. First we played with their toys:
- Geomags
- American girl doll (with matching horse) – T’s favorite toy
- Legos
Then we brought out our toys:
- Snap circuits
- Electric car
- Friendship bracelets
- Puppy and turtle LED purses
Hypothesis Testing
- Do they like putting together a bag? (Outcome: Yes, but they thought circuit was dangerous)
- Will they want to play with the bag after putting it together? (Outcome: Yes, they tried to bargain with us)
- What is the appropriate amount of control over circuit assembly and design? (Requires further testing: Wires marked with numbers were simple for them to put together.)
- Will girls like playing with an electric car? (Outcome: Yes, stopped early because of loose wires, will have to test for longer periods with more robust set ups)
- Will they like decorating an electric car? (Outcome: Yes, decorated themselves as well)
Key learnings and observations:
- Mom seemed happy to have time to do other things – value add for parents.
- They loved decorating the toy car. Follow up question for next testing session, will they be further engaged if we have them actually build the car?
- As soon as we pulled out the dog and turtle LED purse kits, they immediately decided who would keep which. They wanted to keep the bags, tried to bargain with us over popcorn.
- Didn’t like exposed LEDs.
- Even though they were given set pieces for the dog, they were unsure how to put it together and asked for direction.
- Visual directions would have helped for the puppy purse.
- Didn’t know how to stick the things – make it more recognizably Velcro.
- Again, the kid asked Alice to finish her bracelet for her. Instant gratification.
- If it doesn’t work well, they are going to give up. Taylor was pushing the car when it stopped working, but got bored after. Our product must be robust.
- They tried playing with the car after they decorated it, but a wire was loose, so they gave up quickly.
- When they saw the wires, their first reaction was that they were dangerous. We had to show them it was perfectly safe before they went ahead and assembled the circuit. We will need to make circuits not resemble things their parents have told them not to touch.
- Group dynamics: the two girls consult each other frequently before giving us definitive answers.
- They hid the purses when we were about to leave because their bargaining hadn’t worked. Mom had to find them for us.
- Imagination is a key component of play.
Future work:
- Make bags more robust, in terms of joining together pieces.
- Make LEDS covered
- Make button easier to push
- Include visual directions
- Make circuits more “safe looking” for testing on Sunday
Ideas that were sparked:
They can’t bring toys to school – what if we make these into backpacks – backpacks that they build?
Additional Observations:
- She had a hard time snapping them on.
- They ignored the written instructions.
PINK LEGOS
- Imagination is a key component of play – constant dialog of the story while playing with legos.
KLUTZ SOLAR CAR KIT
- Turning on the car, it wouldn’t move, so she tried to poke it forward then gave up.
- These kids won’t troubleshoot, short attention span.
- “we do this at RECESS!”
- Pastel yellow, blue, orange, they didn’t like. Once we added Pink it was girly and, yes, they would play it
- Our Favorite color is PINK!
- 2nd favorite color is RAINBOW! Our rainbow is Pink purple gold silver blue!
Kids: “Ohhhh DO WE GET TO KEEP THIS??”
Alice: No
Kids: “Aww *teary* face”
Kids were looking at the wires batteries and LEDs
Kids: “wahh that’s gonna kill us”
After Alice let them attach the alligator clips themselves they said:
We are magic, we touched something really scary and it didn’t kill us!
this is a fun play date
how do you know where to push?
push down, lights up!!!!!
And then they tried to bargain:
We’ll let u take a picture of us if we can keep the bag
We’ll give you some popcorn if we can keep the bag
Success!! Made them sad when we took away our prototype!
PRIMARY GOAL: On our visits to both Middlefield-YMCA and Terman Middle School, we were trying to figure out parent behaviors and patterns regarding their child’s toys and activities
SECONDARY GOAL: We also wanted to find out if our Landing Page (depicted below) has a strong call-to-action and if it was effective enough for parents to sign-up
KEY FINDINGS:
- Every parent’s style is so different
- Bi-modal distribution on spending – some parents are completely fine on spending $50-100 for a toy, while others would float around the $10-25 range
- Parents believe that they are 100,000x busier than any student, employee, you name it.
- Therefore, it’s all about the convenience and ONE-CLICK purchase for certain people
- Parents feel they have no time to browse or shop for toys
- We couldn’t pinpoint a particular kind of toy; girls play with all kinds of toys!
- Some of the moms actually claimed that LEGOs are for BOYS only
ADVICE FROM A VETERAN ENTREPRENEUR:
- Shoot for EXORBITANT margins, this will allow you to be flexible when push comes to shove
- Getting the right board members or the right TEAM is crucial [something Steve Blank has mentioned himself in his blog]
FEEDBACK FOR OUR LANDING PAGE ( depicted above):
- Colorwheels name is interesting
- Not enough info
- Please present this info in a more organized manner
- Picture was misleading. Some thought our product was used online
- Be more assertive on the language and verbs
- Need to see the actual product
So, thank you parents…for beating the living crap out of our Landing Page! 🙂
As the saying goes, “Mistakes are your best teachers.”
Looking forward to iterating and improving our landing page for your eyes to see…
Colorwheel Toys 