Episode #13: Staying At Home Part 2: Brainstorming And Playtesting Virtually
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This episode is part 2 of the mini-series aimed at guiding inventors on how to nurture their creativity and develop their ideas while stuck at home. In this episode learn how to make a game of brainstorming and developing your idea with friends and family. You'll also learn how to playtest and vet your toy concepts from home. Learn the best ways to use video chats, online surveys, and snail-mail to keep your concept development moving while the rest of the world is on pause.
Azhelle introduces you to Mad Lib Brainstorming, a process she developed to inject a little bit of fun and joy when you're at an inventors’ stalemate. Follow along as she uses the classic game Connect 4, as an example to show you how to implement this process for your self. The Toy Coach also gives a quick overview of what it means to playtest and vet your toy idea or prototype and then goes into detail giving you action-by-action advice on how you can perform that research from the safety of your own home.
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Azhelle (00:00): You are listening to Making It in The Toy Industry. Episode number 13 Intro/Outro + Jingle (00:06): Welcome to making it in the toy industry podcast for inventors, entrepreneurs like you and now your host Azhelle Wade. Azhelle (00:17): Hey there, toy people Azhelle Wade here and welcome back to another episode of making it in the toy industry. This is a weekly podcast brought to you by the toy coach.com this week is the part two continuation of last week's episode, staying inspired while staying at home part one. So if you haven't listened to that episode, I'm going to hold my hand up, stop you right there and tell you to go back and listen because you are missing a whole lot of good bits of information, inspiration and just thoughtful toy insights. I decided to make this two part series to talk about the best ways to nurture creativity when you're stuck at home because I know that the quarantine is likely getting to some of us right now and we could be going a bit stir crazy. So to get started, let's just recap what we covered in last week's episode. Azhelle (01:13): We started with one, how to find inspiration in isolation and to do that I listed five different scenarios that you or maybe your friends or family might be facing right now and talked about how to take those unique challenges and identify the opportunities for invention within them. I gave you a few great examples on products that already exist that just happen to solve some of our current challenges and then we brainstormed to areas that will need innovating in the very near future. And number two, we went over how to create and maintain an inventor's notebook both for creative development or for legal protection. And I gave you a link to an inventor's notebooks specifically designed to meet all of the guidelines you would need to follow for legal protection if that were how you chose to use your notebook. Now, if any of that sounds foreign to you or had you saying, wait, what then head over to the toy coach.com forward slash podcast forward slash 12 and listen to that episode first, soak up all that goodness and then come on back to episode 13 so what are we going to get into today? Azhelle (02:29): Well today we are going to dive into two more points on how to find inspiration while staying at home. Our third point is going to be how to make a game of brainstorming your idea and developing it. And number four we're going to talk about play testing and vetting your toy concept from home. Now like I said last week, by the end of this two part series, you are going to be able to transform what seems like a drizzle inspiration and turn it into a full on creative title wave. Okay, so let's get started and let's dive into how to make a game of brainstorming your idea and developing it. So you've been on stay at home order for about let's say three weeks, five days, 15 minutes, 30 seconds, something like that. Most likely. So as you're counting the minutes and the seconds until you can go outside for some fresh inspiration, you might be feeling stuck and uninspired after spending just too long inside your own home and your own head. Azhelle (03:36): So now I think it would be a great time to turn your brainstorming session into. Again, I came up with this brainstorm method because I was just stuck on an idea once and thinking about what kind of toy I wanted to make was just not really getting me anywhere. So I started doing word association with a friend of mine and that word association led to just jokingly shouting out any word that popped into either of our heads. And because I'm super type a, I couldn't leave well enough alone. So I turned it into a process and this process is called the mad lib inspired brainstorming process. And I like to use a mad lib brainstorm style when I'm feeling really stuck. It can help you brainstorm your idea into something funny and ridiculous, but those out of the box ideas can then be refined. And the concept of developed into something really, really unique.Azhelle (04:34): So first, what is a mad lib brainstorm, right? You might be wondering, well a mad lib brainstorm as it was created by me. It will also be defined by me as a brainstorm where you write out a really detailed description of your toy or game product and then you remove keywords from your description and then you change those words for something else completely different. But within the same part of speech, you know mad lib style, so announced season, noun, a verb stays a verb. But also we have to remember because we're doing this for toys and games, so if you're changing a number like player count or age grade, that also has to stay a number. All right, so let's get into an example. I'm going to use a super classic game as an example for how this process works. Now I'm not claiming that the mad lib brainstorm process created this game, it didn't, but this is a really simple example that I'd like to use to show you how this process can be used to inspire the evolution of an existing toy or game idea you might have. Azhelle (05:41): So the game we're going to use for an example is connect for. So first to do a mad lib brainstorm, we need to write out a description. So let's write a description for connect for the classic game four is a family fun game where the goal is to line up four of the same colored chips in a row before your opponent can. This game is for two players. Each player takes one turn, dropping their chip into the plastic structure. At the start of the game, each player must choose a color and divide the chips by color between them. The youngest player takes the first turn, the player to get four of their chips in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally wins the game resets after every win or tie. Okay, so that's our description. So doing a mad lib style brainstorm, you're going to take that description and I like to use like a highlighter to highlight the key words that you're going to remove from your description and mad lib and swap with new words. Azhelle (06:48): So in this example, let's highlight to remove the number of players and the word ships. Okay. Now let's rewrite this description and change those highlighted words to something completely random, but in the same part of speech of course, and again, remember if it's a number, it's got to stay a number. So let's say you change the word chips to ball and you change the number of players to eight. Now rewrite your description using those new words. And here is now our mad lib brainstorm game description. The classic game connect four is a family fun game where the goal is to line up four of the same colored balls in a row before your opponent can. The game is for eight players. Each player takes one turn dropping their balls into the plastic structure. At the start of the game, each player must choose a color and divide the chips by color between them. Azhelle (07:45): The youngest player takes the first turn, the first player to get four of their balls in a row horizontally, vertically or diagonally wins the game resets after every win or tie. Okay, so of course our description doesn't actually make total sense for the game. Like you can see if we have eight players and there's only two colors, how can every single player have their own color? It's mad libbed, but we can analyze our mad lib brainstorm and start using it to develop a new version of connect for that. If you think about it sounds a whole lot like connect four shots, which is the action version of the connect four game by Hasbro that is actually played with balls instead of chips and can be played in teams instead of just two players so it could use like we're saying eight players just on two separate teams so you can play around with this mad lib brainstorm style and play around with the concepts and playfully develop your toy idea with just a few random words you can get your kids involved telling you where to slot in or ask your friends and family can really be a whole lot of fun. Azhelle (08:58): The process of mad lib brainstorming is simple enough that you can do it over the phone or over video chat and it doesn't require the person helping you ad lib words to be in the toy industry in order to give you great suggestions. Honestly, it could help if they aren't in the industry at all. Now you can perform a mad lib brainstorm with just a pen and a paper and a highlighter, but once you've experimented with mad lib brainstorming, if you decide it works for you and you want a 10 X the process, I am going to recommend you that you sign up for my toy creators Academy email list. Why? Well, because I found mad lib brainstorming, so fun myself and so useful that I automated it. Yup. I built it into an Excel spreadsheet that will automatically swap out words from your Toyer game description and create fun, inspiring mad lib brainstorm descriptions. Azhelle (10:01): So if you're interested in that tool, you can just check out toy creators, academy.com you'll get the link in the show notes and just get on the email list. So when that tool and the course goes live, you'll be notified. Okay. Next and finally and not least, of course, we are going to get into play testing and vetting your toy concept at home. Now play testing is the process of experimenting with the functions and the features of your toy or the game play of your game. While it's still in development, when it comes to toys, you're typically testing to assure mechanisms work correctly that the play pattern flows and delivers the desired results. You might also be testing that a toy is usable for the intended age grade or even testing the safety of a toy and it's many pieces. Now when it comes to games, play testing is playing and replaying a game from start to finish with different variations on rules and structure, so to determine which variation makes for the most thrilling gameplay. Azhelle (11:15): Now vetting your toy concept is a little bit different. It's more of a gathering proof that there's a market need for your toy. Essentially it's, it's just reaching out to your intended target market and seeing what they think of the idea or what they think of the prototype. As an inventor, you do have two target markets. You have your end consumer, which is the mom, the dad, or the child purchasing your product from a store, and you also have the buyer. That's the person deciding whether or not to order 10,000 or 50,000 units of your toy to put inside their store in the first place. Okay, so let's talk about how to play test your inventions while you're in quarantine. Now there are actually a few great options for vetting your toy idea or play testing it all from the comfort of your own home. Azhelle (12:07): Now, the most obvious way to playtest right now is to use the people around you. If you're at home with your family, you can gather your kids and significant other to test out your toy concepts with breadboard mock ups or play test a few versions of your game. But let's talk about how you're going to conduct that play test. Now for a toy idea, you need to start off by quickly explaining what the toy concept is. Then you show the toy prototype to your play test group and just be ready with a pen and paper or better yet a camera to record how they play with it. Now at this stage, you're only going to have a breadboard mockup at best and try not to lead the way that the your play testers play with your product. You want to see how they naturally engage with it, but a breadboard mock-up is typically just going to be made of found objects from a workshop or if you're home from your home. Azhelle (13:03): It could be anything from wood to foam core, maybe even a few household items or other toys piece together to create the functioning mechanism. That's the heart of your toy invention. So look out for these things. When you're watching your children play test your toy. Take notice of how they interact with your breadboard mockup. Do they know what to do or do they need to be shown? Is the play pattern too complicated for the intended age or is it too simple? I would really recommend videotaping the session if you can so that you can watch it over and over again and perhaps you'll notice some things that you may have missed while watching the actual live session. Take all of your findings and write them down in the inventor notebook that we talked about last episode. Now for a game idea, you're going to start off the same way explaining the basic premise of the game. Azhelle (13:56): If you can, you're going to want to compare your game to another game that your friends, your family or your children are already familiar with, so it seems less intimidating to play. Then you're going to explain if it's a cooperative game, if there are teams, if it's a physical game, and finally you explain the goal of the game. You give a short overview of the rules and start playing. Now again, I would highly recommend you record this play test so that you can experience in on the game play without missing any notable research findings. Feel free to take notes throughout the play and feel free to change the rules as you play along. If it immediately becomes apparent that a certain set of rules just isn't working for a variety of reasons. Now, if due to the stay at home orders, you don't have the option to play tests with friends and family.Azhelle (14:49): Another great solution would be video conferencing. Now, I know lately video conferencing has been the GoTo method for working from home, but why can't we also use it for play testing from home? For a toy, you might consider mailing a prototype to a trusted friend or family member and scheduling a video call to play test your invention with their children or with their housemates. You could pack the toy with an easy to follow instruction sheet or even send them a PDF questionnaire to fill out about what they thought of the prototype when they're done playing for a game. You can use video conferencing in two ways. You can do the same method as I mentioned for toys mail, a sample of your prototype to a trusted friend or family member and ask to be video conferenced in to watch and analyze their game play. Again, this process will benefit from sending them a quick PDF questionnaire about what they thought of the game. Azhelle (15:49): But additionally with games you have the option to play test certain elements of the game via video conference without needing to send samples to anyone. So one main element you can test is the content. You can test your question cards, maybe even your scoring system by calling friends and family over video conference, explaining the game to them and reading the content out loud game show style. While it's not 100% of the game play, this is a really useful tool that you shouldn't overlook games with command or action cards that like tell players or at least half of the players, assuming they're divided by teams, what to do at any given time are also great for video conference testing. You can test physical games like charades to see if your action cards are too complicated, may be dangerous or just maybe not that much fun. You can also use this form of testing to see if team a gets bored waiting for team B to finish their turn because the length of each turn you decided on is just too long. Azhelle (16:59): Okay, so now that you know how to play test your ideas while you're at home in quarantine, let's talk about how to vet your toy concepts. You can vet or test your toy concept with a very simple prototype. It can be something you built yourself or a mock up you had made by a sample maker. Now it's best to go through multiple stages of having your concept reviewed and commented on so you can make changes to your gameplay or toy product before you've made any heavy monetary or time investment. Now ideally you want to vet or test your toy concepts in person by showing a simple mock up or prototype to your tester. But while on stay at home order, you can't show your idea to anyone in person. So the next best thing is yup, and you know I'm going to say it, mail them a prototype. Azhelle (17:51): Ask a friend to set up a video camera and record their whole play session with your new prototype. Make sure that you have clear play patterns that you want them to test and an easy to fill out questionnaire about their experience. Now another more affordable option to vet your concept is to use an online survey. Now to make a simple survey for free, I am going to recommend you to survey monkey. Survey monkey is a great tool that I actually used to vet the need for this very podcast and a free survey monkey account lets you ask 10 questions. They can be fill in the blank, check boxes, radio buttons, whatever you need. If you choose to go the survey route, you want to make sure that the questions point directly back to the need of your toy. With surveys, you really have to plan your questions well. Azhelle (18:46): You really need to make sure that you aren't leading the person taking the survey to any particular answer with your words. You want to ask questions like what kinds of activities does your child do most and lists categories of play like role play with dolls, board games, arts and crafts as your options, but what you don't want to do is list questions that are too specific too leading, like how would your child feel about a new action figure that fought cyberbullies because you don't want to lead the survey taker to feel obliged to agree that your product is going to fill their needs since they know that you're the one reading the survey answers. You also want to make sure that your survey questions lead the user's mind along a comfortable thought path, meaning you don't want to jump between opinion and statistic questions and type your own answers and multiple choice. Azhelle (19:43):You want to start with gathering statistics about your market in traditional radio button or dropdown forms and just gather the basics. Are they a parent? How many kids do they have? What ages are they, and what genders? Then move your questions into gathering some consumer insights about the parents themselves, what they look for in a science toy, for example. Then your questions can move into talking about their children's likes and dislikes. If you include open fields for survey takers to type in their own answers, just make sure that you're really clear with how long their answers should be and what they should include in it. Or you could end up with one word answers or answers that don't relate to the question at all. Now these surveys should start more broad and as the user gets the end of the survey should focus around one specific toy category or general theme. Azhelle (20:42): Now, aside from vetting an existing concept, I also want to point here that you can use online surveys to just ask broad questions in hopes to find out insights as to what types of products parents really need right now for their kids. You can ask questions about how staying at home has impacted their work, maybe their children's school and play time. You can pull out great insights about what parents need or want during this time with a really well organized and thought out survey. All right, so when you have your survey ready, you need to get it out to the masses. You can advertise these surveys on social media with Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads. There's also options to advertise within survey monkey itself to get your survey answered by more people. But if you're not looking to spend on advertisements, you could also just try sending an email blast to your friends and your family with a killer headline. Azhelle (21:46): Of course, remember the four U's that I taught you guys for a great headline. We learned that back in episode seven. It was unique, urgent, ultra specific and useful. Now you can apply all that learning right here, right now with surveys. It's really important to let people know right off the bat how long they are going to be doing this survey and why they should take the time to fill it out. So along with your awesome motivational headline, you want to have more information in your email where you include something to the effect of take this quick three minute survey to help your friend solve a major problem parents are facing with their kids' toys today. Well, there you have it. Two people. That concludes our two part series. Staying inspired while staying at home. I hope you had as much fun listening to the series as I did creating it. Azhelle (22:44): I know I keep saying this, but I say it because it's true. I want you to remember that the challenges we are all facing today will be solved by the inventions of tomorrow and some of those inventions, believe it or not, will be in our area of toys and games, we have an opportunity to reinvent how kids connect with their friends and their family members when they can't be together. I know it's hard being stuck inside during this pandemic and it can be difficult to find the motivation and the inspiration to invent when you can't get outside for any sort of creative stimulation. So if you find yourself stuck on a toy idea, I really want to urge you to give mad lib brainstorming a try with some friends or some family. That process is guaranteed to put a smile on your face and likely inspire a few great ideas. Azhelle (23:43): I hope everything you learned in episode and last week's episode inspired and directed you on how to find inspiration, develop those ideas, play test your homemade prototypes, and vet your amazing toy concepts all from the safety of your own home. A huge thank you to all of my listeners. I know there are a lot of podcasts out there, so the fact that you chose to listen to this one means the world to me. If you are an avid listener of making it in the toy industry, then please take a moment and rate it on iTunes and leave a review. That rating and that review, let iTunes know to move us up on the list of that more inventors like you can find us. Well, that's it. Thank you again for listening and until next week I'll see you later toy people. Intro/Outro + Jingle (24:42): Thanks for listening to making it in the toy industry podcast with Azhelle Wade. Head over to thetoycoach.com for more information, tips, and advice.
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