I work at the intersection of strategy and creativity—helping manufacturer-designers develop great new products and bring them to market. I bring over two decades of experience in buying, new product development, branding and marketing, with expertise in toys and children’s products.
My approach is what I call child-ish. It’s an approach to problem solving that blends the analytical rigor I acquired at Columbia Business School with the creativity I honed at The Rhode Island School of Design. It also reflects my belief that the best design can—and probably should—be influenced by play.
If you are a manufacturer-designer and are looking for help with product development, I’d love to work with you.
Services
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Strategy
Market Research, Competitor Audit, Customer Interviews, Trends, Target Audience, Product Vision, Business Case
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Concept Development
Ideation, Prioritization, Sketches/Mockups, Value Proposition, Feasibility, COGS Estimation, User Feedback
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Design
Design (form, ergonomics, aesthetics), Engineering, CAD Modeling, Material/Color/Finish Selection, Packaging
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Prototyping & Testing
Prototype Development, Internal Reviews, Refinement, User Testing, Iteration Cycles
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Branding
Strategy, Voice, Personality, Logo, Color Palette, Typography, Graphics, Imagery, Website, Packaging
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Validation & Pre-Production
Engineering Validation, Safety Testing, Sourcing, Tooling, Design & Packaging Finalization, Compliance Testing
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Go To Market
Marketing Campaign Development, Creative Asset Development, Product Page Content, Launch Event, PR
My Background
My education and work experience put me in a unique position to help manufacturer-designers bring great products to market.
Education
BA - Art History (BYU)
MBA - Marketing (Columbia)
CID - Industrial Design (RISD)
Experience
20 years of experience in product development, branding and marketing, including 15 years in the toy industry as a buyer, product developer and marketer.
Validation
Product distribution to 2,000 retail locations (e.g. Bergdorf Goodman). Media placement in 40+ outlets (e.g. NYT, Architectural Digest). 18 awards (e.g. Top Toy of the Year).
Child-ish Design Rubric
The rubric is a proprietary, nine-part evaluation tool that helps manufacturer-designers determine the strengths of a new product early in the production process, before significant investment is made. It is also useful for evaluating competitive offerings.
The rubric is based on the idea that design is a critical element in any product and drives desirability among all stakeholders. But design is only one of the nine evaluation criteria. Using the nine elements, a score is created for a product’s appeal to each of the following: children, parents, retailers and content creators.
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The rubric was created as a tool for product manufacturers and designers.
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I developed it based on my education in business and industrial design. I add to those decades of experience working as both a buyer and in product development, branding and marketing. And finally I layer on my experience as a parent.
This experience has taught me that for any given product there are multiple stake holders from children to parents to retailers to media/press.
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Just contact me. If you are a manufacturer, I’ll be happy to send you examples.
