Monster Product Design Challenge

Get ready to get creative!! In the Monster Product Design Challenge, the kids will use their imagination to design products for a set of friendly monsters. And through this fun activity, they’ll learn empathy along the way by exploring the needs of others, too!

Maker Inspiration: Designers and Craftspeople

This fun project is a sneak peek into the STEAM Explorers Makers activity book. We got inspired to write it by all of the creativity around us in the world.

Design is all around us! From the building we’re in, to the tools and devices we use, to the chairs we sit on, someone has thought through what they look like and how they work. Makers like industrial designers and artisan craftspeople map out customers’ needs and incorporate them into product design and figure out how to make the product look good, too. 

What is Design Thinking?

So how to people design things? One way is using a process called Design Thinking. Designers use it to help them solve complex problems and create solutions & products that meet people’s needs. It’s solution-based thinking that starts with a general goal, not just a specific problem to help create broader ideas. It’s also an iterative process that repeats based upon results.

There are five iterative steps to the Design Thinking Process:

Empathize: The first step is to research your customer. What makes them tick? What needs do they have? Emotional or physical. What do they like?

Define: This phase takes your empathy research and uses it to create a customer profile (“Who are they?”) and answer the question “What do they really need?”

Ideate: Explore potential solutions through brainstorming. Quantity is key here!! Sometimes good ideas can be lost when we allow ourselves to filter too early.

Prototype: Prototyping takes ideas from paper to physical form. Interacting with the prototypes helps develop more empathy and learn where improvements are needed.

Test: The product can be tested by using it in its final form, recording and responding to observations and talking to your customer about it.

Now that you’ve learned how designers, innovators, and makers do it, let’s inspire the kids to do it with a fun Monster Product Design Challenge!

Monster Product Design Challenge Supplies Needed

This activity is perfect for busy days or when budget is tight. All you need is our FREE printable, paper, and a pencil. If you want to take the activity to the next level, you can gather up some recyclables, tape, etc. and build your designs too.

• Paper
• Monster design customer, product, and thinking prompt cards
• Design worksheet
• Pencil and eraser
• Colored pencis or markers (optional)
• Craft supplies like cardboard, glue, tape, paper, popsicle sticks, aluminum foil, etc.

The free printable contains design challenge cards, monster descriptions, a design thinking guide, and an activity worksheet. To have the free printable emailed to you, simply fill out the form below.

The Challenge

You’ve been hired by Monsters & Co. to design their next product. Monsters & Co. has a very special customer set filled with interesting monsters with interesting hairdos, hobbies, and physical and emotional needs too. Pick a set of monster product design prompt cards and design a special product for your chosen customer using the design thinking process.

The key takeaway in this exercise is how empathy can make product design more successful.

Instructions:

1. Print out the monster customer cards, product cards, and thinking prompt cards. Cut along the dotted lines. Shuffle the cards into three piles, one for each type of card.
2. Pick a monster customer card, product card, and thinking prompt card.

3. Walk through the Design Thinking framework using the worksheet for the following steps:
   • Empathize with the Customer: Read the monster customer card to help you understand what they need from their product.
   • Define their Needs: List the features the monster might need from their product.
   • Ideate: List some product ideas you could design for them. Be sure to use the thinking prompt card to help you brainstorm.
   • Design: Draw your favorite design idea and label its features.
4. As an optional next step, build a mini-model of your design using craft supplies to help you communicate your idea and test features.
5. The key takeaways in this exercise are how empathy can make product design more successful.

More Creativity-Boosting Activities for Kids

Bird Beak Tool Challenge: The kids will explore how different birds use their different beaks to eat different food like fish, grubs, and more. They’ll have fun learning about nature by mimicking how birds eat with tools like chopsticks, spoons, and more.

Variable Drawing: The kids will love drawing something unique and learning about variables in math and coding at the same time. There’s a free printable filled with drawing prompt cards, too!

Get Inspired by Creative Makers with These STEAM Projects

This Monster Product Design Challenge activity is a sneak peek into the STEAM Explorers Makers Ebook Unit Study.

 You'll get inspired by incredible craftspeople like chefs, photographers, robotics engineers, fashion designers, and more through hands-on science, tech, engineering, art, and math in the STEAM Explorers Makers Ebook.

The kids will love exploring woodworking with string art, baking artisan bread, expressing their thoughts through film and art, creating colorful beads, & so much more! You'll love the helpful standards-based learning, printables, and tools that make STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, & math) exploration easy!

These hands-on activities are a perfect way to add creativity to school, scouts, homeschool, or after school.