KICKIN’ IT

Introduction

Our team, consisting of five students including myself, tackled the issue of expensive toys that fail to engage children’s interest for long, often resulting in a surplus of discarded plastic toys. We aimed to discover if we could not only address this issue but also add value beyond that offered by conventional toys. After engaging with numerous parents, teachers, and children, we devised an instructional guide that empowers kids to create their own toys.

Team Organization

We adopted a the flexible agile scrum framework for this project, with me serving as the project manager. My responsibilities included maintaining team alignment, focusing on our collective objectives, and providing assistance wherever necessary. We utilized Trello, a digital Kanban board, to schedule meetings and track the progress of tasks. Our project was segmented into two three-week sprints, each designed with specific learning objectives to guide future decisions.

Sprint 1: Exploratory Phase

During the first sprint, our goal was to understand our target demographic and how children interact with their toys. We tested three hypotheses using the Strategyzer test card template, which led to a significant insight: children prefer toys that offer a core play mechanism (e.g., the cascading effect in dominoes) and allow for imaginative play. Encouraged by this discovery and positive stakeholder feedback, we decided to develop an instruction manual for building customizable toys.

Sprint 2: A/B Testing

In the second sprint, we leveraged our initial findings to develop prototypes of our instruction manuals. These were designed to guide kids in creating a Jianzi—a versatile, low-cost toy made from recyclable materials. We conducted A/B testing in schools, comparing the effectiveness of a free-form, single-page manual against a detailed, six-page guide. By observing and gathering feedback from students who were divided into two groups, we learned that the detailed guide was more effective, leading to a higher level of engagement and easier comprehension.

Results and Reflections

Through our six-week project, we gained profound insights into our target audience and acquired valuable experience in conducting interviews and running tests. If the project were to continue, we planned to explore the longevity and durability of the self-made toys, expand our range of instruction manuals, and supplement them with video tutorials.

Conclusions

The project was a resounding success, offering us invaluable lessons on stakeholder engagement, product testing, and educational content creation. We believe our initiative has the potential to change how children perceive, interact with, and value their playthings, fostering a more sustainable and creative approach to play.