| Mr. Potato Head and Friends (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
One of our first Sandbox/Touch sessions here in Orlando, on the final day of Front End of Innovation 2012 was on 'New' Mr. Potato Head: The Starch Reality of Refreshing an Icon and Finding Creative Inspiration in a Spud That's No Dud with Wayne Marcus, Senior Director, Design & Development at Hasbro, Inc.
His superpowers are observing, playing, imagining, learning, collaborating - use your strengths, claim your power and stand it. One must have skill is definitely versatility, especially with the speed of technical progress.
Mr. Potato Head's superpower IS versatility.
Recently, he was redesigned and this was incredibly hard - how do you redesign an iconic beloved product?
They began with deep dive into consumer insight and concept design.
Added legs and pants for Mr. Potato Head, made Mrs. Potato Head's nose smaller, added cooler boots and lightened skin. They both now have legs, slimmer bodies, more expressive accessories to give them a sense of being more animated.
During the session, we also began drawing and conceptualizing our own redesign collectively. Have many tools to be able to constantly transform, readjust, look at things with an open mind and look at known things with a fresh lens, focus - have clarity and vision and tune into what people are really saying. Lastly, have fun.
Don't forget your super strength!
Valerie M. Russo is a Senior Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a technology, anthropology, marketing and publishing business acumen. She is a published poet and also maintains a literary blog. She may be reached at vrusso@iirusa.com. Follow her @Literanista.
