Capstone Blog Post #6 – Working On Your Final Product

Working on my final product has been challenging, I needed everything to be perfect. When I started writing my script, the challenge was giving my presentation some personality. Since I chose such a fun topic for Capstone, I couldn’t have a boring script beacause that would not only put everyone to sleep, but it would ruin the purpose of my topic. I chose to do my Capstone on Yogibo so that I could have fun doing my research, and I did, so I needed show that in my presentation. I had to think of a fun opening statement. It took a while and I watched some TED talks to see how they structured their introductions. The opening statement is so important. I had to figure out a way to engage my audience in a fun way that got them excited about Yogibo. I realized that comfort is one of the main things about the product, so I thought I’d pose a question. “Are you comfortable right now?” I thought that would be the best way to start because it might catch the audience’s attention, and most likely they’re not feeling too comfortable in school chairs…especially parents!

Then I decided it would be a good idea to use my Yogibo in my presentation so that I could demonstrate some of its great aspects and also do part of my presentation relaxing comfortably on it. I also brought in an ordinary beanbag so that I could show the differences between a Yogibo and a standard beanbag, and what better way to do that than to play a game! I decided to play a game where you have to find at least five different ways to use the ordinary beanbag. Trust me, this game is a lot harder than it sounds.

For my final presentation I decided to do a TED Talk with an iMovie rather than with a slideshow. I thought this would be better beacause I have more experience using iMovie and I didn’t want to press the space bar on the computer to advance my slides every 30 seconds. This ended up being a huge mistake beacause when I started rehearsing I had to take a lot of extra time to make sure that what I said matched up with the timing on my iMovie. This is a risk, so wish me luck!

Capstone Blog Post #5 – Answering My Main Inquiry Question

Answering my main inquiry question (How has Yogibo’s new, fun and colorful technology affected the way people relax?) took a lot of research and hard work, but in the end it was worth it because I learned so much. The articles and videos that I found on my topic were a huge help, however those resources couldn’t even compare to the knowledge I gained while on my site visit and at my interview.

The way I figured out how to answer to my main inquiry question was, I first took notes on all my sub questions and when I was finished I put all my notes in paragraph form, then revised and edited them. I never really thought about it this way, but if I hadn’t answered all my sub questions first, this project would be ten times harder beacause you would have to do a lot of extra work, that is not worth the waste of time. On the other hand, if you do it my way all you have to do to answer your main inquiry question is take all the answers you have from your sub question put them all together, and mush them around a little. I hadn’t done this yet when it was time to write our script, which you would think might be a bad thing, but it turned out to be much easier, beacause my script answers my main inquiry question!

Capstone Blog Post #4 – Site Visit

Recently, I went to my site visit at one of Yogibo’s warehouses. Although this wasn’t their main warehouse, I still learned a lot! The warehouse I went to was in Brookfield, CT since this was the most convenient location for me. Ed, who runs the warehouse greeted me and gave an informative tour. Ed and his staff taught me how to fill and cover a Yogibo. I learned all about their different products and how they are transported to Yogibo stores and to buyers. One of the most interesting things I learned was how they have developed a safety feature to protect customers (especially children) from suffocating inside a beanbag. The safety feature is a zipper that can only be opened with a specially designed paper clip. This was invented as a response to a child suffocating in another type of beanbag (not a Yogibo). The child was able to unzip the beanbag and crawl inside. Yogibos now have this special clip that only they employees know how to use. After a Yogibo is filled with beads, the clip is removed locking the zipper.  It can only be unlocked when the clip is inserted.

Safety feature on the inside cover of a Yogibo.
Safety feature on the inside cover of a Yogibo.

While we were touring the warehouse, Ed showed me a few Yogibo products that have been discontinued. This was interesting because I got to hear the reasons why some products succeed and others fail. Sometimes they know the reasons, sometimes they just don’t. A lot of the products that have been discontinued have been improved upon, and then end up doing well! It might be a major change or just a slight difference to make it work better for the customer. The Yogibo Tot is one of their discontinued products. They found that when a young child sat in it they sometimes tipped over since it wasn’t very stable. It was redesigned as the Yogibo Pyramid and it is a big hit for younger children because it is really supportive and safe.

Capstone Blog Post #3- Interview

Last week I had an incredible interview with Director of Retail, Mary Pat Joseph, and Events Regional Manager and District Manager, Mike Delgado at Yogibo. They were so informative and answered every single one of my questions! They helped to guide me in an amazing direction with this project, and I can’t thank them enough. They taught me so much about Yogibo, and gave me amazing information that further intrigued me in the company. The coolest part about my interview was that we sat on Yogibos while we talked! I think it was the world’s most comfortable interview!

Mary Pat and Mike were busy interviewing sales people for Yogibo’s new store at The Westchester when I arrived for my interview. I had to wait for a while, so I spent time talking to their project manager who had come down from New England with them. I can’t remember his name, but he gave me a lot of information and was really nice. He went through all their products with me & I got to try everything out! Then I played a long game of catch with one of their sales people. Mary Pat and Mike later explained that they make a big effort to hire fun and engaging people at Yogibo. Mary Pat said that Yogibo is a happy product and that their employees really represent that idea. They want everyone that works for them to feel important, have fun, and know how to juggle!