| To: | Newly assigned engineers in the Educational Toy Division |
| From: | Alan Turing, Vice President for Toy Development |
| Subject: | Educational toy research report |
| Date: | 14 January 2015 |
Congratulations! You have been assigned to the Educational Toy Division. and will be working with our teams to develop a new line of educational toys. We believe our company will be able to develop an inexpensive microprocessor that can support a wide range of educational toys.
We are aware that many microprocessor-based educational toys are available on the market, but we need more information about what is out there, who is the target audience, and what features are being offered. This research will help us target our new products to the best possible market segments. We also need input into what other features not yet commercially available we might include in new toys.
Your assignment is twofold: first, we want you to visit a toy store and find out what types of educational toys are being sold. We are particularly interested in what I/O devices they use, such as buttons, speaker, microphone, text or video display, camera, keyboard, mouse, removable media, and inter-device communication.
The second part of your assignment, after you have completed your research, is to come up with suggestions for how Little Toy Blue might differentiate our products from those already being sold. Are there new features that could enhance an existing toy's appeal? Are there new types of educational toys that could help children develop intellectually, artistically, socially, emotionally, or physically?
Describe your findings and suggestions in a memo to me. This memo will be read by me and by our marketing team, so feel free to be as imaginative as possible. Once we settle on a final design we'll have to limit features, but at this stage of the design process anything goes.