FurReal Makers

Role: Design Engineer

I helped develop the initial pitch for this product, and saw it all the way through to production. To me this felt the right kind of STEM toy– it kept the focus on play in the physical world, only using the app when you wanted to change or augment something.

Background on the product:

FurReal Makers is toy that teaches kids about block coding in a meaningful and relevant way. You unbox the toy as a robot, and then snap on parts to turn it into a dog. Then you connect to it through an app, which allows you to control it like a RC car, and also teach it tricks through programming.

What I worked on

Initial concept & prototype

In a brand brainstorm, the idea came up of making a STEM-related toy in the FurReal line, which at the time was just realistic animatronic pets. As an engineer, the idea of a toy that integrated engineering concepts made me excited, so I refined the idea and then convinced a co-worker friend to help me build a prototype. We pitched it to senior management with a proof-of-concept Arduino prototype & UI mockup, and they green-lit the project.

Engineering and design

My role at the time was a project engineer, but I integrated myself with design & marketing to develop the concept and feature set. I blurred the line between my engineer responsibilities (cost estimating & cost reductions, managing prototype development, QA) and the design effort. I remained the main point of contact between our engineering team China, and our marketing, branding, model shop, and QA teams in-house.

Connecting physical & digital

Making the toy and app interact connect very seamlessly was crucial. We had 2 vendors working on UX for the toy and the app. I helped manage the development of the game design and app.