As a designer, I find myself in an interesting new era, one where we have to think beyond how and when a product will be used, considering what happens before and after.

While changing an entire industry won’t happen overnight, I’ve found hope partnering with individuals across toy companies driven to explore alternative solutions.

I’m also appreciative of practices – already in line with a circular economy – that simultaneously create fun and meaningful experiences for kids. Some of these have been around for years… Consider how American Girl gives kids the opportunity to bring their beloved dolls to the Doll Care Center… This not only enables them to refresh their dolls but also teaches that repair can and should be a natural part of product ownership.

Recently, the IDEO Play Lab team ran a four-week internal project to explore how circular design principles might shift toys and toy making. We spoke with experts across the industry – as well as kids and parents – to understand their perspectives on more environmentally sustainable toys, experiences and business models. In the process, we sketched early concepts for a platform to encourage toy repair, ways to facilitate second-hand toy purchases, models for extending the life of physical toys through digital enhancements, and alternative materials that are more durable, biodegradable and recycled – or recyclable.

We took a human-centred approach. Solutions not only had to be planet-friendly, but fun and desirable. We tested concepts like toys with backstories that celebrate the more environmentally friendly materials they’re made from.

While we’re excited to see what’s possible, we’re aware of the significant barriers we still need to overcome. Alternative materials are more expensive than virgin plastics. Too few people hold the expertise on how to work with new materials – and we do not yet know enough about their unique properties to make the most of them.

We also have yet to design robust systems for repair and reuse – though many informal channels do exist. There are plenty of opportunities for toy companies to be part of this ecosystem, ensuring the quality and safety of toys as they’re passed from family to family, while creating new touchpoints to deepen relationships with kids and families.

As we move from a linear economy to a circular economy, we don’t need to be caught between delivering joy or preserving our planet. It’s possible to do both, but it requires us to understand the circular strategies we can employ. We need to work together to drive down the costs of new materials, optimise new manufacturing processes and collaborate across companies to develop new systems for recycling, repair and reuse.

This is an exciting opportunity to reimagine decades-old processes and evolve them into something better, both for people and planet. Let’s work together to meet this challenge.

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The post IDEO’s Michelle Lee on why the choice between fun and sustainable isn’t an either/or for toy designers appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Guys, it’s always lovely to catch up! Drop Trivia was one of my highlights from way back at Nuremberg, so I’m delighted we can chat about it now. How did this idea come about?
Matt Callahan, Design Director, IDEO: Thanks – it’s great to hear you loved this game! It’s one of our favourites too. The vision for Drop Trivia came about in 2020, during early covid. We were working on games that could be played both in-person and also on a remote call. We wanted to create experiences that would help bring families and friends together during that challenging time. We first came up with the trivia format and mechanics, and then worked as a team to explore the best physical forms for the game to take.

We iterated through a few different versions, and then ultimately settled on a vertical game board because it felt like a unique form factor… It illustrated the core idea of the game, and it worked great for playing both IRL and remote – which was a big draw for games at the time.

Tanya, let’s bring you in. What appealed about IDEO’s concept?
Tanya Thompson, Senior Director, Inventor Relations, Hasbro Games: Hey Billy, I’m also so happy to hear that Drop Trivia was one of your highlights! It’s so fun.

When I first saw it, what I loved is that it made trivia accessible in a party-forward, social experience. I – like many other people – am not great at trivia, but love trivia games that don’t put me in the hot seat. The team was looking for a new addition to Trivial Pursuit line-up that could appeal to players like me. When I saw Drop Trivia, I thought it would be fun to play with a team and work together to put answers in order – instead of each player having to know the exact answer.

Then there was the unique tactile experience of dropping the colourful pucks, as well as the game itself tracking and scoring through electronics and sound… So in all, it felt really innovative! The Hasbro team made some adjustments to the original design, but largely the game concept stayed the same.

The unit looks terrific – and sounds – terrific. Very satisfying pings when the pucks land! Generally speaking, trivia games aren’t known for their ‘table presence’ or tech-integration. Was this a deliberate effort to bring something fresh to this space?
Matt: Absolutely. We set out to create a fun experience that would bring a new level of tangibility, table presence and interactivity to trivia. We also aimed to invent a new trivia format that would help level the playing field between seasoned trivia-buffs, and friends and family who may not love traditional trivia games. This is a game that anyone can win, and that feels really fun and exciting on game night.

We worked hard to make sure the hardware and electronics had a satisfying and fidgety feel to them. Our super-powered team of engineers did an amazing job of getting the tactile details feeling great on our prototype. We also had an amazing partner in Hasbro who shared our vision and helped get this item over the finish line with all the sensory details feeling great.

Tanya, were those aspects also key to helping this concept ‘get over the line’?
Tanya: We’re always looking for games that have a strong visual and sensory impact – that head snap, ‘what’s that?!’ moment. Trivia games are really just starting to play in this space, so we saw a strong opportunity to bring together an iconic trivia brand with a new, unexpected form factor and interaction that could appeal to trivia fans and families looking for something new.

There’s maybe a perception that trivia games are a tough nut to crack for inventors. Do you think this category comes with challenges?
Tanya: We’ve heard that trivia is a tough category – both from inventors and retailers! But we’ve seen trivia succeed in various forms, including entertainment and the growth of eventised trivia – like bar trivia nights and the like.

So, we know there’s appetite from consumers and a strong opportunity for innovation in trivia games that feel social and fun, and we’ll continue to lean-in here with new games. Trivial Pursuit is the authority brand in the trivia genre and has been since it launched in the 1980s. It’s a lot easier to get people excited about something new that feels just a little bit familiar, so being ‘presented by’ Trivial Pursuit was a strategic priority for us when bringing this game to market.

Matt: Trivia is challenging, but all game categories come with their own unique design challenges. The specific challenges of developing trivia games are also great starting points for design if you approach the category with an eye for innovation and a creative mindset.

IDEO is a prolific studio – does Drop Trivia carry any traits that you feel makes it a typical ‘IDEO invention’?
Matt: The game feels fun and interactive – and gets people laughing together and feeling connected. It features instant-get gameplay that brings a fresh twist to a classic category, and it also stands out as a unique item on shelf. I think all of these are the mark of an IDEO invention.

I believe these qualities are the result of our unique creative process, our top tier team of designers and engineers, and the way that our process and our people allow us to show up as amazing collaborators for our clients.

Tanya: I’d add that IDEO is great at many things, including integrating tech or a twist into a classic. They were also behind Twister Air which brought augmented reality to the Twister brand as well as Connect 4 Spin which added a new spinning feature.

Tanya, before we wrap, I wanted to talk about Trivial Pursuit more broadly… Is this a brand you receive a lot of inventor submissions for?
Tanya: For all our classics, including Trivial Pursuit, we are always looking at ways to keep the brand new and fresh for today’s consumer. Drop Trivia brought an element of fun and party to the Trivial Pursuit brand. I appreciate when inventors think about our classics – and how they can stretch to deliver fun new ways to play for fans, reach new audiences, and open up new occasions to play.

And Matt, alongside Drop Trivia, what have been some other to come from IDEO this past year?
Matt: We have lots of other fun toys and games hitting the market for the ’24 Holidays… For a few more new IDEO inventions, you can check out items like DC Comics Batman Ultimate Transforming Batmobile Playset, Mattel’s Barbie Tie-Dye Reveal Plush and the Barbie Doll Pup Playset with a Toy Pup and Dog in a Wheelchair. We also have the Disney Princess Carriage to Castle Transforming Playset, CoComelon Transforming School Time Bus, VTech Sandy Snacks-a-Lot and Crystal Gem Designer Jewelry.

You’ve been busy!
Matt: Those are just a few of the items we have coming out in 24! There’s also lots more from previous years that are still on the market, and many more to look forward to in the years ahead!

Matt, Tanya, huge thanks again – and congrats on Drop Trivia!

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The post “It felt really innovative!”: Hasbro’s Tanya Thompson and IDEO’s Matt Callahan talk Drop Trivia appeared first on Mojo Nation.

Michelle, it’s great to catch up! Let’s start at the beginning… What set you on a path into toys? Was it always part of the plan?
Not so much. It was quite a twisty road to get here. Sometimes I joke that I ended up in toys because I wanted to make all the toys I wasn’t allowed to have as a child. But, in fact, I think a lot of us start off as toy designers as children. I can remember making houses out of cardboard boxes, creating my own puppets and making up games with my brother. It comes naturally when we’re young.

Absolutely. So did toys as a career pop up as an early ambition?
Not at all. Early on, I felt the pull to do something that felt responsible and grown up, so I originally majored in Mechanical Engineering. While I was doing that, I realised there were students that were taking Math and Science classes with me, and then they’d go off and take Art and Design classes. They seemed to be having a lot more fun than I was! That led me to Product Design.

I remember meeting David Kelley, the founder of IDEO and the d.school at Stanford, during my senior year. Back then, the d.school didn’t exist, so he was heading up the Product Design department. He was teaching a class called Human Values in Design and told me I could take it and drop out after two weeks, but that it would give me a good taste of what design was… That suckered me into LOVING design. More than 20 years later I’m still here and working for IDEO.

So that’s what brought you to toys?
Not quite there yet! My summer internships were in aerospace. I spent hours in front of machines watching really large CAD files load… I soon realised that’s not what I wanted to be doing with the rest of my life.

My breakthrough came when I was in one of my friend’s rooms, and he had toys everywhere. I thought: ‘Hey, someone had to design those… Why couldn’t that be me!?’ At that point, I told everyone that I wanted to design toys because that was the only way to find jobs in the toy industry. Everyone who came to our school’s Engineering job fairs were from the aerospace or automotive industries… I had to go by word of mouth.

And, it worked, because I got a summer internship with an independent toy inventor, which led me to VTech Toys, which led me to University Games… Then I returned to grad school for Design and landed at IDEO.

However, when I came to IDEO, I shunned toys again – that whole bit about needing to act like a grown up! – and started out with consulting projects in education, consumer products, food and beverage… Anything but toys. However, the pull of play was strong, and I’m now full-circle, leading IDEO’s Play Lab. I told you it was a winding path!

You weren’t wrong! And who was that toy inventor that you did the internship with?
That was Tony Hu. At the time, he had a small invention studio called Primal Products. Now he runs a graduate program at MIT, so he’s had his own winding path. But he still has the heart of a toy inventor, and we’re still in touch. He even sent us an all-star intern a couple years back.

Amazing. Before we dive into IDEO’s Play Lab, for anyone new to IDEO more broadly, how would you describe what it does?
IDEO is a design firm that takes a human-centred approach to designing products, services and experiences — likely many that you’ve interacted with regularly without even knowing it. Our first product was the Apple Mouse; it was the first computer mouse that an everyday user could purchase.

Since those days, we’ve learned that we can also apply our design process to helping companies design strategies and even build new capabilities within their companies.

IDEO has an incredible reputation. What makes it a special place to work?
For one, the human-centred approach is something I really value. Rather than the idea of a solo designer having a flash of brilliance, it’s more about being curious and inviting others into the design process with us so that we experience things from different points of view and broaden our thinking. That becomes inspiration for developing new solutions that we hope are better for the world and that better serve people’s needs. I love that I am constantly exposed to new people, new ideas and new challenges.

And, while the Play Lab is known for being intentional about play, IDEO as a whole is a very playful place. If you were to walk into our office, you’d see that immediately. It’s a place where people are having fun doing what they’re doing, because we’re constantly inventing and coming up with new ideas. It’s rare to find somewhere that feeds your curiosity like IDEO. It lets you do what you did as a child – to dream and make things that take you towards a new reality. It’s really powerful.

Also, I work with some of the most incredible designers! The most skilled, passionate, and fun team you could imagine.

And how would you describe the Play Lab’s function within IDEO?
The Play Lab has two different businesses. On one side, we invent and license toys and games. We’ve done that for over 30 years and work with all the big toy companies to do so. We’ve collaborated on everything from an infant toddler line with Melissa & Doug, to mobile-enabled games like Pictionary Air, to several generations of the Barbie campers.

The other side of the Play Lab business is consulting. Our team brings a play lens to how we tackle the challenges that come to IDEO. That might span education, workplace culture, climate, healthcare and more. We help partners adopt a playful mindset when they tackle these challenges, so they can be more divergent and imaginative in their problem-solving. We bring in tools, processes and learnings from play, such as using role-play to help clients imagine and feel the future. This is helpful when it can be hard to see past the way things are done today.

Play lets us dream about what the future could be. Only after we see it, can we make it real.

Do the two sides influence each other at all?
We try to keep toy invention and play consulting close together. While people will typically get hired to work predominately on the invention side or the consulting side, we cross over. We’ll put inventors on consulting projects and vice versa. We also often pull in designers from the larger consulting pool across the rest of IDEO to support both businesses.

The consulting side will expose our team to the latest tech trends and social trends, and other disciplines like medical device design that can provide interesting inspiration when thinking about things like mechanisms. As you can imagine, that can be really helpful on the invention side. In return, the invention team knows so much about working with kids and families and are also incredibly experienced at making things tangible fast, as well as optimising for manufacture. That’s very useful to different parts of IDEO’s business.

Sounds like a terrific USP. Is there a toy invention from IDEO that you feel came about as a result of having these sides of the Play Lab working closely together?
A recent example would be Twister Air. It was hard to miss the trend of people being thrilled to capture videos and share these videos of themselves doing interesting dances on social media. We saw that trend across both toy invention and in research we were doing for consulting projects focused on Gen Z. It was obvious there was something interesting there, so we mashed up that idea with the classic game of Twister.

The game is about getting people to contort their bodies by matching colourful bands on their wrists and ankles with dots that appear on a screen. If you match things correctly, you find yourself doing actual dance moves.

Fantastic. Did it take a lot of work to get that first mock-up doing what it needed to?
Well, we started out super lo-fi, just to test out the experience to make sure it looked fun before investing in building out the full tech. We filmed people doing the moves first, and then, during video production, we placed dots over them to match the moves. Once we saw something intriguing and Hasbro showed interest as well, we had to figure out how to actually make it!

Our toy inventors worked with our interaction and software designers from the consulting side, as well as engineers from other parts of IDEO. Together they nailed a fully working prototype that combined the digital and physical aspects.

How soon did it become clear that Twister was a nice fit for that trend? Did you explore other ideas around the trend for people recording and sharing their dances?
We love to do mash-ups. It’s a form of brainstorming that we cooked up in the Play Lab, where we break a question down into parts, and brainstorm quick lists for each part. Then we see what we can bring together from each list to create a completely new idea. So, for example, in this case, we would brainstorm around ‘Games we all know and love’ and ‘Interesting trends.’ Taking ‘Twister’ from one list and ‘Dance Videos on TikTok’ from the second list, we arrive at the idea of linking Twister with dance moves. As we build out the idea, someone else adds in the idea of coloured wristbands. And, we keep going until we have a complete toy idea that we can mock up and pitch.

Design and play have a great knack for looking at lots of ideas that seem unconnected and bringing them together so that established things come to life in brand new ways.

Absolutely. I also wanted to talk to you about a new course that IDEO has launched: ‘Creative Thinking for Complex Problem Solving.’ The next cohort starts in August. What can you tell me about that?
I co-teach this class with a brilliant designer, Kate Schnippering. We’re seeing that people are dealing with a lot of hard challenges around the world. It’s a world that’s highly interconnected and where information is shared very quickly, making many of the challenges more systems based and involving many different stakeholders. Our actions can result in big impact and widespread consequences. And because these challenges are so big, they’re also daunting.

This course combines play with rigor as an approach to solving these challenges. The reason I co-teach this class is because I strongly believe in the value of bringing a playful mindset to hard work. It’s about being curious and seeing problems from unique angles. It’s about challenging conventional thinking. Like children, we need to ask: Does it really need to be that way? Can it be something different? Like when a box isn’t just a container but also a store or rocketship! When we start asking questions, we realise that we have a lot of false assumptions which we can change.

Bringing play together with a rigorous design process makes it a very interesting lens for problem-solving. And, with play, it’s a lot more fun, too!

Sounds fascinating. We’ll pop a link to that here: https://www.ideou.com/products/creative-problem-solving. Now, you mentioned the power of play can help people tackle issues in any industry… How do you convince the more ‘buttoned up’ serious sectors to embrace a playful mindset?
The beauty of play is that it’s something most people experienced as children. A large part of it is just reminding people what they did before and how powerful it was. Play is how kids make sense of the world; it’s a superpower. As adults, we’re still confronted with new challenges, and we certainly don’t understand everything. And yet, we’ve abandoned that ability to play and don’t give ourselves permission to do so… It doesn’t make sense.

To get back into play requires baby steps. You can’t just push people into a crazy improv exercise straight away! I don’t believe in forced fun, so you need to read your crowd. If someone isn’t comfortable with it, we’ll start with an easy exercise. It might just be to say: ‘Close your eyes and imagine yourself blasting off into space. Tell me, what did you see?’ I then remind them of how much more they saw when they were children. That can help people understand the power of play.

And we need to bring back that playful spirit to take on these big challenges. For some reason, we feel we have to be serious all the time, but no one has ever equated being serious with being successful or more effective. Play can push ideas further and it’s a great way to sustain momentum. When we’re tackling challenges that we know we’re not going to solve in a few days or weeks, we need momentum.

Are there any big challenges in particular that you feel play has the power to help solve?
Climate is an area I’m very passionate about. Climate is daunting. You catch people’s attention when you tell them the world is burning, but then people feel the pressure to come up with the perfect solution – and then they do nothing because they don’t know what the perfect solution is.

If you approach this same challenge in a playful way, by trying things out with a view that if it goes wrong, you can try again… That leads to progress and with these types of challenges, progress is more important than perfection – because we’ll never get to perfection if that’s what we’re shooting for at the beginning.

Also, how can we think optimistically and look at this as a chance to come up with new and better ways to do things? Look at plastic in the toy industry. What if we don’t limit ourselves to the challenge of finding a one-to-one replacement for plastic as we use it today, but instead explore new materials through a lens of what fresh possibilities they might offer play-wise.

A seaweed-based plastic alternative behaves differently with liquids and has different material properties. It might be more stretchy. What new toys and play patterns might that inspire? If we can come up with fresh, new solutions in toys – an industry that turns over products year after year – other industries will see that it’s possible and will follow.

Before we wrap up, I wanted to ask what fuels your creativity?
I have an 11-year-old and a 13-year-old and they constantly open my eyes to see the world from a fresh perspective. As adults we see things and take them for granted. This object was built for a purpose and that’s that. Kids see things differently and ask a lot of questions… My 11-year-old recently asked me: “What came first, orange the fruit or orange the colour?” It stopped me in my tracks. I had never thought about it before!

And what is the answer?
Orange the fruit came into being 200 years before orange was used as the name for the colour. He’s constantly asking me questions like that, and it encourages fresh ways of thinking. Adults sometimes shy away from questions because they want to have answers. I believe questions are more important than answers.

Fantastic. And what kills creativity for you?
Creativity dies when we’re overprogrammed. As adults, we’ve come to think that being busy is something to brag about. We fill our days and talk about how many meetings we have. We no longer have time to let things swirl around in our brains for a bit and make those important connections that I mentioned earlier. That’s why people’s best ideas sometimes come to them in the shower. It’s when our brains have some downtime.

When I’m working from home and have time between meetings, I’ll run and grab my guitar. Playing a few songs is enough to free my brain. It also gives me joy to keep on with my day. It helps unlock ideas and gives me momentum if something has stalled.

Good answer. My last question: What do you think is IDEO’s most underrated creation?
There are so many! One that comes to mind is the Willow breast pump. It has won many awards so is well recognized, but I would give it more if I could. I so wish it was around when my children were babies! At the time we worked with them, Willow was a small start-up. They looked at this contraption that women attach themselves to for hours each day. It’s loud, it’s clunky… You have to block off time on your calendar to do it. So Willow came to us and said: Can you take the whole pump and put everything into a contraption that fits into a woman’s bra? We helped them with engineering and industrial design while being sure to talk to many moms in the process.

Now, women can just slip the Willow breast pump into their bra and go about their business. Someone wrote to us and said: ‘Thank you for inventing the Willow Breast Pump. I’ve just returned from marching at a women’s march, while I was pumping for my child.’ I was like wow! Talk about how an invention can have deep impacts on society and empower members of our population. That’s one I love.

A brilliant pick. Michelle, a huge thanks again. Let’s catch up again soon!

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World renowned toy and game invention house Fuse London have welcomed Brendan Boyle to its team.

Boyle has a wealth of experience and success in the toy inventing community, most recently with IDEO’s Play lab where he was a founding partner for over 20 years.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join Fuse,” said Boyle, adding: “I look forward to bringing my passion for design-thinking, play and working closely with such a talented team to supercharge our success even further.”

Fuse’s Kev Gillon added: “Brendan is a fantastic addition to our world class team and will help us strengthen relations with key brands and companies here in the US.”

Fuse London boasts offices in its London HQ and Los Angeles, USA.

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Hasbro has debuted Twister Air, a new augmented reality infused version of the classic game.

Invented by IDEO, Twister Air sees players reach, clap, swipe and strike poses to music beats, earning points by matching wrist and ankle bands to coloured spots on the screen.

“For over 55 years, Twister has been a household name thanks to the iconic polka-dotted mat that puts you, family, and friends in unusual positions and hysterical situations,” said Adam Biehl, SVP & General Manager, Hasbro Gaming.

“This new version of Twister will implement augmented reality technology to bring classic Twister gameplay that originated in the 1960s to modern-day and will surely give players of all ages an exciting new, music-inspired experience to make memories from.”

To get started, players download the free Twister Air app available on Android and iOS and place their smartphone or tablet in the provided Twister Air device stand. Players then put Twister Air bands on their wrists and ankles. As soon as the music plays, players must move and match their bands to coloured spots that appear on the screen.

Twister Air lands at retail on August 1st.

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Brendan Boyle, Partner at IDEO and Founder of the IDEO Play Lab, looks at the roles designers inhabit… And why the toy industry needs Hurdlers!

Recall your childhood – the fun and joy we had doing role-play! You could be a firefighter, doctor, gymnast, tennis star or dozens of other roles. The toy industry even has a dedicated category called ‘Role-Play’ with all sorts of big hits – one of my favourites is Hulk Hands. So fun!

Whether you’re a CEO, an SVP, or a new designer, those are all roles you play. We’ve all heard the question: “What’s your role at the company?” If you’re a parent, you know how to quickly switch out of your office role when a shout from your child comes through into your parent role.

Imagine you’re in a meeting where you’re so excited to share your new concept, strategy or brand idea. Your presentation’s going great, there’s lots of encouragement, heads are nodding and the wind is in your sails! That is, until someone says… “Let me play Devil’s advocate!” Argh! Why is that the most well-known role that almost anyone can play? It may have its uses – that I don’t doubt – but might I suggest we get used to playing alternative roles at work.

Best-selling author and fellow IDEO partner, Tom Kelley, who has been a creative inspiration for my entire career, talks about ten additional roles in his book, The Ten Faces of Innovation. The point of the book is to offer strategies around overcoming the Devil’s advocate and driving creativity throughout your organisation.

Several of the archetypes in Tom’s book resonate with me. Take the ‘Anthropologist’, for example. The Anthropologist is about getting out into the world and observing kids as a point of inspiration – and as a reminder of the importance of human-centred design.

Another role I love is the ‘Experimenter’. This role stresses the importance of experimenting with tinker models and rough prototypes, thereby getting to something new and unique. The Experimenter also knows the importance of thinking with their hands when they build, whether it’s a physical or digital product. The goal is always to make something tangible.

There’s one role that I feel is a strong trait of any entrepreneur, designer, inventor or leader in the toy industry: the ‘Hurdler’. This role requires doing more with less! That might be a great trait of innovation in our industry. One doesn’t always have to tackle a challenge head-on… Hurdlers go over, or might even find a way to sidestep.

The IDEO Play Lab is a team of inventors and solvers who are used to way more rejections than yeses, but we listen to the feedback and keep trying. When Cepia Toys had the huge hit Zhu Zhu Pets in 2009, I had a half-dozen toy executives call me to congratulate me on placing our item since I’d been pitching it for years. Except it wasn’t our item. We’d been pitching something extremely similar, but with no luck – and I’d never even heard of Cepia.

Instead of being disappointed, my IDEO colleague, toy inventor Adam Skaates, quickly joined me to pitch our version to Cepia – and we went to contract with them. We didn’t get the big win, but we found a way around that hurdle for a small victory.

Seldom do we invent something and sell it quickly. Pictionary Air, that we developed with Sound Machine, took eight years to license to Mattel. There were so many hurdles to get over on that award-winning toy!

My focus at Stanford and at IDEO is Design for Play. The opposite of play isn’t work… It’s boredom. Play is lifelong. Play makes us resilient – we’re ok with quick failures in order to learn and eventually have more successes. We’re in the wonderful toy industry, which I might suggest we reframe as the ‘Play Industry’.
Nurture the Hurdlers in your organisation. Cherish them. They will do more with less and they will use their entrepreneurial spirit to find a way over walls or turn them into doors.

As an aside, I ran hurdles in high school and one year in college. Good form, but not enough speed. However, lots of endurance and persistence!

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So, here we have our most read articles of 2022,

Have a brilliant Christmas, a great New Year and we’ll see you in 2023.

1. NEWS: Read the Mojo Nation 100: 2022 Edition online now
2. NEWS: Play Creators Awards 2022 finalists revealed
3. INTERVIEW: IDEO’s Josh Finkle on collaboration, creativity and the power of Post-its
4. INTERVIEW: Games guru Dougal Grimes walks us through the key steps in any development process
5. INTERVIEW: Is no news good news?! Rich Mazel and Dougal Grimes team up to discuss inventor relations at Spin Master
6. INTERVIEW: Spin Master’s Michael Lee on getting big transformations into small toys with Bakugan
7. INTERVIEW: George Gomez – Chief Creative Officer at Stern Pinball – takes us inside the design of the firm’s new James Bond machines
8. INTERVIEW: LEGO Designer Mike Psiaki on the challenges of recreating the legendary ship, RMS Titanic
9. INTERVIEW: Mark Forti on the remarkable story of Feisty Pets – and the worst way to invent new toys
10. INTERVIEW: “BlueJ is focused on inventors winning with Jazwares”: Lauren Mershon and Brian Thornber on championing great ideas

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This year sees Josh Finkle celebrate his 10th anniversary at IDEO.

As a Design Director working within IDEO’s prestigious Play Lab, Josh helps lead a team of inventors responsible for smash-hits year-in year-out, across brands like Barbie, PAW Patrol and Pictionary.

We caught up with Josh to find out more about his route into toys – and learn what he feels is the special sauce that keeps IDEO at the top of its game.

Josh, thanks for taking out time to chat. How did you find yourself working in the world of toy invention?
As a kid, I loved drawing. Then, when I started studying Industrial Design at Carnegie Mellon, I discovered a passion for making real things. I had never really used tools up to that point.

From there, I just fell into toys. I interned at Radio Flyer one summer. That’s where I learned how to weld and bend metal to form tricycles and whatnot. Then I had internships at Automoblox and Little Tikes, so all my experience was in the toy industry. It was because I loved making stuff and in this industry, there’s a real desire and need for new stuff all the time.

How did you cross over from in-house internships at companies to working at a studio like IDEO?
At design school, we’d go on trips twice a year to visit different design consultancies. In my freshman year, we went to San Francisco and visited all the industrial design firms there. We visited IDEO and I got to see IDEO’s Play Lab. It was a fun place and was cemented in my mind as a cool place to work. IDEO in general is an amazing place, but the Play Lab in particular was my jam!

Fast-forward to my internship at Little Tikes, and that turned into a full-time gig. It was an amazing job, but I got the opportunity to join IDEO’s Play Lab and I’ve been there for 10 years.

I’m sure a large chunk of our readers will have met some of the team, but for anyone new to IDEO’s Play Lab, talk us through the group?
IDEO is made up of around 600 people, but the Play Lab is a team of 20. We have two offerings: Play and Toy Invention. Half of our team focuses on consulting work for clients, and the other half is 100% focused on toy invention. There’s lots of back and forth though, where toy inventors will work on consulting projects for months at a time, or we’ll sometimes bring the consulting folk into invention.

IDEO has an incredible reputation in the toy space and the team is inventing hits year-in-year-out. What’s the secret sauce that makes IDEO special?
I think there’s two things. I’m part of the Toy Invention Team, which is just one part of IDEO. We have access to the rest of IDEO, which is a collective of smart, amazing, creative people. They work across all industries with all kinds of people around the world. We have access to them, and they have access to us. So that’s one thing.

The second thing is that our creative process is super collaborative. All of my favourite projects to have come out of the Play Lab are items that many people have touched and been a part of.

You mentioned that as well as being inspired by the wider IDEO organisation, they also have access to you guys. What sort of things do the other corners of IDEO come to the Play Lab for?
The Play Lab is very play-centric and game-forward, we’re very experienced with kids and families, and we’re mechanical whizzes – so we get invited to all sorts of cool brainstorms.

I remember there was a client that was launching satellites into space, so we were tasked with coming up with ways that solar panels could fold in and out. We’ve been invited to brainstorms about how to make the experience of ride-shares more fun, or more family friendly. It’s a blast to be a part of these different projects and bring a play-centric mindset to them.

Do those non-toy projects feed into the toy invention side of things in any way? I’d imagine that diversity of work is good for creativity.
Absolutely. We have engineers that have deep experience in areas like medical devices, for example. They’ve worked on things like self-injecting drug-delivery devices that have cool fiddley little mechanisms… It’s valuable to have those kinds of brains come into our process and even work on toys sometimes. Those kinds of mechanisms and that type of design-thinking can really translate into toys.

Let’s dive into your approach to toy invention. Can you recall the first item to hit the market that had your fingerprints on them?
The first toy I got to market, before IDEO, was while I was at Little Tikes. It was a really cool fort building system. You could build giant structures out of them; it was called Tike Stix. That was really fun because I got to make all the prototypes.

Then one of the early projects that I worked on at IDEO that I’m still really proud of was our second transforming Barbie camper van. It had a big impact on the market and it was really fun to prototype. You press a button and – BOOM! – it went from a closed toy to an amazing open toy. It was a transformation that made everyone go “Wow!” when it was a foam-core prototype, and they still went “Wow!” when it became a real toy.

Amazing. And more recently, are there any new launches we should be highlighting came from IDEO?
I’m super excited about our PAW Patrol: The Movie Chase’s Transforming City Cruiser. We invented the toy, working closely with the PAW Patrol team at Spin Master, and it was also in the movie!

I watched the movie with my son – he’s four – and it was so cool because he helped me when I was working on the toy two years ago. He tested out my prototype and it was cool to say, “That’s our toy!” when we bought it and also when we saw the movie.

That’s lovely. And a second film is in the works so there may well be another father-son collab in the works soon! Now, 2022 marks your 10th year with IDEO – has your approach to invention changed much in that time?
Yes, and I’d say we’ve changed how we work – as in the wider team at IDEO. We’ve evolved and improved so much over the last 10 years, not only in our prototype capabilities but also in our industry knowledge and the way we work.

Our brainstorming process has continued to get better, and during the pandemic, we worked out a whole new way to brainstorm remotely. We, as a team, have upped our game massively and we’ll continue to do so.
 
I’d imagine working at IDEO is a career ambition for plenty of budding designers. Is there anything specific – either skills or personality traits – that makes someone a great fit to work at IDEO?
It has to be immediately apparent that you have a passion for making. That can come from the projects you do at school or work, but also via your personal projects. And for the toy invention team, we’re always looking for fun and creativity.

On that, how do you fuel your own creativity?
I always have Post-its and a sharpie around. When I have an idea, I doodle them down – and I get random ideas all the time. Our main process is very collaborative, but I have a wall of Post-its with ideas on them and every couple of weeks I’ll make them all. I’ll then present those to my team to see if there’s anything there. So yes, my own approach is that I collect my thoughts, make them real and then share them with my team.

Outside of toys, what sort of things do you get up to that you find feeds your creativity?
Well, five months ago I unwittingly thrust myself into the world of NFTs and it’s been amazing. After work, my wife and I started a project called Fly Frogs. She’s the Solidity developer and I’m the artist – and it’s the first time I’ve considered myself an artist!

We randomly generated 10,000 unique frogs, we put them on the blockchain and we sold all 10,000 of them. Now we’ve created this online community of people who love frogs and love the project. We’ve been able to donate $33k to SavetheFrogs.com, our charity partner.

All of a sudden, I’m in love with the NFT community and I’ve made a lot of friends there, which I did not see coming. I see a lot of parallels between the toy industry and the NFT industry, and I’m excited about how the toy community will engage with NFTs in the future. It will be amazing.

Folks can check that out that project here (twitter.com/FlyFrogsNFT). Let’s return to it soon because it sounds fascinating. Josh, this has been fun. A huge thanks again.

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A household name among inventors, especially gamers, Naomi Brugnatelli took the leap to Jazwares in 2020 for a lead role as Manager of Inventor Relations.

We caught up with Naomi to find out more about how she got her start in the world of toy and games, and why it’s a good time to be an inventor.

Hi Naomi! Great to catch up; so to kick off, was there a life before toys and if so, what did that look like?
Yes! There was a life before toys! I was previously in special education, teaching at a middle school. I went into that straight out of college, and as a young adult, you think that’s a life-long career, but I quickly figured out that I wasn’t making enough to live in California on a teacher’s salary. It’s so sad but it’s true! So I had to pivot really quickly.

And toys jumped out?
Well during the summer break I looked online to see what was out there and Mattel popped up as having an opening. I lived down the street from Mattel so I thought why not! I sent over a resume, I had a phone interview and then a three-hour interview in person, but during those three hours they were drafting up my offer letter! I had to make a decision right then and there: do I leave a career that I had always envisioned? I did what lots of young kids do and I took a leap of faith and dove right in!

A toy giant and a short commute; the perfect combination! And did you go straight into the world of inventor relations at Mattel?
No! I started as a coordinator with the Hot Wheels team and then moved over to leadership development.

That sounds like an interesting area!
Yes, it weirdly went back to my teaching roots! I started teaching classes to Mattel employees on things like time management and how to present with confidence. From there I went into licensing, working with the external licensors and getting placements on our Hot Wheels cars.

Wow! Such a varied path! And how long would you have been at Mattel by this point?
I’d been at Mattel for 10 years by that point. I had brand new babies at home – twin girls – and so I went to my HR person and said I wanted to take a break from the corporate world. To my surprise my name had already been circulated for an inventor relations role. I’ve not left the world of inventor relations since and it’s been almost five years; I love working with the inventor community so much!

Did you have any ideas before diving into this space what working with the inventor community would be like?
No! I was thrown in at the deep end! When I took over games, I kept hearing ‘game inventors are a different breed, so get ready!’ I had no idea what that meant!

It sounds ominous, but how soon was it before you got to know that was meant in good way?!
Well I joined that team in November and in January I went off to Nuremberg Toy Fair  for the first time. So within three months I was meeting game inventors and taking pitch meetings for hours on end and I loved it! It was so fun and I thought ‘yes, I can definitely do this!’

I’m interested; who was your first pitch? Who set the bar?!
I’ll never forget my first inventor meeting. It was with IDEO and they traveled down from Palo Alto to present a few new items. It also happened to be my birthday. I felt a bit conflicted because they obviously didn’t know it was my birthday and they invited us to go out to lunch, but I had made plans to meet up with friends for lunch! Because it was my first time meeting with IDEO, I cancelled my birthday lunch and hung out with them instead.

Proper dedication.
Absolutely! It was  a very memorable day, and it turned out to be a great birthday lunch!

Before we delve into your new role with Jazwares, has your approach to inventor relations changed much from that first birthday pitch with IDEO to how you tackle it now?
I’ve always approached it with an open mind, an open heart and most importantly I’m always honest with my feedback. I appreciate that it can be very intimidating pitching to a big company so I’ve always maintained a friendly disposition, because that’s the first impression that an inventor gets.

I’ve always wanted to meet them and give them a warm welcome first, before they meet the brand team. That’s never really changed. I think it’s key to make the inventors feel comfortable and for them to know it’s going to be fun and that we’re going to have a great time.

Absolutely, and I imagine with your twins, you have the perfect barometer for what’s fun.
Of course, my girls are always my inspiration. I always think, would they want to play with this? Would I buy this for them? If they don’t find it interesting then how am I going to serve this up to my brand team?

Are they sick of games now? Running into the other room when mum comes home with a prototype under her arm?
No way! Quarantine has only increased our time playing games together. Honestly, they would play games every night if I let them.

Now, you joined Jazwares as Manager of Inventor Relations late last year; in the new role, what are you looking for from the inventor community?
I want to see cool new innovation across all categories and the sky’s the limit! Bring me anything and everything! The doors are wide open!

It’s really cool that Jazwares is a nimble company that wants to move fast on great ideas.
 
Was that part of the appeal in joining Jazwares?
Absolutely! It also helps that everyone has been so welcoming here! I love working with Michael Rinzler and David Winter. They’re well known in the industry and I trust them wholeheartedly; I know that they have everyone’s best interests in mind.

You mentioned the importance of trust and having fun; does that sum up what you think makes for a great IR/inventor relationship?
An openness and a trust that we’ll take care of your item. We are excited to share your ideas with our brand teams. We want open, two-way communication and while I’ll be the one taking your idea in, I still want you to be a part of the process.

It doesn’t stop with the inventor relations team. We want to launch your item and help it achieve what you envision it can achieve. I don’t want to just take your idea and reskin it. We really think long and hard about this. Okay, here’s your item, and this is where I see it going, but do you share that vision? Let’s collaborate. It’s all about working hand-in-hand.

Now, I want to talk a little bit about the pandemic; I imagine this year you’ve seen a lot of pitches virtually. What’s your thoughts on the pros and cons of seeing inventor ideas this way?
It’s interesting because during this time, I feel I’ve connected more with the inventor community because they’re so accessible; we can just hop on a Zoom call. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the other side of the world. It’s fun to be on a call with people in different time zones.

The downside is that it can get pretty lonely! I don’t really enjoy talking to a screen all day. I’m a big hugger and I miss hugging people; I don’t know if hugs will ever be allowed again!

Yes! We don’t want your next hug to be met with five people in hazmat suits abseiling in Monsters Inc-style!
Ha! Exactly! It can also feel quite isolating working from home. My girls are now in school so I have the house to myself and it’s really peaceful, but I can’t wait to get back out into the real world again.

Absolutely; now you’re seeing lots of ideas and often seeing lots in a condensed amount of time. How do you keep yourself engaged and avoid ‘idea fatigue’?
Good music on a sizzle is always helpful! Anything upbeat that helps add to the story you’re trying to create is great. And videos don’t have to be professional; they can be shot on a phone. We want to see if it’s fun and also if it’s a working model or a mock-up, because it’s useful to know if we’d have to put in a little more development. So for sizzles; make them fun, make them lively, make them upbeat!

Great advice. And on the subject of giving out pearls of wisdom, do you like seeing pitches from new inventors, who may be a bit rougher around the edges than the IDEOs of the world?
I love this question because I’m super passionate about supporting young up and coming inventors. That’s why I love People of Play’s Young Inventor Challenge; you get to meet kids that are super young and help them grasp that they could do toy design as a career. I also love meeting interns that are just starting out. Inventing is a fun, challenging job, but it’s a rewarding one when you see your item on shelf.

It goes back to my teaching roots and wanting to share and show the younger generation all of the possibilities of our industry. The folks that have been in the business for a really long time don’t need my advice!

That’s great to hear. Now, I’m interested, you see so many ideas day-in, day-out; but do you ever have ideas for products yourself? Could you ever cross that divide and dip a toe in the inventing world?
Oh man, I wish! I don’t have many ideas, but my kids sure do!

Well they have a pretty good in with the inventor relations team at Jazwares!
They do come up to me and say ‘mommy you should do this’ and I look at it with my IR lens and tell them that it’s going to be too costly! But I can tell you where I am super creative and inventive: making costumes at Halloween!

I wish we went to town with Halloween here in the UK in the same way that you guys do in the US.
I know! One of my daughter’s wanted to be a Rubik’s Cube this year, but I told her no because I didn’t want to spend time making something that cool when we weren’t able to go out trick or treating.

Ah, so with the Rubik’s idea up in flames, what did she end up dressing as?
She settled for a sloth.

And that was easier than a Rubik’s Cube?!
Well I didn’t have to make it, you see!

What do you do to fuel your creativity, and has this been affected by the lockdown?
I have definitely listened to more podcasts than I can tell you. It’s good because I’m learning as I’m listening. I’m loving Azhelle Wade’s Making It in The Toy Industry!

I also like to start my day with my Calm app. It has some meditations on there and puts me into a quiet space that I won’t have once my kids get up! That keeps me grounded for sure.

Great and before we wrap up, you mentioned earlier about the next generation of inventors and supporting young talent. Have you got any advice for how new inventors can thrive in the world of toys and games?
Starting out, you need to stay humble and learn from all of the inventors that are in the industry. Connect and network as much as you can through great places like Mojo Nation, People of Play and TinkerTini – shout out to Trina McFarland who is doing amazing work!

Like I said, keeping an open mind and keeping in touch with folks who can help you and who paved the way in the industry. You can learn a lot from other inventors and I think that’s one of the reasons why this community is so tight-knit.

You go to events and everyone chats with each other. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing and most are willing to share advice and connections. It truly is about networking and not seeing it as ‘me versus him’ because we’re all in this together. If your item doesn’t land with one company, there’s 10 others that would love to see your item. I know at Jazwares, if an item doesn’t work for us, we’re willing to give advice on who it might be a better fit for.

And on something you said there; if we look at the landscape now, People of Play, TinkerTini, The Toy Coach, The Toy Association, The Toy and Game School; the list goes on and on! Is now a great time to be an inventor, because there’s so much help out there and lots of opportunities to get ideas licensed?
Absolutely, and look at inventors like Fun-Damental’s Gary Pyper or Tantrum’s Steve Moore; they’ve proved the inventing world is hot right now. They’ve branched out on their own, leaving huge companies, and are doing really well. So yes, I think now is the time to get out there and you can do it. Yes, it’s challenging because there’s a lot of people out there doing it too, but there’s room for everyone to play.

They’ve actually inspired me; I could’ve played it safe, but I wanted to take a risk and make a big move while I still can.

Well congrats again on the new role; and a huge thanks again Naomi for taking time out to chat; it’s been fun!

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This year’s Play Creators Festival took place earlier this week, uniting the toy and game design world for two days of conferences, awards and pitching.

Taking place at London’s Stamford Bridge, kicking off the Festival was the Toy and Game Design Conference. This saw panel sessions cover issues around eco-friendliness, design gripes and the retail landscape covered, while also welcoming indivudaul sessions from the likes of Hasbro’s Tanya Thompson, IDEO’s Brendan Boyle and Little Inventors’ Dominic Wilcox.

The Conference was followed by the inaugural Play Creators Awards, a night celebrating the achievements of toy and game designers and R&D teams. Winners on the night included agencies like So Sound, FUSE London and Open 2 Design, as well as teams from Spin Master and Moose Toys UK, while TOMY’s Alpesh Patel was named Design Icon.

Closing the Festival was the Mojo Pitch, an event that have designers the opportunity to pitch toy and game concepts to over 30 different companies.

You can check out the gallery of this year’s Festival below.

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