PORTFOLIO

Product Development - Engineering/Project Management

For consumer electronics and toys for all ages - babies to adult collectors!
Deep knowledge of variety of materials and manufacturing methods, including:
- plastic, silicone, plush, metal, wood, paper, custom PCBs, gel/liquid, etc.
- injection molding, roto molding, blow moding, compression mold, cut and sew, stamping, extrusion, machining, etc.
Conduct detailed cost analysis on early concepts and collaborate with design team to refine designs before presenting to the client or factory for RFQ (request for quote)
Manage development, schedule, cost, and licensing approvals
Define BOM (bill of materials), construction, and functional requirements and create detailed documentation.
- Created exploded views, color callouts, and BOMs for several lines of toys, including the Musical Submarine Playset (Preschool Toy of the Year nominee 2018), Magical Musical Bug Keeper Playset, and 3” articulated figures
- Update tech packs to clarify design intent to factories to optimize schedule
Collaborate with internal design team and international suppliers to improve functionality, manufacturability, and cost of products
Ensure safety and compliance testing and PASS reports
Regularly update all internal teams of cost and schedule updates, as well as any issues and plans to address them
Create and present high level overviews and action plans to solve issues

Meet with clients and licensors to present concepts and prototypes and receive feedback and approval on designs
Cost Reduction analysis: Created a Cost Improvement Plan Standard Operating Procedure (CIP SOP), saving $250k in the first year across many product lines

Initiate RFQs (Request for Quote) with factories
Cost Negotiation, including review and advise on proposed tool plans and assembly, resulting in up to $30k tool cost reduction on a single project
Provide feedback on STLs, prototypes, test shots, deco samples, and pre-production samples
Collaborate with factories to solve problems as they arise
Request testing to validate solutions, analyze data and make suggestions
Suggest parallel paths of potential solutions to issues to minimize schedule impact
Visit factories to support builds, as needed

Designed and conducted user research for many different types of products with different end users, including:
- Target market for consumer electronics, like portable power packs
- Baby product testing - coordinated tests with babies and their caregivers on a variety of products, including baby gear, gyms, toys, and assembly instructions
Documented specific design questions for new and existing products to validate design decisions and to uncover new insights
Trained the product development team on how to facilitate without bias and document responses to open-ended questions
Consolidated and summarized responses
Shared insights and conclusions with internal teams

Point of contact to external licensors on specific projects
Provided licensors with proposed packaging art and product concepts, sculpts, deco guides, and pre-production samples of both product and packaging at appropriate stage to solicit feedback and approvals
- Created and edited documents for licensor review/approval
Incorporated feedback into the next stage, when necessary
Collaborate with licensors on designs

I am highly experienced at evaluating early concepts for cost and manufacturing feasibility, and I typically work with the design team to refine designs before presenting to clients or submitting to the factory for cost estimates and prototyping, saving significant development time (20%) and cost (30%).
Examples of baby projects that made it to market include:
- Push & Pop Musical Light-Up Mini-Vac
  - Initial Cost Feasibility focused the team on what was achievable for feature and cost targets for this plastic electronic toy
- Sensory Stacking Rings
  - Used a unique mix of new parts and existing components from other products to achieve design and cost goals
- Musical Mirror Pal
  - My Cost Feasibility template helped focus the cross-functional team early to define appropriate feature and cost targets before prototyping, saving 2 months in development time
- Squeeze & Teethe Terry Tail
  - Implemented cost savings techniques from other projects to stay on target

3-in-1 Deluxe Magic Arch Sensory Development Gym
- One challenging project involved creating a new mechanism for a rotating toy arch in a baby gym.
- I managed a freelance CAD designer, prototyped, tested, and worked with the factory to refine the design to ensure it met safety, manufacturability, and cost requirements.
Monster Jam Happy Meal program 2019
- Another challenge was delivering certain trick functions to the Monster Jam Happy Meal toy line, including one that made it to the line:
  - Monster Mutt - freewheeling car that rolls over
- From studying reference products, I had the idea to incorporate a plastic piece with the gearbox to enable the cars to flip as intended. I worked with the Chinese factory and model shop to mock up and validate the design before going into mass production.

I was instrumental in sourcing sensory gel bead material for an innovative baby toy that passed all safety testing.
Before I stepped in, a decision had been made to use liquid instead of gel, and development was taking excessive time and money with little progress.
Alternate design had safety and quality challenges that were time consuming and costly - testing alone was at least 30 days.
I salvaged the project and reduced development time by at least 3 months, resulting in the product going to market.
Seek & Squish Sensory Pal Raccoon was the first of a line of similar products, including the seasonal Seek & Squish Sensory Pal Santa.

Worked with factory to simplify manufacturing processes of EVA foam padding, resulting in minimal aesthetic changes for $15k in cost savings in the first year
Studied customer reviews to identify additional areas to improve usability and verified with user studies.
Made improvements to the tray attachment mechanism
Improved footrest assembly and instructions
Re-evaluated deco placement on slick surfaces that wore off during normal use
Cost improvements were implemented in the next generation character version - Raccoon

Some customer reviews noted that the teether was too big for baby
Reduced overall thickness while maintaining all other aspects of the design
More than $50k cost savings in the first year
- Reduced material and shipping costs
- Strategic sourcing also contributed to cost savings